MentalHappy’s social media network empowers people like you to overcome difficult life events through positive peer support

What is MentalHappy?

MentalHappy is the first social network designed to help people of all races, genders and economic statuses improve their emotional wellbeing through positive peer support. We provide a safe and secure platform to talk about mental health and the challenges you face in your daily life, receive support from others like you who understand what you’re experiencing, and learn practical tips and techniques to help you heal and improve your emotional fitness each day. We make it possible for everyone to get the help they deserve without the financial and physical limitations often associated with traditional therapies.

100% of us experience life events that can take a toll on our emotional wellness – from losing a loved one or suffering a breakup to facing financial stressors or losing a job. These tough situations can lead to anxiety, feelings of helplessness, and loss of purpose, which ultimately can impact your job performance, personal relationships, and your physical health. We connect you to people like you who can provide support through the three stages of your journey to emotional wellness:

1. Emotional Healing: Overcoming difficult life events
2. Emotional Fitness: Improving self-care, increasing relaxation, reducing stress and developing inner strength
3. Emotional Resilience: Gaining the knowledge, understanding, and strength you need to be ready to respond to difficult moments in life before they happen

In addition to gaining access to the tools and resources created by our mental health professionals, community members are placed into support groups. Throughout the week, our experienced team members facilitate talks and exercises tailored to each group that is aimed at promoting constructive dialogue and personal growth. Additionally, community members can initiate discussions and lean on group members at any time they need encouragement and support.

Why Does the World Need MentalHappy?

The MentalHappy social media network is designed to tackle three of the leading challenges that prevent people from getting the help they need to overcome difficult life events: cost, comfort, and access.

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• Cost: Traditional mental health therapies cost anywhere from $65 to $250 for a 45-minute session, but 40% of Americans can’t even afford to pay $400 for an emergency. Not only does MentalHappy empower its community with cost-free emotional wellness resources, but it provides full access to peer support groups and its team for only $7 a month.
  

• Comfort: It can be tough to talk about difficult life events and emotions, even with family and close friends. MentalHappy’s team believes no one should face life’s hardships alone but recognizes these conversations can be difficult. This is why the company enables you to tap into a peer support network while maintaining your anonymity – only first names are disclosed and all other personal information is protected through state-of-the-art encryption technology.
  

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Peer support offers tremendous benefits. It allows you to hear from others who look like you, come from similar backgrounds, and are facing the same life challenges as you – overall it helps you feel a greater sense of acceptance and reduces feelings of loneliness, which you don’t typically see from 1-on-1 therapy with a counselor, psychologist or psychiatrist.

In fact, scientific evidence shows peer support offers greater levels of self‐efficacy, empowerment, and engagement, and according to psychotherapist Hilary Jacobs Hendel, author of the award-winning book, It’s Not Always Depression, “peer support builds confidence and hope for healing.”

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• Access: Not only do 117 million Americans live in areas with little to no access to mental health professionals, but an even greater number struggle to find the time to make in-person appointments during regular business hours. MentalHappy can be accessed anytime from anywhere.
  

What Sets MentalHappy Apart from Other MentalHealth Apps and Platforms?

As we mentioned earlier, MentalHappy is the first social media network focused on emotional wellbeing. We are not a media outlet and we do not provide traditional mental health therapies. We help everyday people like you connect with a network of your peers to help you overcome difficult moments in life, improve your self-care, and build emotional resilience. 

This brings us to our next major differentiator – we are NOT A MENTAL HEALTH APP. MentalHappy is not a replacement for traditional therapies – we provide our members with human connectivity, social engagement, and acceptance that comes only from peer-to-peer interaction. You will rarely see us talk about the term “mental health” for two reasons: 1. Every single one of us deals with challenges and can benefit from peer support, but many of us do not have serious/diagnosable mental illness, and 2. There is a huge stigma around the term “mental health” – it’s a deeply sensitive topic that many individuals and communities are not comfortable discussing. 

For example, we see this stigma frequently within minority communities, especially among African Americans and black men. BUT, it’s these individuals who are dealing with more trauma and emotional hardships than anyone else. The Black Lives Matter movement has brought this to the forefront. These men experience higher rates of prejudice, institutional racism, police brutality, and financial hardships. They need positive support from their peers now more than ever, but the majority of the companies that offer resources for emotional wellness are led by white men. This means that their content is created through a “white lens” – from the way they talk to the issues they address. While we respect these founders and believe they are doing great work, when emotional support apps and platforms are not built by a diverse team, the minority perspective is lost. Our founder and CEO, Tamar Blue, is a woman of color who not only understands the unique challenges faced in black and minority communities but is ensuring these diverse perspectives are woven into the foundation of MentalHappy’s social network. 

What are MentalHappy’s Values?

Our team lives and breathes the 5 P’s at the core of MentalHappy: people, positivity, privacy, patience, and practice. 

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• People: People make up the heart of MentalHappy. We make it possible for people to help people live happier, happier lives. We want every individual, no matter their background, to know they are not alone.
  

• Positivity: In today’s world, it can feel impossible to escape negativity – it consumes our headlines, our TV and streaming programs, and our social media feeds, often leaving us anxious, upset, and fearful. This is why we’ve created a new kind of social network, solely focused on positive dialogue and helpful information. We’re giving people a safe place to build deep human connections, consume news, and engage in conversations that are uplifting and conducive to your mental health.  
  

• Privacy: Talking about mental health and opening up about your experiences takes vulnerability, strength, and most importantly, trust. We protect the privacy of our community with highly sophisticated security technologies customized to safeguard your personal information and conversations within our platform.
  

• Patience: Everyone knows you can’t become a gold medalist overnight – the same principles that apply to your physical health apply to your emotional health. Becoming emotionally fit requires patience, time, and endurance.
  

• Practice: Improving your emotional wellness isn’t easy, even when you have the support and tools you need for success. If you want to heal, become emotionally fit, and prepare yourself to preserve throughout future challenges, you must take the lessons you learn through MentalHappy’s network offline and apply them to your daily life. The more you implement these practices into your daily life, the more improvements you’ll see.

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If you want to know more about MentalHappy or are interested in investing in our crowdfunding campaign to help accelerate the growth of our network so that we can support more people in their journeys to emotional wellness, check out our StartEngine campaign page. You can also email us at hello@mentalhappy.com or reach out to us on social media: 

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/mentalhappy

Facebook: facebook.com/MentalHappyHumans

Twitter: twitter.com/MentalHappy

Instagram: instagram.com/MentalHappyLife