Our story
Founded by psychotherapist Rebecca Howard, our story began five years ago and has been a journey of creating an evidence-based mental health and wellbeing resource that people can trust to help them think well, feel well and be well.
Rebecca believes everyone has the right to good mental health and access to support whenever they need it – and so ShinyMind’s journey began, to empower people, eradicate stigma and help as many people as we can shine their brightest.
We initially created a live mindset programme to support the mental health and wellbeing of those working in the most stressful job roles – the NHS. The ShinyMind ‘Your Mindset, Your Choice’ programme was delivered to live audiences totalling more than 3000 NHS staff… and it worked.
-
97 %
Improved Resilience -
96 %
Better stress management -
99 %
Greater positivity -
99 %
Would recommend to colleagues
Co-created
with the NHS
We wanted to share the positive impact of the ShinyMind wellbeing mindset programme far and wide, to help as many people as possible.
So, with evidence that it worked beyond our expectations, we decided to create an app to give people 24/7 support and access to our evidence-backed wellbeing tools and masterclasses. Then, to ensure it worked for real people, we co-created ShinyMind with staff of the Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust from all levels, for a whole year, to build and co-create a wide-ranging and holistic app that provided real wellbeing and mental health benefits.
ShinyMind works to…
Organisations with ShinyMind have reported reduced stress-related absence, improved team work and morale, as well as staff feeling happier, less stressed and more in control.
ShinyMind also promotes positivity, purpose and connection within teams through Positivity Posts and interactive messaging functionality that leave people feeling valued and happier in their roles.Â
Eminent members of the profession from academia and practice make up our Nursing Advisory Board, and have joined forces with ShinyMind as champions and ambassadors to combat burnout in nursing, as well as to tackle current retention and recruitment issues.Â
The Primary Care Nursing Lead for NHS England and Improvement is now seconded to ShinyMind for a second year by the Chief Nursing Officer as a Nursing Retention and Liaison Lead to build and launch a nursing version of ShinyMind.
Clinicians and nurses have been leading trials to build evidence to prove ShinyMind can also work to improve mental health and wellbeing of their patients, as it has done so for them.
After six weeks:
- 60% of patients reported feeling better and would like to keep the app
- 83% think other people would benefit from using the app
- 28% improvement in life satisfaction scores
- Significant improvement in General Anxiety scoresÂ
This has led to the launch of ShinyMind as a wellbeing prescription in the NHS to support patients with anxiety, depression and long terms conditions, and creating a virtuous circle of support for both staff and patients.
Trusted partner to the NHS
And as a trusted partner to the NHS and its nursing workforce, it wasn’t long before other organisations wanting to support the mental health and wellbeing of their employees came to us for help.
ShinyMind now works across the public sector and with businesses who are serious about promoting positive mental health for their staff. We are proud that organisations who partner with us see their staff feeling happier, less stressed and more productive.
Meet the Nursing Advisory Board
Dr Joan Myers
Joan has over 35 years’ experience in nursing as a nurse consultant and community children’s nursing across London
Robin Shohet
founder of the Centre for Supervision and Team Development, a leading training organisation which draws on learning from psychology, psychotherapy, group dynamics, inter-subjectivity, appreciative enquiry and systems thinking
Prof. Steve Hams
Chief Nurse Officer North Bristol NHS Trust, visiting professor at Worcester University and is a Florence Nightingale Foundation scholar
Marsha Jones
is Deputy Chief Nurse Epsom and St Heliers Hospitals, Patient Safety Specialist Marsha is trained Secondary school science teacher, RN, practising RM with 20+ years’ experience in the NHS in acute, maternity, community, commissioning and nationally. Founder member of Caribbean Nurses and Midwives Association (CNMA) UK, Senior Leader at Society of African and Caribbean Midwives (SoAC).
Pippa Gough
has a background in nursing, midwifery and health visiting and was Director of Policy Unit for the Royal College of Nursing. She is currently a trustee and vice chair of the NSPCC, and independent member of the People Committee at the Alzheimer’s Society, and an executive coach working in leadership and organisational development.
Dr Pete Lane
GP and chaired the team which developed the General Practice Nursing Workforce Development Plan
Janet Thornley
Strategic GPN Lead for Bedford, Luton and Milton Keynes ICS with over 39 years of nursing experience. A faculty member of NAPC.
Dr Gemma Stacey
has a background in mental health nursing and is Director of Academy at the Florence Nightingale Foundation.
Joanne Bosanquet MBE
formerly Deputy Chief Nurse for PH England and appointed CEO of the Foundation of Nursing Studies in 2019.
John Orchard
CEO at Cavell Nurses’ Trust that provides welfare support to nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants who are in financial or personal hardship
Prof. Brian Dolan
co-founder of development consultancy Health Service 360, Visiting Professor of Nursing at the Oxford Institute of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Research and Honorary Professor of Leadership in Healthcare at the University of Salford.
Rebecca Howard
Psychotherapist, CEO and Founder of ShinyMind
Nesta Williams
is an Equality, Engagement and Organisational Development Adviser and has held senior roles across the NHS and at London University. A Nye Bevan Graduate with diverse clinical experience, and a master’s degree in OD, Nesta is committed to making a difference and approaches her work with optimism and authenticity.
Karen Storey
A Queen’s Nurse and former Primary Care Nursing Lead for NHS England. Karen was formerly seconded to ShinyMind to develop digital resources to help nurses with their health and wellbeing, and has now returned to NHS England and Improvement as Community Nursing Lead. This secondment led to the successful launch of the Nursing Version of ShinyMind and helped us achieve incredible milestones.
Thank you to all our ShinyMinders!
All of this has been possible thanks to our incredible community of ShinyMinders who work with us every day to help ShinyMind be the best it can be.
