Brain-Body Therapy Pledges $100,000 to Fund Dr. Andrew Sherwood's Research Project at Duke University

Gift deepens the scientific foundation of the app, whose model was informed by Dr. Sherwood's decades of research on exercise and mental health

LOS ANGELES, May 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Brain-Body Therapy, (https://www.brain-bodytherapy.com/), a groundbreaking mental wellness app that combines clinically informed guidance with personalized movement, has confirmed a $100,000 gift in support of a research project led by Andrew Sherwood, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine. The donation, announced for Mental Health Awareness Month, will be distributed over 18 months to fund research on how intentional movement supports the treatment of mental health conditions, the same scientific territory Dr. Sherwood has explored throughout his career, and the foundation Brain-Body Therapy was built on.

The Brain-Body Therapy app, available on both iOS and Google Play, launched in October 2025 and has surpassed 8,000 downloads. It approaches mental and physical health as a single system. Workouts in the app run approximately 30 minutes, or roughly 40 minutes when paired with the therapy-inspired sessions that open and close each experience. Plans within the app are personalized through a clinically informed questionnaire and delivered in 12-week phases, beginning with three days of cardio and two days of strength training per week, with modalities like yoga and dance layered in as users progress. The app currently offers tracks to help users manage anxiety and depression, with tracks for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) planned for future release.

The app was built on the premise that movement is one of the most effective, underutilized tools to help treat mental health conditions. It promotes neuroplasticity, the brain's capacity to form new connections. Every element of the app, including the color palette, voiceover artists, and original music, was selected to support nervous system regulation. Therapeutic content within the app is written by a counseling professional, and workouts are designed by global fitness consultant Luke Lombardo.

Brain-Body Therapy was founded by Rio Wilson, a counselor who holds a master's degree from Northwestern University. Wilson built the app after observing a pattern during her counseling training: clients who incorporated movement, whether a walk, a run, or a yoga class, often processed insights faster and reported greater progress than standard treatment plans captured. She consulted peer-reviewed literature, including research by Dr. Sherwood, to ensure every protocol within the app was grounded in evidence rather than wellness trends.

"When I started building Brain-Body Therapy, Dr. Sherwood's research was one of the first things I read. It gave me the confidence that what I was trying to build wasn't just intuitive, it was scientifically supported," States Rio Wilson, Founder of Brain-Body Therapy. "Funding his research project is how we say thank you. It also ensures that the science our users rely on keeps moving forward."

Dr. Sherwood has spent decades studying the intersection of physical activity and psychological well-being. In the project Brain-Body Therapy has funded, he will evaluate the interrelationships of depressive symptoms, daily physical activity, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in study participants to better understand the biobehavioral pathways relating depression to poor health outcomes. BDNF, a neurotrophin that helps keep neurons healthy, is reduced in patients with depression.

The study sample is a cohort of 142 patients with heart failure, in whom elevated depression symptoms were associated with adverse clinical outcomes. Findings will be submitted for publication in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine. 

"I am grateful to the Brain-Body Therapy team for their donation," says Dr. Sherwood, "but more so, I'm thrilled to see what they have created from my years of research; a mental health and movement resource that can truly help people."

For media inquiries about the Duke Pledge by Brain-Body Therapy app, contact BPM-PR Firm at [email protected], call 1.877.841.7244, or visit www.brain-bodytherapy.com.

About Brain-Body Therapy
Brain-Body Therapy is an innovative mental wellness platform that combines clinically informed guidance with personalized movement to help users manage anxiety and depression. By bridging the gap between mind and body, the app turns proven research into simple, actionable programs, making mental health support more accessible, engaging, and effective. The app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. For more information, visit www.brain-bodytherapy.com.

About Duke Health

One of the world's leading academic medical centers, Duke Health strives to transform medicine and health locally and globally by elevating standards of care; conducting breakthrough research and discovery; teaching and training the next generation of providers; and strengthening global and community health. To learn more about Duke Health, visit https://www.dukehealth.org/about-duke-health.

Media Contact:
Natalie Marzano
[email protected]
1.877.841.7244
BPM-PR Firm

SOURCE Brain-Body Therapy