Pocket Therapy

Your own therapy chatbot, always ready to listen.

Comment

About the project

Our therapy app harnesses the power of AI to provide a personalized chatbot therapist—always ready to listen and respond with informed, compassionate guidance. Inspired by the current global mental health epidemic, our goal is to make mental health support more accessible and immediate, encouraging more people to take that first step toward self-care. By blending cutting-edge AI technology with proven therapeutic techniques, our platform helps users navigate stress, anxiety, and other mental health challenges in real time.

What it does

The app allows users to:

  • Chat with Billie: Interact via text and voice with an AI therapist who responds empathetically based on your current mood and needs.
  • Journaling: Record your thoughts in a digital journal and receive supportive, reflective feedback.
  • Guided Meditation & Breathing Exercises: Engage in mindfulness activities designed to help you relax and regain focus.
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Exercises: Work through structured exercises that challenge negative thinking and promote healthier thought patterns.
  • Multi-Language Support: Choose your preferred language so that Billie can converse in the language you’re most comfortable with. Includes English, Spanish, Dutch, and French.

How we built it

We built the app using Visual Studio Code as our development environment and used Python with Flask for the backend. The frontend is crafted with HTML, Tailwind CSS, and JavaScript. We integrated third-party AI services (via OpenAI/Groq APIs) to generate personalized therapeutic responses and leveraged the Web Speech API for voice recognition and text-to-speech functionalities. The project is modular—with separate modals for journaling, meditation, and CBT exercises—allowing us to maintain a scalable, well-organized codebase. Billie was generated by Google Gemini.

Challenges we ran into

As complete beginners, we encountered a steep learning curve integrating multiple technologies. Some of the challenges included:

  • Implementing text-to-speech and speech recognition functionalities.
  • Parsing and rendering markdown so that chatbot responses would correctly display bold and italic formatting.
  • Debugging cross-browser compatibility issues.
  • Managing asynchronous calls between the frontend and backend while ensuring a responsive user experience.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of creating a fully functional, interactive therapy app that combines diverse features—from AI-powered chat and journaling to guided meditation and CBT exercises—into a cohesive and aesthetically pleasing interface. Despite our inexperience, we successfully integrated various advanced technologies to develop a tool that could genuinely support mental health and well-being.

What we learned

Through this project, we learned valuable lessons in full-stack development, problem-solving, and iterative design. We gained hands-on experience with Python Flask, modern frontend frameworks, and integrating external APIs for AI and speech functionalities. This journey has inspired us to continue exploring innovative digital solutions in mental health and has deepened our appreciation for user-centered design and accessibility.

Share this project:

Updates