Between-session tools that help clients reach the skills they already know.
Strua is an app with short, structured guides for breathing, grounding, reflection, and sleep — built by a licensed clinical psychologist, without a chatbot, clinician dashboard, or client linkage.
60+ guided practices · 41 Why This Works articles · 100+ peer-reviewed citations
Designed to support therapy — not replace it.
How Strua works
Not a breathing app — a structured library your clients reach for in the moment, then set down.
They open it in the moment
2 AM, or the ten minutes before a hard conversation. A short optional check-in suggests a starting point — or they go straight to any tool. No profile to build first.
They follow a structured guide
Breathing, grounding, a CBT thought record, a DBT distress-tolerance skill, a wind-down for sleep. Every step is clinician-authored and the same each time — nothing generated, nothing improvised.
It stays theirs
Nothing they do routes back to you — there's no clinician dashboard and no client linkage. They can arrive at the next session having practiced the skill.
What someone sees at 2 AM
Tools, rituals, and guided meditations — all clinician-authored, structured, and accessible in 2 minutes.
What others are saying
Strua is an amazing resource that I recommend for my clients to help them build emotional resilience. Strua offers practical tools that help my clients stay engaged in their mental health journey, especially in between therapy sessions.
Dr. Roxanne Cole, Psy.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist · Florida
I consider this to be generous and ethical.
Natasha Tracy
Mental health writer & advocate · author of Lost Marbles
Why this exists
The between-session retrieval gap
People learn diaphragmatic breathing, cognitive restructuring, the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding sequence. They can recite the steps in a session. Then the panic hits at 2 AM and the skills evaporate. They say at the next session: "I couldn't remember what to do." This is the gap between acquisition and retrieval that every clinician sees — and it's the gap Strua was built to close.
Structured, not generated
Strua is a library of structured, psychologist-built coping tools delivered through a guided, deterministic interface — the same guidance, in the same order, every time. There's no chatbot improvising mental-health advice and no generated content. If you want the fuller reasoning behind that choice, it's laid out in the Clinician Resource Hub.
"I built the between-session system I wished I had years ago, and I want clinicians to evaluate it for themselves."
— Dr. Nicholas Gehle, Psy.D. · Licensed Clinical Psychologist
What clients actually receive
28 tools across 8 families, plus 23 meditations and 11 rituals:
- Breathing — Box Breathing, 4-7-8, Diaphragmatic, Mindful Breathing
- Grounding — 5-4-3-2-1 Senses, Anchoring Phrase, Object Focus
- CBT — Thought Record, Decatastrophizing, Problem-Solving Steps
- DBT & distress tolerance — STOP, Cold Splash on Wrists, Pause and Breathe
- Mindfulness — Body Scan, Loving-Kindness Minute
- Sleep, sensory & movement — Wind-Down Routine, Warm Drink Ritual, Five-Minute Walk, and more
Adjust a breathing pattern, choose a grounding sequence, or tailor a cognitive worksheet — then use it whenever they want. Personalization means their own words and choices; no AI writes or adapts any tool content.
41 short, plain-language articles explaining the rationale for each practice, each with its peer-reviewed citations.
What you can count on
Structured, clinician-authored guidance
Every screen is written and sequenced by a clinician and plays the same way each time. Nothing is generated in the moment.
Private entries stay on the device
Tool entries, reflections, and mood check-ins are stored on the device and are never sent to our servers — only account and standard technical data (email, app diagnostics, subscription status) reaches us. The app has no third-party tracking or advertising; this website uses cookieless, privacy-first analytics (Plausible) and nothing else.
Designed by a licensed clinical psychologist, with rationale and sources shown
Each tool cites the peer-reviewed literature behind it, visible in the references library.
No streaks, guilt-based nudges, or engagement pressure
Used when it's needed, not habituated into daily use. No shame mechanics.
Strua doesn't monitor or assess risk — by design. Crisis resources (988 and international lines) are always a tap away in the app, and we're explicit with users that Strua isn't for emergencies.
Clinician Access Program
Evaluate Strua for free and decide if it is useful for your clients.
How this stays ethical
This is a professional access program — not a referral system, not an affiliate program. Every card, link, and code is identical for every clinician, so recommending Strua never creates a connection that we (or anyone else) could see.
- ×No attribution tracking
- ×No commissions
- ×No clinician dashboard
- ×No client-to-clinician linkage
As a CAP member, you receive:
- ✓Free lifetime Pro access to evaluate — yours to keep. No card, no expiration.
- ✓A clinician welcome packet — a printable poster, client cards, and a handout to introduce Strua in session
Your clients get three months of Pro, free — no card needed
When you recommend Strua to someone you work with, send them to strua.app/reach — no card needed to start. Their first three months of Strua Pro are free.
After the three months, Pro is $9.99/month only if they choose to keep it. If they don't continue, the free tier (23 practices) stays theirs — nothing they wrote is lost. And the free tier is fully usable without any code, so recommending Strua never has to feel like selling.
Approval is manual and open to licensed mental health clinicians globally — psychologists, psychiatrists, counsellors, social workers, and comparable regulated credentials in your jurisdiction. For students, trainees, or adjacent roles, email Dr.G@strua.app directly and we'll figure out what makes sense.
Want to evaluate everything first? See the full Clinician Resource Hub — who built it, privacy, evidence base, and how clients use it, organized on the APA App Advisor model.
Received — thank you.
Dr. G reviews each application personally, usually within 2–3 business days, and you'll get an email once you're approved.
If you don't see our confirmation email in your inbox shortly, please check your spam or junk folder. Our follow-up approval email may also land there.
Something went wrong. Please try again or email Dr.G@strua.app directly.
About me
Dr. Nicholas Gehle, Psy.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist · Founder, Strua
I'm a licensed clinical psychologist. My full-time job is in psychological assessment and diagnostic evaluations, where I see the downstream consequences of untreated and undertreated mental health every week. I built Strua because I kept watching people walk out of sessions equipped with skills they couldn't retrieve when they needed them most, and because the AI therapy products filling the gap are missing the clinical safeguards that I believe are necessary for that type of engagement. Strua is my attempt at what an evidence-informed, clinician-designed alternative actually looks like.
If you also run a private practice
I built a free website Recognition Score that shows what a new client — and an AI — can tell about your practice in seconds: struapractice.com. A gift, not a pitch.
Have questions? Want to talk?
I read every email. If you're a clinician evaluating Strua for your practice or want to discuss Strua's approach to AI in mental health, I'd like to hear from you.