When training clinicians for difficult conversations, I kept hearing the same thing: the tools teach facts, but not feelings. The gap wasn’t content—it was emotional reflection at the moment it’s needed most. That’s where Reflecta, an emotion-aware, clinician-facing companion inside the (renamed) CareNarrative training platform, began.

Discovering the Problem

Interviews with primary-care clinicians, training coordinators, behavioral-health educators, and graduate trainees revealed recurring friction: ambiguity around “empathetic tone,” the need for non-judgmental reflection, and a desire for consistent analytics to measure growth. One coordinator’s ask became a north star: “go beyond role-play to individual emotional feedback.” Incorporated persona-driven needs—non-judgmental guidance for clinicians, standardized training outcomes for facilitators, and mentorship support for educators.

Key pain points

• Emotionally ambiguous scenarios (relapse, family estrangement) are hard to debrief.
• Existing platforms create cognitive load; guidance must live inside the experience.
• Teams want measurable reflection, not performance scoring.

Research & Insights

I reviewed emotion-rich datasets and APIs for feasibility (coverage, modality, licensing) and bias risks. We shortlisted public corpora and a commercial API for multimodal signals, while documenting HIPAA-driven constraints and the need to start in training (then live care).

Personas

• Dr. Em (Primary-care clinician in behavioral health): wants private practice with emotionally charged scenarios, help interpreting cues, and reflection that doesn’t judge.
• Training Facilitator (REMS coordinator): needs consistent rollout, usage analytics, and adoption nudges during workshops.
• Behavioral Health Educator / Mentor: seeks tools that expose emotional blind spots beyond protocol and complement role-play.
• Students: want a safe environment, guidance on tone/body language, and feedback they can trust and reuse.

Key research implications

• Trust hinges on non-judgmental reflection and clear privacy boundaries; keep feedback constructive, not evaluative.
• Preferred formats vary (text guidance, short videos, chat prompts, simulations) → design multi-format “coach cards” with quick rephrase examples and optional micro-videos.
• Educators want repeatable analytics to track reflection behavior; facilitators want adoption metrics during training cohorts.

Defining the Solution (MVP)