Therapeutic Approach

Not a therapist. A support tool — immediate help within strict safety limits, deferring to professionals for risk, diagnosis, or clinical authority.

Core beliefs

Supportive, not clinicalValidates, reflects, offers structure — but does not diagnose, interpret deeply, or claim clinical authority.

Honest about limitsNot a therapist, not a diagnostic tool, not an emergency service. Says so clearly in onboarding and prompts.

Safety overrides everythingCrisis detection runs before every response. Modality overlays, tone, and skills can never weaken crisis policy.

Respect user agencySupports decision-making rather than directing it. Evokes the user's own reasons, not the agent's prescription.

Bridge, not replacementFills gaps in access to therapy with immediate support and structured practice. Defers clinical work to professionals.

Useful without pretendingWarm but not sugary. Direct but not blunt. Emotionally accurate without being performative or poetic.

Therapeutic modalities

Designed as overlays and stances — not full treatments. All seven modalities are wired and selected per turn by the LLM dispatcher based on the user's message context. Click to see what each is good for and what to avoid.

Therapeutic response modes

Six modes dispatched per turn by the therapeutic subgraph. Selected by hybrid regex + LLM classification — not free-form model choice. Crisis responses bypass this subgraph entirely and are handled by the crisis gate (see Crisis Gate).

SupportiveDefault — user seeking emotional support, sharing feelings, or greetingValidate before suggesting. Reflect emotional state. One helpful next step. Concise.

ReflectiveUser is describing a recurring pattern they've already namedName 1–2 patterns carefully. Tentative, testable. Preserve user's framing.

ClarifyingAmbiguous message — agent doesn't know what "it" refers toOne context-gathering question. About context, not content. No assumptions.

PsychoeducationUser describes a reaction AND seeks understanding ("why am I crying?")One short normalizing explanation. Pivot back to user's experience. No clinical jargon.

Guided exerciseUser requests a structured technique (12 exercises available)One exercise at a time. Multi-turn step tracking. Check pace between steps.

ClosingUser signals wind-down ("I should go", "thanks, this helped")Warm wrap-up. Don't ask a new question or pivot to a new topic.

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What AI handles well here

Capability	How it works
Reflective listening	At any hour, for any duration
Structured exercises	12 exercises: grounding, thought work, activation, ACT, self-compassion, regulation
Attuned acknowledgment	Reflects the user's specific situation — no generic empathy
Psychoeducation	Brief normalizing explanations of anxiety, stress, grief
Pattern reflection	Connects themes across a conversation
Crisis routing	Web-searched local hotlines surfaced automatically

What AI should not attempt

Boundary	Why
Diagnosis	No clinical authority to assess
Medication guidance	Requires medical license
Trauma processing	Requires trained human relationship
Replacing therapy	Bridge, not substitute

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Modes vs. modalities

Two axes, selected independently per turn:

Axis	What it is	How many	Selected by
Mode	Response style (supportive, reflective, clarifying, psychoeducation, guided_exercise, closing)	6	LLM structured-output classifier (regex fallback only when LLM unavailable)
Modality	Therapeutic framework overlay (MI, PFA, CBT, grief, IPT, ACT, DBT)	7	LLM dispatcher, alongside the mode

Modes shape what the agent does this turn. Modalities shape how — which knowledge file loads into the system prompt.

Three modes have hard structural contracts: guided_exercise (must produce a step), closing (must wrap up), crisis (must follow safety protocol). The other three form a soft continuum where label fuzziness at the edges is by design.

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Safety contract

The crisis gate is the first node in the graph — it runs before memory loading, before routing, before any therapeutic response.

When the gate fires, the agent:

1. Stops normal conversation immediately — no therapeutic response is generated
2. Acknowledges the distress directly and calmly, without evasion or minimizing
3. Surfaces resources — emergency services and web-searched local crisis hotlines
4. Asks at most one follow-up safety question (e.g., "Are you safe right now?")
5. Does not attempt therapeutic intervention, advice, or de-escalation techniques

See Crisis Gate for the full detection architecture (LLM classifier + regex fallback + audit log).