Embraceme is a sanctuary for a grieving soul. Now

Getting serious with what started as an experiment in synthesizing the tech expertise, great people to work with and curiosity about mental health.

No one taught us to grieve…

Or to support the one who is grieving.

This is what Nick, my advisor, told me in our first meeting on how to make the product Embraceme truly special. Our society celebrates joy and success, but we stumble when it comes to grief, struggle, and heartbreak. This is what we’ll focus now.

How it started: mental health app for diversity, equity and inclusion. You can read the journey I took till we built it.

How it’s going. It’s a pivot. I know, another startup is pivoting its product. Into grief tech. What?

My mom took her life when I was 7. Not a single adult ever talked to me about it until I started therapy. That was decades later. Supposedly, it was a taboo topic and it was and is very difficult to talk about it. The feelings of guilt and shame surrounding this topic are overwhelming for anyone. While exploring this topic over and over for 30 years, it still bothers me that I have no idea why. And I learned that suicide survivors (close people of those committing mostly don’t know) just a few years ago.

It turned out that grieving was a journey. Taken mostly offline. And since AI got so big and accessible, I’m so involved with it, I decided to take the rick. And start talking. To normalize it and heal together. And build a guide that supports people along the way. With all the knowledge in tech, mental health and the advisors board so committed, I feel hopeful. It comes straight from my heart to yours.

We start with losing people but we aim to cover all types of losses with time. How? Connecting people into peer support groups that help each other along the way.

We also partner with the Ukrainian Death Foundation that supports people during the war. You will soon find the content made by them in the app. When we localize it to languages other than English.

If you’re still up to a long story about my journey to a grief processing guide. Here it is.

Hint #1

As I took therapy for the first time in 2013, I worked in tech. And the idea of automating some part of it captured my mind. I’ve been thinking of building a chat bot that automates therapy or accompanies it. In 2017 I discovered Woebot, a Stanford University Facebook messenger bot that eventually turned into a mobile app. It is huge now, with decent investment and research. I honestly regret not starting it at the time. But I realize it was not the time for me. Nor there were not enough resources and access to tech even if I felt different.

Hint #2

I received a gift: it was a calendar with a daily task like “Hug him” or “Wait for him to blah-blah”. Really? Just relying on your partner to make you happy? I brainstormed it with friends: we thought it could be a daily tasks app that truly cares about one’s feelings. But we never tried to build anything.

Hint #3

Bite-sized tasks. 5 minutes each. Cognitive behavioural therapy inspired ones. Mindfulness. Self-care. Just stop and stare… Go back to real life. Feel the moment. 

At this point I’ve met people I really wanted to spend my time with. Perfect tech partner, witty content creator and design guru. Months of weekly calls and hours working during our spare time, here we are. 

And, yeah, there are around 1000 mental health products and the number is growing. And the content app idea does not seem that promising. But in 2020 kicking it off felt just right.

Hint #4

As I navigated (navigating?) my healing journey, I met an end-of-life doula, or death doulas. A professional that supports people along their journey. At the time I’ve just finished making an AI chatbot with Soula, a digital doula for pregnant women. The AI tech could now make all my wildest dreams of features reality. Here we are launching our beta.

Meaning

This project is deeply personal to me. As we grieve we tend to reach the point when we find meaning. It is about remembering those who have died with more love than pain. Making Embraceme happen is my way of turning my own silent tragedy into something good. Helping others find their way through the darkness of loss. And maybe grow through this experience. Or not. And probs learn to support yourself and others. As no one taught us to grieve. While we badly need it in this fast world of now.

P.S. You can get into our first support groups at embraceme.app.