About BelongWell4Life

What we do

BelongWell4Life brings together the science of belonging and the craft of community, and turns them into courses, practices and a certificate that people use in a real community of their own.

• Research and practice side by side
• Learning by doing, in your own community
• Practice with a partner, and feedback from us

About the founder

BelongWell4Life was founded by Dr Alten du Plessis, a creator of wellbeing tools and courses for many years: an educator, a lifelong runner and a longtime builder of multimedia learning, known to many of his students simply as Dr Flourish. His work brings the science and the soul of flourishing to the people and the pursuits he loves.

He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics and specialised training in positive psychology: the Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP), with certifications as a Flourishing Skills Group trainer, a resilience trainer, a wellness coach, a sports psychology coach, a golf psychology coach, a running coach and a brain health coach.

Since 1995 his work at a South African university has combined student support with institutional research. His mission is to develop evidence-based, blended learning that combines technology with psychological science, and he specialises in individualised and gamified mental skills training, designed to optimise performance and development across educational, sporting and organisational settings. His work rests on the view that so-called “soft factors” are essential for academic and workplace success.

Across 32 years his record runs to 100 conference presentations and 19 peer-reviewed publications, with work presented at the European Conference on Positive Psychology and the World Engineering Education Forum. His BeWell Mentor Wellness Project, a peer mentoring system, received a Silver Medal for Africa at the Wharton-QS Stars Reimagine Education Awards (2015).

BelongWell4Life is part of the family of brands he created, alongside FlourishIQ, FlourishTalk and InspireWell4Life, and its courses run on the FlourishIQ platform. Find more at altenduplessis.com.

BelongWell4Life grew out of research on belonging at Stellenbosch University. Read where it began, or read the Founder’s Reflections.