The Science Behind WeBe

Complementary Care 

WeBe recognizes the value of complementary care to strengthen overall mental health and well being. Complementary care approaches include meditation, breathwork, journaling, yoga, and art. These practices can be effective forms of care and treatment alone or alongside traditional mental health treatments – like therapy and medication – to improve mental health and well being. There have been numerous studies highlighting the relationship between complementary care and improved mental health.  

Studies have consistently demonstrated the positive health effects of meditation: 

  • A meditation study of pharmacy students found that mindfulness meditation uniformly and independently improved overall mental health. The study underscored the potential to implement a scalable option for minimizing stress and maintaining mental well being while students completed a demanding professional program (Zollars, Poirier & Pailden, 2019). 

  • A study of university students found that individuals were able to improve psychological well being through meditation when compared to before practicing meditation (Vijayaraghavan & Madhava Chandran, 2019). 

  • A study of random, non-experienced meditators between the ages of 18-45 found that 8 weeks of brief, daily meditation decreased negative mood and enhanced attention, working memory, and recognition memory as well as decreased state anxiety scores (Basso et al., 2019). 

Research has demonstrated the power of breathwork to manage emotional functioning: 

  • Studies have illustrated the success of a particular form of breathwork - Conscious Connected Breathwork – as a therapeutic intervention for anxiety reduction (Blake, 2024). 

  • Decreased anxiety, depression, and improved sleep have resulted when healthcare providers practiced breathwork to alleviate the effects of stress (Shaw-Metz, 2023). 

Studies have also demonstrated the positive impact of journaling on mental health and well being:   

  • Expressive writing has been found to have a positive effect on improving both mental health (reducing stress, anxiety, and depression) and physical health outcomes, particularly in the context of dealing with traumatic or emotionally significant events (Smyth, 1998). 

  • Research has also demonstrated that the process of writing was psychologically beneficial for participants who reported low levels of social support and self-care  (Nagurney, 2013). 

  • Veterans reporting reintegration problems who completed online expressive-writing sessions showed more improvements than peers who had not written at all or who had engaged only in factual writing (Sayer et al., 2015). 

The psychological and physical benefits of yoga have been consistently reported:  

  • Yoga typically improves overall symptom scores for anxiety and depression by 40%, when used alone and as an adjunctive treatment (Shroff & Asgarpour, 2017). 

  • Studies have reported significantly lower levels of stress and mental distress, as well as higher levels of well-being for individuals who practice yoga compared to those who did not (Malipeddi et al., 2024). 

  • A Study of Veterans diagnosed with PTSD who were offered trauma-sensitive yoga found improvements in response inhibition, depression, sleep, and life satisfaction (Zaccari et al., 2020). 

Art therapy has been widely accepted as a valuable approach to mental and physical health conditions:  

  • Art therapy programs have consistently demonstrated promising effects in decreasing depression and improving self‐esteem for older adults living in nursing homes (Ching-Teng, Ya-Ping & Yu-Chia, 2019). 

  • Art therapy has been found to help people express themselves more freely, improve their mental health, and improve interpersonal relationships (Shukla et al., 2022). 

  • Veterans who participated in sessions where they expressed personal feelings and emotions through art or music demonstrated that creative arts therapy improved perceived physical and psychological health (Kang et al., 2022).