SuperBetter: Mental Health - Mental health & resilience

Overview

SuperBetter is many things - an app, a tool, a mindset, a methodology, a book, a purpose-driven small business. But, at its core, SuperBetter is a framework that helps people overcome obstacles and achieve their goals by using the psychology of game play in all of life. SuperBetter is also a way to improve resilience, mental health and social-emotional learning. Over 1 million people have played the SuperBetter mobile and web app.

Details

Enhance mental well-being, resilience, and social-emotional skills.

- At its core, SuperBetter introduces a straightforward yet powerful concept – we can leverage the innate strengths we exhibit during gameplay to tackle real-world obstacles, cultivate abilities, handle stress, and engage in self-care practices.

- SuperBetter applies the principles of gaming psychology to everyday life. Engaging with SuperBetter means adopting a playful mindset in reality—setting challenges for yourself, striving for significant achievements, assuming a secret identity, completing missions, facing adversities, activating boosts, and connecting with allies. The seven guidelines for living with a gameful approach provide a structure to enhance your strength, happiness, courage, and resilience in daily activities.

- Developed by researcher and game designer Jane McGonigal, SuperBetter is supported by research. A randomized controlled trial at the University of Pennsylvania revealed that participating in SuperBetter for 30 days correlated with notable advancements in both mental health and resilience.

- The SuperBetter app simplifies the journey towards achieving remarkable victories, monitoring your gaming strengths, and enhancing your overall resilience—which encompasses mental, social, emotional, and physical aspects. Achieve proven results in just ten minutes a day.

- SuperBetter caters to youth, adolescents, young adults, and anyone interested in unleashing their inner hero by embracing a gamified lifestyle. Over one million individuals have engaged with SuperBetter.

SUPERBETTER OPTIONS

> Hero account: Engage with SuperBetter independently.

> Host account: A platform for orchestrating challenges for teams.

> Player account: Participate in group challenges upon invitation from a host.

HERO ACCOUNT: PLAY INDEPENDENTLY

Enjoy a 14-day complimentary trial.

Enhance your mental health, social-emotional wellness, and physical resilience through a collection of over 40 solo activities.

Design your own challenges to pursue personal triumphs.

Participate in group challenges led by hosts.

View a demonstration video available on the SuperBetter platform.

HOST ACCOUNT: FACILITATE CHALLENGES FOR TEAMS

Encourage mental health, resilience, social-emotional learning, and success skills within groups in an engaging and practical manner.

Tailored for educators, the Host account is accessible to all:

> Middle and high school teachers advance social-emotional learning.

> Small groups, teams, and clubs promote youth mental health and resilience.

> Colleges support student achievement and well-being.

> Small businesses implement a budget-friendly employee wellness initiative.

The web-based host portal streamlines the process of forming teams and organizing challenges. Team challenges bring the SuperBetter method to fruition, each featuring an epic win accompanied by five days of activities. Hosts can choose from a library of over 90 challenges designed to foster mental, emotional, social, and physical resilience or craft custom challenges for teams to pursue any epic win they desire. Members typically invest about ten minutes daily using the mobile or web app. They can utilize either a free Player account or an affordable Hero account.

PLAYER ACCOUNT: TEAMPLAY ONLY

The Player account complements the Host account. It is a no-cost account intended solely for participation within squads.

Players can join team challenges when invited by a Host account holder and take part in weekly challenges organized by SuperBetter.

OPTIMIZED FOR SMARTPHONES

The SuperBetter mobile application is tailored for smartphone use. If you own a Chromebook, iPad, or tablet, you can access it via the web app.

SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS

The annual fee for the Hero account is $24.99.

Payment will be deducted from your credit card. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled before the current subscription period concludes. Manage your subscription settings after your purchase. Any remaining time from a free trial will be forfeited upon subscribing.

A proven methodology

The SuperBetter Live Gamefully® methodology is an evidence-based framework that uses the strengths of game play in all of life

Playing SuperBetter means bringing a gameful mindset to everyday life. Players develop new skills, strengthen their whole-person resilience and track how their gameful strengths grow over time.

7 rules for playing SuperBetter

Host squad challenges in minutes

The web-based Host account makes it easy

==Add player emails

==Create a squad

==Select a Challenge (or create your own)

==Send invitation

==Monitor progress

Squad challenges bring the SuperBetter methodology to life. Each has 5-days of activities and an epic win. Select from a library of 90+ challenges or create your own to have squads go for any epic win you choose.

Squad members play about 10 minutes a day on the SuperBetter mobile or web app. They use a free Player account or a low-cost Hero account.

Frequently Asked Questions

1.Why play SuperBetter?

Playing SuperBetter can help you achieve any type of goal - such as overcoming a tough obstacle, building a new skill, or achieving an important milestone. Squad Play can help groups achieve common goals - such as advocating for a shared cause or improving social-emotional learning.

[Here are some reasons people play SuperBetter:]

=To adopt a new habit, develop a skill, strengthen a relationship, make an athletic breakthrough, complete a meaningful project, or pursue a lifelong dream.

=To overcome a challenge - like dealing with a school setback, surviving a breakup, finding a new job or grieving a loss.

=To improve mental health, manage stress, cope with chronic pain, or recover from a concussion or other injury.

2.How do I create my new account?

To play a bigger role to address the youth mental health crisis, the original SuperBetter was replaced with a new version in early 2023. The new platform is designed for educators and available for anyone. 

The platform includes a new Host account which is a web-based portal to create your own squads and host challenges for them. Squad members play on a free Player account on the mobile or web app.

To play SuperBetter on your own, use the Hero account. You can play in both solo and squad play mode, access a library of solo challenges to grow your mental health, emotional wellbeing, social relationships and physical resilience, and go for your own epic wins by creating your own challenges.

Create your Player or Hero account on the web app or download SuperBetter from the app stores. 

History from the original app is not available in the new version. You can access the old web app here until the end of 2023. 

3.Is SuperBetter backed by science?

Yes! Every part of the SuperBetter methodology is evidence-based. And, the effectiveness of playing SuperBetter for improving resilience and mental health is demonstrated in published randomized controlled & clinical trials. SuperBetter is featured in more than a dozen articles found in scientific journals.  Find details and links to the studies on The Science page of the SuperBetter website.

4.How does SuperBetter work?

Behind SuperBetter is a simple idea. We can use the same psychological strengths we naturally display in game play - such as optimism, creativity, courage and determination - to tackle challenges in all of life. Playing SuperBetter means adapting a gameful mindset and having the courage and openness to try different strategies to discover what works best. It means collaborating with allies, and building up the resilience to tackle tougher and tougher challenges with greater and greater success.

5.Is SuperBetter a game?

You can call it a game if you like! SuperBetter is a framework that brings the psychology and mindset of game play to all of life. The experience is not like a video game that immerses you in a digital world. Instead players follow gameful rules and complete activities in everyday life.