FAQ's
On this page you’ll find frequently asked questions on everything from using the Paradym app to the evidence basis of our programme.
Got a specific question about the app that isn’t answered here? Send us an email at friends@theparadym.com
About Paradym
Paradym is the world’s leading guided emotional wellbeing program – backed by the science of emotions. We empower people to experience more meaningful relationships with themselves and others, and to get to know their better selves.
From our basis as just a smartphone app, Paradym has now evolved into a rigorous, comprehensive program including events, and interactive workshops.
Paradym is grounded in science, and is actively developed by a group of experts from University College London, Oxford University and Harvard Medical School. Recognisable and well-established psychological disciplines, like Schema Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Pyschoanalysis, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) feed into the process’ guided exercises and reflections.
Paradym was founded because life has become fast-paced and complex, and we aren’t taught important psychological techniques that we need to be able to thrive and live meaningful lives.
Paradym is a rigorous, evidence-based programme rather than a simplistic digital solution. It’s designed to empower people to take control of their emotional patterns and come to know their better selves.
We believe emotional wellbeing is a superpower that can empower us to lead the life we want to live, even if we’re busy – and manage mental health problems before they get worse. And while we found many apps and websites claiming to be solutions for wellness, mindfulness, anxiety and depression, we couldn’t find a solution that was preventative – or that got to the crux of the issue.
Paradym helps you answer the big questions about your past emotional experiences – or, as we call them, “patterns”. Why are you scared to move forward? Why do you feel inadequate? Why do you have problems trusting? Why do you feel like a failure all the time? And why do you feel like you can’t be alone?
By ironing out these difficult questions using the science of emotions, we make more space for positive patterns and translating true self-awareness into the more balanced life you want to live.
The Paradym process
Paradym began life back as a smartphone app. Our programme has tens of thousands of members. Paradym has grown too, and we now we’ve added the Inner Circles for companies and communities – facilitating a supportive online community and bespoke workshops with a companion app tailored to your team or community’s needs.
Our online workshops are bespoke to you. They’re designed to allow your community or team to share their thoughts and feelings in a warm and nurturing online environment.
We’ve worked with companies like WeWork to empower entrepreneurs and their teams to spot and deal with negative thought patterns – even during the frantic working day. If you’re worried about staff turnover, employee burnout or a lack of creativity and teamwork in your business, we can help. To discover more about Inner Circles, please visit this link. Or to set up an initial call with one of our team members, please email pteam@theparadym.com
The app costs $7.99 monthly or $54.99 annually (43% savings with annual). One average therapy session costs $150 in the US.
Recent peer reviewed research demonstrated that the Paradym app was over 70% more effective than face to face therapy in increasing wellbeing and decreasing depression. While Paradym is not a replacement for therapy and formal mental health support, it is a highly effective and cost efficient alternative for those looking to increase their wellbeing and quality of life.
Using the app
Unlike most apps, we limit the amount of content you can read in a certain timeframe.
Even though it’s tempting to be as efficient as possible, our evidence shows that binge-reading chapters won’t give you enough time to digest and truly reflect. The power of the Paradym process comes from taking the space to explore the reflections and exercises. Cramming that kind of thought process won’t help you to identify your patterns and break them, or to develop more meaningful relationships with yourself and others.
We’re committed to not being a quick-fix or sticking-plaster solution. Instead, we unlock a chapter a day at a time to give you time to really digest and think about the behaviors and questions we cover.
Any kind of personal growth or learning experience starts with self-awareness. How can we make changes in our lives without knowing what we need to sort out first?
We live in a frenetic, go-go-go world in which we aren’t given much time to really reflect. For that reason, we‘ve made the Paradym process guided along five key pillars: Aware Love, Body, Success and Identity. Our experts have designed the process according to a scientific evidence base, and it’s both structured enough to be sustainable and flexible enough to fit your busy lifestyle.
At the end of each chapter there are questions and things to think about which you need to complete or answer in order to finish the chapter. You will receive a ‘chapter complete’ message once you’ve been through the chapter. Remember, learning is key: this is a process, and it takes a steady time investment to see positive changes to your emotional wellbeing.
As you work your way through chapters, you’ll be asked to think about your own behaviours and tendencies. We call these patterns. As you progress through the app, you’ll build up a picture of yourself which will help you become more self-aware, spot your patterns, then choose the ones you want to change.
Unlike simple emotional intelligence solutions, which rely on vague and self-described results, the patterns that Paradym will help you identify are discrete and measurable. This gives Paradym an added layer of rigour, and means it is a programme worth investing your time in.
Reflections are daily prompts to help guide your introspection and help you learn. Just thinking for a few minutes per day about yourself, your emotions, and your behaviours can help you become more conscious of your own patterns, and feel empowered to change them. Make sure you allow notifications in your settings so that you can receive these reminders daily and don’t accidentally miss them.
Your pathway is your personalized Paradym program based on your patterns and interests. There is no one size fits all approach and everyone will come to Paradym at different stages in their growth journey.
We incorporated wellbeing tracking because we want you to feel empowered in measuring your own improvement. Track your well being on a monthly basis to see how your Paradym pathway is improving your mental health & wellbeing. We use validated measures aka questionnaires that have been proven scientifically and tested on tens of thousands of people.
If you love data and tracking your own data, we’re looking to connect Paradym with your wearable device so you can have a very robust picture of your health. Stay tuned!
We take data privacy very seriously. Your data is encrypted and we only store anonymised usage data. We don’t store any of your notes. Read our full privacy policy here
Mental health and wellbeing
Dealing with your emotions can be hard. Paradym is ideally used as a long term programme, and we cannot provide urgent mental health support. If you feel like you need to talk to someone, use some of the contact numbers below.
UK
Samaritans – 116 123
Mind – 0300 123 3393
Australia
Lifeline – 13 11 14
US
Lifeline – 1-800-273-8255
Research and evidence
At Paradym, we’re committed to helping users improve their emotional wellbeing using the science of feelings. The Paradym process can be considered a complex mental health intervention and therefore we aim to develop it in line with the Medical Research Council (MRC) framework for complex intervention.
To begin building Paradym, we first reviewed the existing scientific literature – theories and evidence – around mental health and wellbeing. Based on this deep dive into the literature, we made an assessment about what we should focus on to create the best interventions for our members.
Secondly, all of the content in the Paradym app has been developed based on evidence-based psychological interventions. We build on insights from Schema Therapy, for example, which is an integrative psychotherapy combining theory and techniques from many other evidence-based therapies. This work was carried out by a team of PhD psychologists from prestigious institutions such as University College London.These include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and psychoanalysis, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
Schema Therapy has not only been compared to other kinds of therapy but it has also been tested in Randomised Control Trials (RCTs) which are the gold standard of psychological research, proving it’s effectiveness.
Thirdly, we published our own peer-reviewed studies. Our first study focused on a review of existing research on mental health apps illustrating that app usage promotes positive mental health and wellbeing in the general population. We then conducted an acceptability study of the Paradym app to evaluate mental health and wellbeing of Paradym users. After a minimum of two weeks using the app, users showed significantly improved depression and wellbeing scores.
Finally, we support all of this with personal stories of people in real life who have struggled with anxiety, stress, low self-esteem and more – and tackled this by boosting their emotional wellbeing and breaking patterns of behaviour. The Paradym process reflects on these stories both from an evidence-based and clinical mental health perspective. This not only helps users increase their understanding and knowledge of mental health topics, but also offers a combination of both personal stories and evidence-based science tohelp empower them to be more resilient for the long term – and become more knowledgeable about what impacts their emotional wellbeing.
As part of our commitment to learning in all its forms, we have evaluated previous versions of the Paradym app. Our findings show that the app has been effective from a user perspective. In addition to this, we have also been able to establish preliminary evidence, based on qualitative data, that indicated that users found Paradym helpful and that it had a positive impact on their lives.
If you want more detail, check out this article. We also cite all of the sources used in app.
For companies and communities
Inner Circles by Paradym is our employee and community wellbeing solution, and is a way to tackle staff turnover, poor collaboration and burnout.
Inner Circles by Paradym teaches your team the techniques and skills of “emotion regulation”: a way of spotting negative thought patterns during the busy working day, and tackling them on the spot. Delivered through engaging, expert-led workshops, these tools will leave your workers feeling more motivated, confident and collaborative.
If you’re interested in offering Paradym, to your team or community, click here to read more – or talk to us: pteam@theparadym.com
Payment and Trail Periods
As a new user, you will get a 5 day free trial of Paradym. You can access all content without being charged anything. Once your trial period is over, you will lose access to premium content in-app. You will not be charged anything until you sign up to a premium version.
DOWNLOAD THE PARADYM APP
