Just what the Dharma Dr. ordered

As a former educator, Brad Mosell saw firsthand how students struggled with anxiety and mental health issues, and as a former veteran who suffers from anxiety himself, he was driven to take action. To Mosell, the answer lies in accessible BLS (bilateral stimulation) and EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing), considered among the most effective treatments for PTSD. For the past two years, Mosell has been on a quest to make BLS and EMDR therapy more accessible by building a beautiful and intuitive wireless tool that can be used by anyone, anytime, anywhere to reduce the symptoms of anxiety, increase focus, and improve sleep.

Mosell developed the small but mighty handheld devices called Dharma Dr. Tabs. Chronic and debilitating anxiety is the result of overreaction to the fight or flight response. When you hold the Dharma Dr. Tabs in your hands, they manually stimulate the left and right side of your prefrontal cortex, re-engage the rational brain, and disengage your fight or flight response, reducing stress and increasing focus. Their Tabs are so popular that they sold out in no time and are currently taking pre-orders for V1.5.

A remedy for us all

It’s no surprise they have a following since Dharma Dr. Tabs address a widespread issue here in the States. Consider that 24% of American adults report that their average stress level is an 8 or higher on a 1–10 scale, up from 19% in 2019 before the pandemic. The psychological wounds of the last few years continue to have repercussions on our society at large. 

The collective trauma the country experienced has left us with an emotional hangover manifesting as emotional dysregulation and stress. These symptoms are then compounded by the natural day-to-day uncertainties created by economic, technological (social media), and social (political polarization) factors. The answers to these problems start with addressing our collective wounds using evidence-based practices like EMDR.

The device’s development cycle

At our informal hardware collective, we thrive on helping meaningful product ideas come to market and succeed. So naturally, we were thrilled when one of Mosell’s hardware advisors, Janet Lieberman-Lu, a member of informal, introduced him to us. 

Mosell had initially partnered with a CM (contract manufacturer) who handled the first round of hardware development, and he ended up with hardware issues, including the CM not using Bluetooth chips, which are essential for the product to work with a mobile device. One of the main problems of leaning on a CM to handle hardware development is that you lose control of your files, which makes solving any subsequent hardware issues internally a non-starter. Brad knew that to solve this problem they needed to rebuild the units domestically.

The first thing we did at informal was pair Mosell with a stellar ME (mechanical engineer), Steve Remy, to rebuild all of the CAD files. Remy is incredibly smart, has his own 3D scanner, is very comfortable with DFM (design for manufacture) and brings a wealth of consumer electronic design knowledge. His speed of iteration is impressively fast.

With the ME hardware solution solved, Mosell was able to leverage his network and bring on an EE (electrical engineer), a firmware developer, and an app developer to tackle the other issues simultaneously.

Once they had a works-like prototype in hand, they took that to their manufacturing partner, who said, “We can’t do that PCBA.” Another hurdle! But it was no problem because informal put Jiting Yang on the project to help with supply chain, and she found a factory that could manufacture all the components of Dharma Dr. Tabs. We were happy to help Mosell fill in the gaps in his process and smooth out the edges quickly so that he could focus on getting his product into the hands of the people who need it most.

informal is a freelance collective for the most talented independent professionals in hardware and hardtech. Whether you’re looking for a single contractor, a full-time employee, or an entire team of professionals to work on everything from product development to go-to-market, informal has the perfect collection of people for the job.