StrongMinds

StrongMinds is an award-winning nonprofit delivering community-led mental health programmes to hundreds of thousands of clients across Uganda, Zambia, and beyond. We provide proven group therapy to women, adolescents, refugees, and other marginalised populations — and we're growing fast. Data and technology are central to everything we do.

StrongMinds democratizes access to mental healthcare for people with depression globally.

StrongMinds is a global nonprofit organization driven by the fundamental belief that mental health is a human right and the foundation of thriving families and communities. We deploy ground‑breaking innovations to bring free, evidence‑based, culturally-relevant mental health care to some of the world’s most under‑resourced populations.

StrongMinds works with governments across Africa to embed group talk therapy into existing public infrastructure, reaching people where they already are – in communities, schools, health systems, and correctional facilities. While we began by focusing on women and adolescents, we now treat people of all genders and ages in low‑resource settings, while maintaining a strong emphasis on women and youth. Our programs are delivered by trained local facilitators using a low‑cost, scalable model that is proven to help people recover from depression, with independent evaluations and effective‑giving organizations highlighting StrongMinds as a cost‑effective way to improve mental health and life outcomes in Africa.

StrongMinds grew from the conviction of Sean Mayberry, a former diplomat and social marketer, that mental health is often overlooked in international development, with devastating results.

While living and working in Africa for nearly a decade implementing HIV/AIDS and malaria programs, Sean saw firsthand the struggles and lack of access to treatment for those suffering from mental illness and was inspired to find a solution. In 2013, he read about the findings of a randomized controlled trial in Uganda in 2002 that had remarkable success in treating depression with group interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT-G). The study, by researchers from Johns Hopkins University (JHU), used lay community workers with only a high school education. The idea for StrongMinds was born.

Sean left his position as the CEO of a global antipoverty organization and founded StrongMinds, concentrating in Uganda, the site of the previous randomized controlled trial. The organization was incorporated in the United States in February 2013 with no funds. Sean used his family’s savings and volunteered full-time for the first 18 months until supporters were identified.

In our first decade of operation (2013-2023), StrongMinds proved that a simple, cost-effective, and impactful depression treatment model can be implemented at scale by community members in Africa. We demonstrated to global mental health experts that depression treatment can be made widely accessible at the community level—the majority of our depression group leaders are volunteers with low levels of education and literacy.

Our radical expansion of depression treatment in Africa has only just begun. By 2035 StrongMinds will ensure that evidence-based mental health care is abundantly available in schools and communities across the continent.