TALK SUPPORT – MARCo’s CBT BASED APPROACH TO STOP NEGATIVE THOUGHTS

Want to learn how to stop negative thoughts? See how MARCo can help you to this end through its talk support mode!

TRANSCRIPT:

JAKE: Jake and MARCo back at it again to take a look at MARCo’s third of five objectives of care: talk support. Just a quick reminder that all the features you see here with physical MARCo are available on the virtual MARCo Online if you don’t have the real one available to you. 

JAKE: Fun activities and relaxing meditations work great in some cases, but there are those times when you’re really feeling overwhelmed with negative moods and thoughts and don’t know how to get yourself feeling better. That’s why MARCo offers Talk Support. Based on techniques from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, talk support is MARCo’s way of listening to the issues in your life, identifying negative thoughts and behaviors that go along with them, and doing exercises with you to push back against these negative thoughts to create a lasting impact on your mental health.  To start a talk support session, say “Start Talk Support.” 

MARCo: Absolutely, let me get set up and you can tell me what’s been going on. I am so glad you asked for my talk support session. A lot of people shy away from it but it’s clear that nothing will stand between you and feeling better. To help you the best I can, it’s helpful for us to start on the same page by setting a goal for this session.

MARCo: Great, I’m going to pull up on my screen a list of sample goals of how I can help you out. Let me know which one best represents what you want to accomplish in this talk support session, and if you have something different in mind, let me know and I can help you with that.

JAKE: I need someone to vent to.

MARCo: Oh I love being the robot you get to vent to! I’m pulling up my open talks window now.

JAKE: One of the key features of talk support is Open Talks. Similar to MARCo’s journal, Open Talks allows you to talk at length about anything and everything that’s going on. Unlike the journal, MARCo will prompt you with guiding questions to probe deeper and help you better understand everything that is affecting you. When you are done talking about everything you need to, MARCo will walk you through everything you just discussed and identify negative thought patterns that can be addressed to make you feel better. You can choose what negative thoughts to address first, and MARCo will lead you through a specialized activity to help you cope and improve that specific thought or feeling.

*video shows a runthrough of talk support*

JAKE: Once you are all done with the talk support session, be sure to say “End Talk Support” to go back to MARCo’s more friendly mode.

MARCo: Sure, let’s pause this session and figure out what else I can do for you. I can do a relaxing activity, or a meditation, or just cheer you up.

JAKE: If you want to try out talk support for yourself, go to our website in the description and sign up for MARCo Online. If you are one of the first hundred to sign up, you will get one year of unlimited access to MARCo Online absolutely free, meaning you can access your robot best friend anywhere, anytime, on any device. If you want to see even more of what MARCo can do for you, hit like, subscribe, and click the card for the next video in this Objective of Care series on Biofeedback, or go back to one of the previous videos to see MARCo’s companionship and relaxation modes.

Jacob Boyle

Jacob Boyle serves as CEO and CTO of MARCo Technologies. As CEO, his primary functions include defining the company direction, managing contractors and employees, and spearheading outreach and customer discovery. As CTO, he has handled the development of MARCo, having designed and produced the existing MARCo units; coordinate with manufacturers; develop software for the online edition; and oversee continued R&D. He also served as the Technical Lead in the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps accelerator program on behalf of the company.