Finnish startup Uoma Mind wants to transform how people approach mental health challenges. The company is among 9 promising startups that joined Health Incubator Helsinki in the spring of 2025.

When we discuss mental health issues like anxiety or depression, we commonly describe them as part of someone’s identity. Many therapeutic approaches frame them similarly. But what if we didn’t treat mental health challenges as components of our personality, but instead, as characters in a larger story?

This is the idea behind Uoma, the world’s first AI-powered narrative therapy app. Developed by Finnish digital health startup Uoma Mind, the app helps its users to manage stress, anxiety, and emotional challenges by transforming spoken reflections into empowering stories.

AI meets narrative therapy

Uoma is the creation of two founders: Hateem Khuja, who earned his PhD in Developmental Psychology from Åbo Akademi in 2024, and Jacques Marais, who holds an MSc in Mathematics.

The idea for the app first took shape during Khuja’s doctoral studies, when he came across a pressing statistic: 1 billion people worldwide struggle with mental health issues.

“The interesting fact is that according to WHO, almost a third of these people are not seeking traditional help due to costs and social stigma. I found that quite disturbing and knew something needed to be done,” Khuja says.

The solution didn’t appear immediately. It started to take shape in late 2022, when the rise of ChatGPT and other large language models intersected with what Khuja had learned about narrative therapy, a form of psychotherapy that relies on human-centric storytelling and symbolism to make sense of individual emotions and experiences.

“I realized these language models could take whatever was shared and turn it into a fully relatable story,” Khuja recalls.

In the Uoma app, narrative therapy approach, known for its fluidity, is translated into a clear and structured process. 

“Users start their journey with a dialogue that resembles face-to-face therapy, and then identify their issue and externalize it by assigning it a character. Next, they map this character’s impact on themselves and those around them, defining what’s known as a unique outcome – a moment when they respond differently,” Khuja explains.

After that, it’s time to craft a personal narrative through conversational dialogue. The app generates a story that mirrors the user’s struggles and shows the character as it navigates the same challenges to empowerment and resilience. 

“This approach gives more depth and tools for handling the visitor that comes and goes”, Khuja says.

Additional form of mental health support

Can an app available around the clock replace traditional therapy?

“Absolutely not,” Khuja emphasizes. “Therapy is something different. This is another form of help.”

Not everyone requires years of psychotherapy to cope with anxiety symptoms or stress. In such cases, Uoma can offer practical, accessible support in daily life. For example, men across numerous cultures have been conditioned through generations to bottle up their emotions, and the app can be a significant step toward accessing their feelings and beginning to act differently.

Khuja envisions that in the near future, tools like Uoma will be recognized as a new form of mental health support, something that is complementing traditional face-to-face therapy rather than replacing it. 

As a psychology professional with a PhD in the field, he stresses the importance of mental health professionals being involved in shaping these changes.

“Anyone with a technical background but no training in psychology can build a chatbot. I really believe that if anyone should be leading this transformation in mental health, it should be therapists. I really hope it changes.”

Success comes from avoiding the wrong choices

Uoma is now launched on the App Store, and the team’s next step is to raise funding to scale in the UK market.

For Khuja, this isn’t his first venture: over the past 15 years, he bootstrapped a venture to a solid, personal success. These experiences taught him that past insights alone cannot guarantee future outcomes. There’s always more to discover and new ways to grow, and that’s why the team applied to Health Incubator Helsinki in spring 2025.

The incubator provides Uoma Mind with an ecosystem of people who have undertaken similar projects and, most importantly, know the common pitfalls in building and scaling a health startup.

“Learning number one I have gathered over the years is that you don’t really want to make the right decision, you want to avoid the bad ones. Because when you’re able to do that, wherever you end up, it’s going to be okay,” Khuja says.

Check out all the companies in the Health Incubator Helsinki program.

Text: Saana Lehtinen, Uoma Media Oy

Photo: Uoma Mind Oy