Central Texas Woman Designs App to Navigate Loss
By AMY ROGNLIE | Photos by BECKY STINEHOUR and courtesy of TrueHeart
“Sometimes a person does not need to be told to cheer up or move on,” said Melyssa Thompson, creator of a new app called TrueHeart. “Sometimes they simply need a safe place to say, ‘This hurts, and I don’t know what to do with it.’”
TrueHeart is a trauma-informed AI companion designed specifically for those navigating heartbreak, relationship loops and emotional recovery. The app was thoughtfully developed with the help of mental health professionals and is governed by ethical, trauma-informed guidelines. Unlike other AI platforms, TrueHeart will not simply agree with everything a user says. Instead, it learns your emotional patterns over time. It recognizes when you are cycling, tracks your attachment responses, and reflects your growth back to you. It also contains built-in “interceptions” and guided prompts to help the user stop a downward spiral. The app will even export organized notes from your reflections so you can take them to your next in-person therapy session.
“TrueHeart is not designed to replace your therapist,” Thompson said. “Think of the app as the best friend who never tires, the journal that talks back, and the support system that bridges the gap between your therapy sessions and your 2 a.m. moments. I wanted people to have somewhere to turn in those moments too, not only once a week at a scheduled appointment.”
Thompson spent 14 years working as an intuitive counselor, talking with people through more than 10,000 sessions. Some were over the phone, and some were in person. Before that, she earned two associate degrees from Central Texas College, one in Criminal Justice and one in Psychology. She has also experienced her own share of loneliness and heartache, all of which led her to want to help others.
“My education taught me a great deal, but so did the people who trusted me with their stories. Over the years, I began to notice that the hardest moments rarely happen at convenient times,” Thompson said. “Loneliness does not wait for office hours. It can find someone at midnight, alone in the car, or sitting in a quiet house after everyone else has gone to bed.”
Those feelings can become even heavier around Christmas or other holidays. The season is supposed to be joyful, but for someone who is grieving, missing family, or facing the first holiday season after losing someone they love, it can feel unbearably lonely. The holiday season has a way of making an absence feel more noticeable.
“It might be an empty chair at the table, a loved one whose stocking is no longer hanging up, children who are far away, the end of a relationship, or a home that suddenly feels much too quiet,” Thompson said. “I wanted TrueHeart to feel warm and welcoming for anyone carrying that kind of ache.”
Thompson also cares deeply about the loneliness many men carry quietly. In fact, when she first introduced her app at South by Southwest in March of this year, she was surprised to find how many men were interested and wanted to try it.
“Men are not always given the same permission to admit that they are hurting or that they need someone to talk to. Many have been taught that they are supposed to stay strong and keep everything to themselves,” Thompson said. “I hope TrueHeart can help change that, even in a small way. Needing support is not weakness. It is part of being human.”
TrueHeart is a free web-based app (available at trueheartapp.com) that offers many tools to help those who are struggling with heartache of any kind. A paid subscription, offering more functionality is also available, but at both levels, the app was created to sit with people gently, not simply hand them advice or rush them toward feeling better. As Thompson reminds us, healing does not happen on a schedule, and grief does not disappear because of the holidays. Sometimes the most meaningful thing we can offer another person is a place where they feel heard.
“I love that folks in Bell County are already good at doing this,” she said. “I appreciate the way people in this community show up for one another. Someone brings food when a family is grieving. A church collects Christmas gifts for children. A neighbor notices that someone is struggling and checks on them. So much kindness happens quietly here.”
But Thompson’s hope is that when no one else is around, TrueHeart becomes one of the first places someone thinks to turn when life feels heavy and they do not know who to call. She wants it to be another lifeline to help support people through heartbreak, grief, loneliness, family struggles and all the complicated emotions that come with being human.
