What did we hope to gain by inviting researchers?
We wanted to understand whether we could help fill a gap between people beginning to struggle and the point at which they reach formal services. Long waiting lists, rising demand and barriers to accessing mental health support can leave people struggling with reduced confidence, isolation, stress and loss of hope before they receive help.
We also wanted to share something that has profoundly changed our own lives. The understanding of Innate Health that inspired us has given us a different way of seeing ourselves, our circumstances and our capacity for wellbeing. We wanted to explore whether others could experience meaningful changes too.
By inviting independent researchers, we hoped to look beyond our own experience and understand what is changing for participants, why it matters, and whether a low-threshold, community-based approach can strengthen wellbeing, connection, resilience and confidence earlier—before difficulties become more entrenched.
What has the research found so far?
Our Innate Health Programme was originally designed to support individuals who are insecure about their housing situation and want to improve their overall well-being. However, independent research demonstrates the wider impact of the programmes. Our beneficiaries have shifted from feeling like they lacked control over their lives to experiencing a sense of agency, choice, and control. Independent research has identified several benefits of our service;
- Enhanced capacity to recognise creativity, wisdom, and clarity/insight
- Increased overall well-being
- Strengthened social connections
- Recognition of health beyond a diagnosis/physical limitation
- Improved coping skills
- Reduced reactivity
- Greater resilience
- Independent problem-solving instead of relying on external sources
- Supporting beneficiaries in graduating from other services
These findings highlight the potential of understanding Innate Health and our capacity for wellbeing, and reinforce why this work matters.
Find out more…
You can read more about the scientific research, real-world projects, and collaborative partnerships exploring Innate Health as a measurable, upstream component of mental wellbeing by clicking here.
The next stage
We are entering an exciting new chapter in our journey—one shaped by ‘human ethics’ research, professional expertise and, most importantly, the voices of the people we support.
Together with our research partners, we are co-authoring an article for publication in a peer-reviewed journal, sharing what we are learning about the changes people experience and the potential role of accessible, community-based support.
We are also co-producing the next stage of our continuous development programme with our professional advisors and our community. This includes our beneficiaries who have faced some of life’s most difficult challenges, experienced the frustrations and limitations of existing support, and discovered a different understanding that has profoundly changed their lives.
Their experiences matter. They help us understand not only what we are doing, but how it is experienced by the people who matter most.
By bringing together research, professional knowledge and lived experience, we can continue to listen, learn and grow—ensuring we remain responsive to the people and communities we exist to serve.
Anita McGinty, PH.D
CO-FOUNDER & CEO - Innate Health Research
Anita McGinty, PH.D
CO-FOUNDER & CEO - Innate Health Research
Anita is a psychologist and educator fascinated with the ways we learn, change, and grow. She is IHR’s very own grandmaster – a strategic powerhouse with an uncanny ability to see the big picture and understand every angle, identify opportunities and potential, and navigate obstacles. And, as an influential leader, she has an aptitude for working across diverse sets of partners and leading decision-making processes to bring impactful projects to fruition.
With 20 years as an academic leader in education, Anita has brought her voracious appetite for exploration and evidence to mental health programming. Having seen firsthand the transformative power of innate health realization, she wants all people – across all sectors of society – to have the same opportunity for innate health realization that she did. She is driven by the need for a strong, interdisciplinary, and irrefutable evidence-base around innate health as a foundational step in achieving that universal access.
Anita’s early career as a speech-language pathologist was spent drawing out the academic potential of children with severe communication and reading difficulties. After receiving her doctorate in Education Psychology in 2009, she worked as an applied researcher and education expert, supporting the creation and adoption of educational innovations across thousands of schools and hundreds of communities nationally to improve the way children were taught and supported. She has received numerous awards in recognition of her contributions to education
Jeanne Catherine, PH.D
CO-FOUNDER & COO - Innate Health Research
Jeanne Catherine
CO-FOUNDER & COO - Innate Health Research
Jeanne is a researcher, facilitator, and practitioner, but she’s also IHR’s muse and visionary leader. Magnetic and charismatic, Jeanne’s passion is nothing less than infectious. And, with a remarkable aptitude for translating complex knowledge into digestible and compelling information, she has a true gift for captivating and inspiring audiences.
Based on her personal and professional experience, Jeanne is driven by the transformative potential of innate health realization and a passion for empowering women and people who have been disenfranchised to take back their voice and take action. She is steadfast in her commitment to using science to improve the way mental health programs are designed and accessed so that even the most marginalized groups are supported in leveraging their own capacity for wellbeing.
As IHR’s Chief Operating Officer, Jeanne is responsible for project design and implementation, research dissemination, outreach and education, and practitioner collaboration.
Jeanne uses her free time to empower women through self-knowledge using her skills as a mentor, mediator, and teacher. You will often find her on the dance floor guiding all kinds of bodies through movement, music, and magic!
Dr. Geraldine Brown
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND RESEARCHER - Coventry University
Dr.Geraldine Brown
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND RESEARCHER - Coventry University
Geraldine is a Researcher in the Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience. She has over twenty- years of social research experience, primarily with seldom-heard groups. Geraldine’s disciplinary background is in Sociology and Public Policy, and a key body of her work focuses on exploring individuals' and groups' experiences of public policy and practice. Geraldine is also interested in creative methodologies and approaches that help democratise research and allow for practical and theoretical insights and different ways of knowing. (19) Geraldine Brown (researchgate.net)
Adriaan Denkers
SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST AND ADVISOR - Innate Health Research
Adriaan Denkers, PH.D
SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST AND ADVISOR - Innate Health Research
Adriaan is a senior quantitative research specialist and statistician or in other words, IHR’s very own private eye. With a gift for identifying the research question at the heart of every problem and the skill to design the perfect research project to investigate it, Adriaan has a talent for the data collection and analysis that drives the research at the core of our work.
Adriaan is driven by his passion for data and the stories it tells. And, with four years of experience helping research innate health, he brings the understanding necessary to unpack the nuanced questions that underpin it.
Adriaan is responsible for managing data from research partnerships, leading technical assistance contracts related to evaluations, and communicating and interpreting results to the research team.
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