CEO Keith Wakeman aims to tackle the youth mental health crisis through partnerships with employers.

Jane McGonigal, a famous game designer and Ph.D. in game science, co-founded SuperBetter after experiencing a severe concussion in 2009. The company, launched in San Francisco and now located in Glen Ellyn, Ill., has developed a series of games that help individuals build resilience and improve mental well-being.

Teaching seven rules that empower people and build cognitive resilience, SuperBetter uses the psychology of gameplay to help users bust through obstacles and achieve their goals. The game, which can be delivered through a digital app, is often used in group settings such as classrooms or workplaces.

“What SuperBetter is we call it a mindset intervention,” says Keith Wakeman, CEO. “It’s an easy-to-teach, easy-to-learn mental framework. It uses the psychology of gameplay to help individuals overcome obstacles and achieve goals in all of their lives. So, it feels kind of playing life like a game.”

Wakeman, a former Keebler executive, acquired the company’s assets from McGonigal after it dissolved.

Research findings support SuperBetter’s work, showing that developing the mindset it encourages can reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression in as few as six weeks. For college students suffering from moderate or higher levels of anxiety and depression, the program has shown a 42% remission rate at six months.

McGonigal sparked the company after hitting her head on a kitchen cabinet and experiencing anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. “Jane’s damaged brain was saying, ‘Jane, you have no reason to live,’” explains Wakeman. “And she did. She finally got to the point where she said, ‘I’m going to either create a game and help my brain heal or I’m going to kill myself.’ And fortunately for the world, she decided to and had the capability to create the initial framework that’s now SuperBetter.”

To scale up, SuperBetter is now forming partnerships with organizations in education, healthcare, cybersecurity and other industries. One goal is to tackle the mental health crisis facing youth, which was exacerbated by the pandemic. “It became pretty clear to educators and others that the prevalence of these conditions and poor mental health was increasingly a business model problem, and when there’s a business model problem, organizations invest in it, versus when it’s a human problem, it’s like someone else’s problem as well,” says Wakeman.

Wakeman spoke recently with Chris Benguhe, founder and president of the Dave Alexander Center for Social Capital and publisher of the Social Capital Insider. Click on the link below to watch the conversation.