Mental health support is just a headset away.
Do you remember Jewel, the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter who graced us with such memorable songs as “Who Will Save Your Soul” and “You Were Meant For Me”? Well, she’s back, and she’s dishing out some much-needed mental health support to the VR community.
Recently, the multiplatinum music artist appeared on the news show CUOMO to chat about Innerworld, a VR metaverse she co-founded that offers evidence-based mental health tools and peer-to-peer support to those struggling with various mental complications, from anxiety and depression to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
The platform offers a variety of beneficial resources and is monitored by a team of human operators as well as an artificial intelligence (AI) system that keeps a lookout for keywords that may indicate immediate self-harm.
“What I’ve done in the Foundation for the past 20 years is a peer-to-peer model, and we actually see a lot more profound results than one-on-one,” said Jewel. “I think psychotherapy is great, but it isn’t something everybody has access to. And meditation is incredibly important and there are so many great meditation apps out there but what I’ve learned is that meditation puts you in position to change, but then you need behavioral tools to start to change actual habits.”
“I had been tasking myself to come up with solutions that were genuinely scalable. And for me, VR was really where I was focusing,” she added. “We have a lot of people who use this as a supplement to their therapeutic work and we have people who don’t have access to therapeutic or other traditional service. They are getting incredible results, and there are people from all over the world—which is what’s so amazing about VR.”
Innerworld is available for free in VR on Meta Quest, PC, and iOS devices. For more information visit inner.world.
Feature Image Credit: Henry Laurisch