Total Brain first launched in 2000, driven to improve mental health and fitness through brain-based self-awareness and training. Today, we’re excited to begin the next chapter in our mission: customized brain and mental health training programs that are designed for the specific capacities of each user.

Why Mental Health Matters

During the last decade, remarkable progress has been made to destigmatize mental illness and prioritize mental wellness alongside physical health. While there is still work to be done, corporations, healthcare providers and affinity groups have all realized that the cost of ignoring mental health is simply too high: 19% of adults have a clinical mental condition (source).

The resulting underperformance and lack of productivity in the workplace costs companies $17,241 per employee per year, with the total US-wide cost projected to reach $6.1T by 2030. 

Findings presented in Total Brain’s Mental Health Index indicate that COVID-19 has taken a serious toll on the mental health of the American worker, with Anxiety and Stress levels showing an alarming ‘hockey stick’ trend. 

While our index is a credible reflection of the impact of current world events on individuals, it’s only one part of the story. Total Brain’s neuroscientifically-grounded self-monitoring and self-care platform can help users build strength across the 12 recognized brain capacities, including Anxiety and Stress Control.

The results speak for themselves: 39% improvement in depression, 28% improvement in anxiety, 7.15% productivity gains on average, for those who completed 2 or more hours of self-care exercises. And now, these gains are about to get better. 

Better Engagement for Better Brains

The human brain is built to respond to personalization -- there’s a reason Dale Carnegie taught that "a person's name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” 

At the outset of any Total Brain program, an extensive mental health assessment is administered to analyze each individuals’ relative strength against the 12 distinct brain capacities. The mental health assessment uses neuroscientific data to deliver an objective view of a users’ capacities, rather than subjective measures that rely on the users’ interpretation.

Until now, Total Brain’s platform would recommend that users complete one of six pre-configured journeys, based on their greatest capacity challenge. This model delivered measurable mental health improvements for users, but our team couldn’t help but wonder how much more powerful these self-care exercises could be if they were more closely tailored to each users’ precise capacity levels. From this curiosity, our new platform was born. 

Total Brain’s platform has been redeveloped to offer each user a customized program tailored to his specific performance against each of the 12 brain capacities as analyzed in our mental health assessment. Research suggests that a personalized approach reduces information overload and can drive better engagement, which means better brain and mental health outcomes for your team, and better ROI and productivity for your business.

Getting Started: Meet Your New Program

The heart of the new Total Brain platform is the Home feed. Each day, the user is greeted with a tally of his progress against a monthly point goal, and recommended self-care exercises for the day. Each recommendation is tailored to the user based on their assessment results, and is designed to build up both those capacities that need extra work and those that are already strong.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Learn the Science Behind Each Exercise

For many Total Brain users, completing the assigned self-care activities supports their brains, but doesn’t satisfy their curiosity. Beyond just reaping the brain and mental health benefits, they want to know why and how each activity builds brain capacity. 

The new Total Brain platform includes the scientific details behind each exercise. When a user swipes on the tile, a flask icon appears. The user can then click on that icon to learn more. Alternatively, the scientific rationale for each program is displayed on the self-care exercise’s start screen.

Recommended Reading (and Watching): Practical Advice and Tangible Solutions

Below the day’s recommended exercises and meditation practice are a couple of suggested articles and video clips that can help users consolidate the benefits of their training. Rather than a large resource library (as was displayed on the older Total Brain platform), this curated selection makes learning manageable for the user because the recommendations are targeted and relevant to the user on that day.

Choose Your Own Adventure: A Robust Library Puts Users in Charge

Outside of the curated exercises and learning resources found on the user’s feed, he can also choose activities, videos and articles à la carte, from the Library tab found on the app’s navigation menu. Once on the search screen, the user can zoom into a specific exercise, or browse by topic, capacity or self-care exercise type.

Engagement Matters: See Better Results for Your Team and Your Business

The Total Brain platform works. Our intensive user assessment is backed by the world’s largest neuroscientific database generated from more than 300 brain research publications, and houses one million data sets including 54K EEGs, 542 MRIs, 2K GWAS. Each and every self-care exercise is founded on sound science and proven methodologies. But in order for the Total Brain platform to work, users have to be engaged.

The new Total Brain platform is designed to drive higher user engagement than ever before. By offering customized training plans, a highly personalized feed, easy-to-access data that allows users to dig deeper, and effective gamification strategies, each aspect of this new platform is focused on helping your team stay motivated to improve their mental health.

The best news of all? The new platform is available now. Sign up for a personal account to see how it works - and then get in touch with one of our experts to learn how to help your employees and patients take the first step on their own Total Brain health journey. 

In the meantime, take a look at an example of the daily feed: