Serena

What Serena is

Serena is an AI mental health companion designed to provide emotional support through text-based conversation. The company positions it as an alternative to traditional therapy, built on the premise that many people never access counseling due to limited time, expense, or fear of stigma. Serena is trained on thousands of person-centered counseling sessions conducted by licensed psychologists, giving it what the company describes as an open-ended, empathetic, and evidence-based conversation style. The service is currently in beta version and is free to try, accessed through a web application.

The company was founded by Lennart Brocki and Neo Christopher Chung, with clinical oversight from Anna Gładka, a licensed psychiatrist and researcher. Lennart Brocki is a machine learning researcher and theoretical physicist who has worked on startup ventures in the past. Neo Chung is a computational biologist and computer scientist with experience at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence, including work on tumor detection and biomarker prediction. George C. Dyer serves as Vice President of Marketing and brings experience as a humanitarian, financier, and legal practitioner. Anna Gładka's role as a clinical advisor ensures the product is shaped toward "its most effective, relevant, and ethical form" according to her daily experience in mental health treatment.

How it works and what you actually get

Serena operates as a conversational chatbot. You write to it and it responds in real time, offering the role of an active listener available anytime, anywhere. The company's core pitch is that your mental health concerns do not wait until you can schedule a therapist, and Serena fills the gap by providing immediate access to someone (or something) to talk to when problems arise.

The company describes the value proposition as bringing "many of the benefits of mental health counseling with virtually none of the drawbacks." Those benefits include emotional processing without waiting for an appointment, a non-judgmental listener, and the ability to talk through problems as they come up rather than bottling them until a scheduled session. The company positions Serena as solving the "emotional bottlenecks that can take a toll on your personal and professional life" by being available when the stress hits.

A key feature is that Serena "does not judge and will not remember what you tell her unless you ask her to." This means conversations are not stored in the user's ongoing history unless explicitly preserved. The service emphasizes that you have "the freedom to talk openly and honestly -- which will bring you the greatest benefits." Conversations are encrypted on Serena's network, and the company states it will never sell your data, using your chat logs internally only for improving the AI model.

The site also offers an API service for developers and companies that want to embed Serena into their own products. The company indicates it can provide either a plug-and-play solution or custom AI models trained to specific needs. Developers can contact Serena about integrating this technology into their platforms, services, or applications.

The evidence: what the pages prove

Serena is completely free to try. The company states users can access emotional support with "no drawbacks" and no payment barrier mentioned for the main service. The site does not publish any pricing or indicate that a paid tier exists, only that it is beta and welcomes feedback.

The AI is trained on "thousands of person-centered counseling sessions from licensed psychologists." This is the foundation the company offers for its therapeutic credibility. The technology uses what it describes as "a self-attention mechanism to boost relevance, all while avoiding repetition and the need to hard-code replies," balancing "life-like response with the capacity for control."

On infrastructure, Serena offers either shared or dedicated GPU server access through secure networks, with the goal of ensuring "speed and robustness while keeping costs and hassle to a minimum." The company emphasizes scalability as users grow, claiming you can "rely on us to be your long term partner."

The team is clearly identified. Lennart Brocki is described as a "machine learning researcher and theoretical physicist." Neo Christopher Chung is identified as having "several years' experience working at the cutting edge of artificial intelligence," with specific projects including "early identification of tumors to the prediction of biomarkers using genomic data." Anna Gładka is a "licensed psychiatrist and researcher" and "clinical advisor" whose daily work in mental health treatment has convinced her of "the opportunities that lie in augmenting traditional therapy with virtual sessions through AI technology." George C. Dyer, Vice President of Marketing, is characterized as drawing on "his wide-ranging experiences as a humanitarian, financier, and legal practitioner."

The company is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at 1209 Mountain Road Pl NE Ste R. This address is on the site's contact page.

What the site does not say

Serena's FAQ addresses several questions but leaves others unanswered. The company explicitly states it is "currently in the beta version," but does not specify when or whether it will exit beta or charge for the service. The site does not publish any number of users, success rates, or clinical study results backing the claimed effectiveness. The company does not detail how often it updates its AI training or how new psychological research informs changes to the model.

The site has a medical disclaimer stating the service "should not be relied upon during medical emergencies" and recommends contacting a medical professional immediately for hallucinations, suicidal thoughts, or violent urges. However, the site does not specify what Serena does if you express these symptoms, whether it flags them, how it responds, or what happens to that data. There is no mention of which countries can access the service, whether there are geographic restrictions, or what languages it supports. The site does not specify whether conversations can be exported or deleted, or how long they persist after account deletion.

Who it fits

Serena fits people who have barriers to traditional therapy and need an immediate, judgment-free listener. The service serves people with limited time or money, those who feel stigma around seeking help, or anyone dealing with stress, anxiety, or relationship issues who wants to talk through a problem immediately. It works for people comfortable with text-based conversation and who do not need prescription medications or clinical diagnosis.

Serena is explicitly not a crisis service. The site emphasizes this in its medical disclaimer and directs people experiencing suicidal thoughts, hallucinations, or violent urges to contact medical professionals immediately. The FAQ itself poses the question "Can Serena replace traditional therapy?" but the captured page does not include the answer text, so it is not clear how the company frames that boundary.

Serena is in beta, so the platform and features may change. It is free to try now, but there is no guarantee that will remain true if the service exits beta. Users should verify the terms and current status before making the service a regular part of their mental health routine.