Leafyard, Science and You

What seems to be the problem?

Scientists, doctors, experts, researchers and psychologists have decades worth of knowledge at what works to improve individual mental health, but more and more people are suffering. It’s getting worse. Why?

Sound mental health is extremely important. Yet stigma, not knowing where to turn and busy lives prevent us from seeking help, and when we do, the average wait time for effective treatment is way too long. When we are in distress we lack the motivation to make positive changes as it's always easier to bury our problems, fall back on unhealthy coping mechanisms or carry on suffering.

Knowing what to do

Science has proven that there are many things we can do to improve our mental fitness: therapy, diet, sleep, exercise, relationships, changing your thought patterns.   The problem is, we don’t take action. We don’t actually do the things that make us feel better.

How can we invoke the much needed motivation in people who are suffering and at the same time actually make people better?   The answer lies in the application of proven, robust behavioural science.

What is behavioural science?

Behavioural science is a cross-disciplinary field of study bringing together insights from social and cognitive psychology to reveal how real people behave in the real world. It draws on everything from judgement, decision-making, marketing and consumer behaviour, to health, biology, neuroscience… even philosophy and wellbeing research.

Behavioural science is the foundation that Leafyard is built upon. It works to help create positive life habits and invokes positive, permanent, lasting change. We are trying to change things for good here - not just a short term fix.

There are many examples of motivational behavioural science that exist

Think of how Apple Watch reminds us to stand up and stretch every few hours.  Think of how Fitbit urges us to set fitness goals and do a minimum of 10000 steps a day.

 Think of how Peloton creates a powerful ’Movement’ out of it’s customers to inspire and change habits.  Think of how the NHS Couch to 5K program takes people with zero interest in fitness to running 5K in 9 weeks through the use of motivational structure and progression. Behavioural science is great at getting us to take *action*.

At it's heart, the fundamental premise of Leafyard is this:

There are people out there, every single day, who are recovering from anxiety, stress and depression. Leafyard shows you the things they did to feel better. If you do the same things, you stand every chance of feeling better too.

Often it's hard to find a way forward. By understanding the changes that other people have made to their habits, thoughts and feelings we can apply the same changes in our own lives. The fact is - people feel better every day, and you can too.

Made for you alone.

Leafyard acts as a motivational and educational sidekick, always there to offer guidance and direction. It recognises that we’re all different and different techniques work for different people. Leafyard’s in-built artificial intelligence works with the user to uncover problems and reveal areas for improvement.

Leafyard’s artificial intelligence calculates adaptive strategies for the individual and guidance switches from CBT, mindfulness, exercise, diet, sleep, journaling, visualisation and much, much more. The artificial intelligence is also clever enough to control the strength of guidance, offering appropriate levels of care and support to users.

Evidence based interventions

Leafyard stands on the shoulders of decades worth of research by amazing psychologists, clinicians, doctors, researchers and therapists.

It packages all we have discovered about what makes us feel better and then motivates us to actually do it. For example, here's a quick bit of advice. If you are feeling blue or on edge, go for a stroll in a park. It may make you feel a bit better - and that's a good thing. Taking action nomatter how bad we feel is one of the things we can actively do. This is classic advice that has worked over and over again. Try it yourself and see how you feel.