Lusaea — Therapy Companion Between Sessions

Lusaea helps therapy patients retain insights, complete action steps, and stay engaged between weekly sessions — using intelligent analysis of recorded sessions to bridge the 167-hour gap.

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Inspiration

When I was 16 and new to this country, I found therapy. It helped — for one hour a week. Then I kept losing the thread between sessions. I quit three times before it finally stuck.

The research confirms this isn't just my experience: patients recall less than a third of session content, only 7% maintain meaningful between-session engagement, and nearly 1 in 5 drop out before seeing results.

The sessions work. The 167 hours between them don't.

That is the problem Lusaea solves.

What it does

Lusaea is a therapy companion app built for the hours when you are not in therapy.

  • Session Recording — one-tap recording with explicit therapist consent built into the flow
  • Intelligent Summaries — our platform analyzes transcripts to surface key insights, emotional patterns, and therapeutic techniques used
  • Personalized Action Steps — mapped to your specific therapeutic framework (CBT homework looks different from DBT homework — Lusaea knows the difference)
  • Daily Reflection Prompts — personalized questions that sustain engagement until your next appointment
  • Therapist Portal — clinicians can monitor progress, view summaries, and assign custom action steps

Everything is HIPAA-compliant and end-to-end encrypted. In mental health, trust is not optional.

How we built it

  • Mobile: React Native (iOS, Android coming Q2 2026)
  • Backend: Node.js on Google Cloud Run (serverless, auto-scaling)
  • Database: Firebase Firestore + Firebase Authentication
  • Storage: Google Cloud Storage (encrypted audio)
  • Analysis: Google Gemini API for session analysis and insight generation
  • Transcription: Google API (speech-to-text)
  • Analytics: PostHog (HIPAA-compliant tier)
  • Compliance: Google Cloud BAA signed, end-to-end encryption, GDPR/CCPA compliant

Challenges we ran into

  • Building HIPAA-compliant infrastructure from day one — not as an afterthought
  • Making therapeutic framework recognition accurate enough to be genuinely useful (CBT vs. ACT vs. DBT action steps require meaningfully different output)
  • Designing a consent flow that is legally sound, therapist-friendly, and frictionless for patients simultaneously
  • Keeping the experience warm and human — not clinical or robotic

Accomplishments we're proud of

  • Shipped a fully functional iOS app in under 2 months
  • 60% Day-30 retention (industry average is under 25% for health apps)
  • 65% homework completion rate vs. 35% industry baseline
  • 4.8/5.0 average user satisfaction across 150+ beta users
  • 1,200+ therapy sessions recorded
  • 12 therapist partnerships across 3 cities
  • Winner — Google Gemini API Developer Competition 2025
  • Winner — University of Miami Innovation Fund

What we learned

That the hardest part of building in mental health isn't the technology — it's earning trust. Every design decision, every privacy choice, every word in the UI either builds or erodes the confidence users need to record something as personal as a therapy session.

We also learned that therapist adoption is the real distribution lever. When a clinician recommends Lusaea, conversion rates are dramatically higher than any paid channel. The B2B2C model isn't just a business strategy — it's the trust architecture.

What's next

  • Android launch (Q2 2026)
  • Therapist dashboard with progress sharing
  • SimplePractice integration
  • Seed fundraise ($500K–$1M target, Q3 2026)
  • Scale to 50 therapist partnerships and 5,000 active users

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