  Traditionally, the regime of mental healthcare has followed an episodic
psychotherapy model wherein patients seek care from a provider through a
prescribed treatment plan developed over multiple provider visits. Recent
advances in wearable and mobile technology have generated increased interest in
digital mental healthcare that enables individuals to address episodic mental
health symptoms. However, these efforts are typically reactive and
symptom-focused and do not provide comprehensive, wrap-around, customized
treatments that capture an individual's holistic mental health model as it
unfolds over time. Recognizing that each individual is unique, we present the
notion of Personalized Mental Health Navigation (MHN): a therapist-in-the-loop,
cybernetic goal-based system that deploys a continuous cyclic loop of
measurement, estimation, guidance, to steer the individual's mental health
state towards a healthy zone. We outline the major components of MHN that is
premised on the development of an individual's personal mental health state,
holistically represented by a high-dimensional cover of multiple knowledge
layers such as emotion, biological patterns, sociology, behavior, and
cognition. We demonstrate the feasibility of the personalized MHN approach via
a 12-month pilot case study for holistic stress management in college students
and highlight an instance of a therapist-in-the-loop intervention using MHN for
monitoring, estimating, and proactively addressing moderately severe depression
over a sustained period of time. We believe MHN paves the way to transform
mental healthcare from the current passive, episodic, reactive process (where
individuals seek help to address symptoms that have already manifested) to a
continuous and navigational paradigm that leverages a personalized model of the
individual, promising to deliver timely interventions to individuals in a
holistic manner.
