Mental health platform Innerworld has announced multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Jewel as Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer. The longtime mental health advocate joins Innerworld’s Founder and CEO Noah Robinson to build the largest community in the metaverse for mental health support. To meet the tremendous consumer demand for mental health intervention, Innerworld offers peer-to-peer support groups with expert guides trained in Cognitive Behavioral Immersion™ providing evidence-based tools during live groups in social virtual worlds. For the first time, scalable peer-to-peer support is accessible on demand in immersive, social virtual worlds where people can interact as anonymous avatars. During special live group sessions, starting today, Jewel will teach her life-changing tools as an avatar inside of Innerworld. Innerworld’s freemium platform hosts over 100 weekly events that can be accessed from any device including the Meta Quest or on Mac, PC, iPad and iPhone.
Innerworld’s novel solution uses the metaverse to democratize access to the scientifically validated mental health resources and tools of Cognitive Behavioral Immersion™ (CBI). Robinson developed CBI during his clinical psychology PhD research at Vanderbilt University, as a protege of the creator of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dr. Aaron Beck. Innerworld’s CBI combines immersive technology with the proven principles of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Clinical outcome data suggests CBI may decrease symptoms of depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. Innerworld’s anonymous avatars remove stigma and allow people to form meaningful connections with others. The Internet-based peer support model makes mental health more accessible than ever before. CBI was developed during three years of beta testing with over 10,000 people. Upon public release, Innerworld became rated the #1 free or subscription app on the Meta Quest Store by RoadtoVR.
Robinson shares, “When I was 13, I realized I was gay and the idea of coming out was very overwhelming, which caused me to become severely depressed and anxious. I went to therapy but it didn't help. What did help was an anonymous, online game where I became an avatar. This game was designed for me to escape, and I spent my teenage years avoiding reality. But I also found a community and eventually came out to them. The acceptance I experienced empowered me to come out in the real world, and I wondered if we could build a virtual world that was designed to help people with their mental health issues from the start. I pursued a PhD at Vanderbilt University and founded Innerworld to build this idea into a scalable platform. When I met Jewel, I was blown away by the peer support program she’d developed over the past 21 years. With Jewel as our Chief Strategy Officer, I believe Innerworld can help millions of people.”
Jewel grew up in Alaska, but decided to move out at the young age of 15 due to an abusive household. While suffering from debilitating panic attacks, an eating disorder, depression and significant trauma, Jewel became homeless by the age of 18 and developed agoraphobia, the fear of leaving one’s home. During that time, she looked into her own inner world and reflected on her experiences to develop a set of tools that rewired her habits and created new emotional patterns. After learning meditation and innovating her own practices, Jewel was able to heal symptoms of her depression and go from surviving to thriving. She co-founded the Inspiring Children Foundation to deliver life-saving tools to at-risk youth in Las Vegas. After observing incredible outcomes for these youth, Jewel decided to commercialize her life’s work and build a scalable platform in the metaverse. She came across Innerworld and instantly saw its potential. “When I found Innerworld, I knew it was an incredible solution to our mental health crisis. We need millions of more therapists in the world to help everyone who needs it. It’s simply not possible and with today’s mental health crisis, we are beyond the luxury of merely raising awareness around mental health,” says Jewel. “We must turn to safe, affordable, scalable and proven tools to help everyone who needs it. The time for talking about the problem is over–we need solutions. That’s why I am a proud Co-Founder of Innerworld.”
“Meditation is an important first step to feeling better, but when it is combined with scientifically proven tools that help change behaviors and reframe thoughts, it has the power to be truly transformative.” Jewel continues, “I’m excited to bring to Innerworld the skill-based peer-to-peer mental health tools that we’ve been developing for the last 21 years for high-performance athletes, artists, executives, and at-risk youth. Combining these tools with Cognitive Behavioral Immersion™ (CBI) and meditation enables us to provide practical skills to transform lives at a much more scalable and affordable rate than traditional one-on-one models, all without compromising results.”
“We did not rush into this,” says Robinson, who developed the technology under the guidance of world-renowned CBT expert, Dr. Steven Hollon. “We conducted three years of clinical research with over 20,000 hours in Innerworld’s beta before launching, and additionally, it’s based on decades of research in the field of psychology validating cognitive behavioral tools. Since our launch, we’ve measured significant reductions in self-reported symptoms of depression and anxiety, and have submitted our results to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. We are building towards the future of mental health 3.0, where everyone can access mental health help.”
ABOUT INNERWORLD:
Innerworld Inc. addresses the critical need for more scalable mental health solutions through Cognitive Behavioral Immersion™, a proprietary technique to deliver mental health help at scale. Their app is currently available on Meta Quest, PC, Mac, iPad or iPhone. Learn more at https://inner.world.
WHO USES INNERWORLD:
Innerworld supports a wide variety of people from all over the world. Whether suffering from loneliness, depression, anxiety, social anxiety or agoraphobia, Innerworld’s safe and supportive community offers everyone tools to feel better. Innerworld also provides opportunities for people interested in learning to become Guides and help others.
ABOUT JEWEL:
Jewel is a singer-songwriter, actress, and New York Times best-selling author. As a lived experience expert and pioneer in the mental health space Jewel is passionate about democratizing wellness. She developed an emotional and mental health curriculum that has been proven to work by experts. For 21 years her Inspiring Children Foundation and Jewel Inc. have been bringing these mental health programs to at-risk youth and to corporations. Jewel also created SELLA, a language arts curriculum for schools that incorporates social and emotional learning and mental health practices.
Jewel went from a girl who grew up with no running water on an Alaskan homestead to earning 26 music award nominations, becoming a multi-platinum recording artist who released one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Photo Credit: Brendan Walter
Visit Innerworld: https://inner.world
