Many people have already tried opening up to a chatbot. An assistant helps with everything, from letters to recipes. A therapist does one thing: therapy, by rules written for that work.
An assistant is built to be useful and to agree with you. A therapist asks what you would rather not answer.
A chat is built around the conversation: close the window and it is over. Here everything is built around the archive. Nothing starts over.
In a chat you are a row in a company's database: email, phone, and everything you have written. Here there is no account and no row. The archive opens only with your password.
THE BIGGEST SECRET IN YOUR LIFE
Therapy works only if you speak openly. What stops that is one thought: someone will read this. Your children, your family, whoever picks up your phone, the people behind the app, hackers.
So the app is built differently. There is nothing here for any of them to read:
• what you write is encrypted on your device, and only your password opens it. No one else has that password, not even the server;
• no email, no "sign in with Google", no phone number. Your name is not here;
• no ads, no selling of data. No one studies what you talk about;
• what you delete is gone for good. No one can bring it back.
One caveat: the therapist is a language model, and your words reach it unencrypted. There is no other way to answer them. If you speak out loud, your voice also goes to the service that turns it into text. These companies keep a copy for thirty days and then delete it. Apart from that copy, your words are nowhere but on your device.
THE ARCHIVE IS YOURS
The archive is kept in the cloud, and nothing in it can be read there. Phones get lost and replaced, and years of therapy cannot be left on one alone. From any device you sign in with the archive name and your password, and the whole history is there.
On your device the archive locks after a time you choose, or the moment you switch to something else. It opens with your password, a short code or your fingerprint.
The archive exports to a folder of plain files. Any text editor opens them, today and in ten years.
WHAT KIND OF THERAPY THIS IS
Existential-humanistic, the school of Yalom and Frankl. A conversation about freedom and choice, loneliness, meaning, mortality. Every life is made of them.
The therapist gives no advice and hands out no exercises. The questions come from the therapist, the answers from you.
A meeting lasts as long as it needs to. No timer, no limit on how many.
The therapist remembers your whole history. Three years on, the first meeting is as clear as yesterday's.
You can write or speak, by day or at night. The voice does not turn cheerful when things are hard.
IT IS QUIET HERE
The app never reminds you of itself. No streaks, no notifications counting the days you were away, no feed.
WHAT IT COSTS
You can start free. After that, one subscription with everything included. Cancel any time.
WHAT YOU WILL NOT FIND HERE
Epimelea is not a medical service and not a substitute for a psychiatrist, a diagnosis, or medication. It is not emergency help: if you are in danger right now, contact your local emergency number or a crisis line. findahelpline.com lists them by country.
Say what you’ve told no one. Years of therapy only you can open.