Frequently Asked Questions

Sanctuary is a private, privacy-first digital environment for emotional wellbeing. It features dove for daily emotional offloading and interactive Expeditions that guide travelers through life transitions like breakups, grief, and anxiety.

Sanctuary is sovereign technology: traveler data is owned by the traveler with no third-party data sales or behavioral advertising. Designed for the space between therapy sessions: the 2 a.m. spiral, the sudden wave on a Monday. It is not a therapy replacement.

No. Sanctuary is a daily companion, not a therapist. Therapy does the deep structural work; Sanctuary handles the in-between moments.

Dove operates under a four-tier safety architecture. In a crisis, she directs travelers to real human support immediately. Sanctuary and therapy complement each other.

everything that helps you heal is free, always. the cairn, dove, the meadow and its journal, the synthesizer, every expedition, the curated grove, and every crisis surface, all of it, always.

sovereign, $9 a month, or $72 a year, deepens a practice for those who want to go further, and lets a traveler support the work. it never unlocks healing. a person in their worst week loses access to nothing.

Sanctuary launches on September 4, 2026. Early-access invites are currently rolling out to waitlist members ahead of the public launch.

An interactive web demo is available today at joinsanctuary.io/demo for anyone who wants to experience the product before launch. Join the waitlist for priority access.

Sovereign tech is a design philosophy where the traveler retains full ownership and control of their personal data. In Sanctuary, this means no third-party data sales, no behavioral advertising, no dark patterns, and no data extraction.

Emotional data stays on-device by default through encrypted local caching. Server-side processing uses ephemeral compute with no persistent storage of conversation content.

Four layers: encrypted on-device storage, session-level privacy isolation, ephemeral server-side compute, and a strict no-sale policy. Conversations and journal entries are never cross-referenced, aggregated, or shared.

Full documentation is available at the safety stack.

No. SanctuaryApp will never sell traveler data to advertisers, data brokers, or any third party. No behavioral advertising, no surveillance-based monetization, no dark patterns.

This is a core architectural value: the technical architecture is designed so that emotional data physically cannot be aggregated or extracted. Read our full privacy policy and terms.

Dove is sanctuary's dedicated companion powered by Anthropic Claude. She validates feelings before reflecting, responds with short warm language (never clinical), and surfaces emotional patterns over time.

She doesn't diagnose, prescribe, or perform therapy. Over time, she identifies recurring emotions, shifts in language, and quiet progress you might miss. In a crisis, Dove directs travelers to real human support.

Through a four-tier architecture: encrypted local storage, session-level privacy isolation, ephemeral server-side compute, and zero data retention beyond your encrypted local store.

No conversation data is sold, shared, or used for advertising. Learn more at the safety stack.

Dove immediately provides direct links to real human support including the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and the Crisis Text Line.

Dove does not attempt to handle crisis situations herself. The safety architecture escalates, not contains. Full details at the safety stack.

Structured emotional paths: guided multi-step experiences that help travelers process life transitions like breakups, grief, and rebuilding daily structure.

Each combines reflective prompts, breathing exercises, and progressive milestones. Completed at your own pace. Explore available Expeditions at joinsanctuary.io/expeditions.

Sanctuary's anonymous community space. Every traveler receives a nature-derived alias like "morning mist" or "still water." No usernames, photos, DMs, or follower counts.

Posts flagged for self-harm are reviewed before publishing. The anonymity is structural: there is no way to trace a post back to a real identity.

sanctuary's design philosophy, not a points or rewards system. it's how we apply established research, attachment theory, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), the dual-process model of grief, and the neuroscience of social rejection, to the design itself, so the space settles the body as a side effect of using it. no streaks, no leaderboards, no scores, nothing to earn.

Sanctuary's own approach has not yet been clinically trialed, and a research council is being formed to review every scientific claim. Learn more at joinsanctuary.io/ember-science.

That is your decision. Some people close the app and never return; Sanctuary considers that a success. Others choose to stay as elders: people who walked the path and now hold a lantern for new arrivals.

The elder path opens in a future chapter of the product. Sanctuary is designed with an exit in mind; it is not an engagement trap. The goal is healing, not retention.