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Jewel co-founds Innerworld, a new virtual reality mental health platform

The Wellness Experience By Kroger - Day 1
Duane Prokop/Getty Images for The Wellness Experience by Kroger

Jewel is taking her fight against mental health stigmas to the virtual world.

People reports the singer co-founded Innerworld, which is a wellness center that will be based in the metaverse. She envisions a platform where people can visit as their anonymous, virtual avatars to access free resources and attend group therapy sessions in a space that’s designed to feel safe.

Jewel, who is the platform’s Chief Strategy Officer, explained why she wanted the platform to be free. “Accessibility is critical,” she said. “We cannot let happiness be elitist. It cannot be just for the wealthy who can afford a therapist.”

She continued, “Innerworld is a scalable solution that’s available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, offering real, peer-to-peer support… When you log into Innerworld, you go into your own private living room, and then you enter a portal where there’s a community center around the fire pit, and there’s people from all over the world hanging out in a safe, supported environment.”

“You can say to the guide, ‘My pet just died. I’m really sad. What do you recommend?’ And then they can pull up a visual tool, like the grief cycle, and you can talk about it with the guide, or you can talk to other community members,” she added.

Innerworld can be accessed on Meta Quest, iPhone, iPad, Mac or PC. It has reportedly assisted about 20,000 people in need of mental health support.

Jewel co-founded the site with Innerworld CEO Noah Robinson, and the service went online in 2022.

Jewel’s dedicated her platform to advocate for mental health. She founded the Inspiring Children’s Foundation 21 years ago, which offers mental health resources to at-risk youth in the Las Vegas area.

 

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