How Saalvio works
How Saalvio works
Module 1
Self-help tools you use on your own time
The Saalvio mobile app is the full self-help experience: mood tracking, journaling, guided cognitive-behavioural exercises, structured self-assessments, sleep tools, calming music, and cognitive games. You decide when to open it and what to use; nothing pings you, nothing tracks you publicly, and the work you do stays private to you.
The mobile app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. The Free tier gives you a real, usable set of tools without a credit card. The CANADAHEALS public health commitment includes one year of the premium tier, free, for every Canadian.
Module 2
Thrive AI, when you want to talk something through
Thrive AI is Saalvio's CBT chatbot. You can talk through what you are feeling in plain words, in any of several languages, and Thrive AI will ask follow-up questions, suggest brief cognitive-behavioural exercises, and notice patterns in your mood over time. It is the companion for the 11 p.m. moments when you want to think out loud and a real person is not the right call.
Thrive AI is not therapy, not a clinician, not a regulated medical device, and not a crisis service. The clinical work belongs to the licensed therapy module below; Thrive AI sits alongside it. Thrive AI lives inside the Saalvio mobile app and is available across Canada and the United States.
Module 3
Licensed virtual therapy with a registered clinician
Therapy at Saalvio is delivered by registered psychotherapists and registered social workers, over a secure video link, from anywhere in Ontario. Sessions are 50 minutes. We do not employ physicians, psychiatrists, or psychologists, and we do not diagnose, prescribe, or do psychiatric assessment; the work is talk therapy with regulated clinicians.
Saalvio's clinical team works across CBT, DBT, ACT, EMDR, IFS, EFT, EFCT, somatic, mindfulness-based, and trauma-focused approaches. The roster currently speaks English, Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, and Pashto; if therapy in your first language matters, our directory lets you filter by it.
Before you commit to a first session, you can message any therapist on the roster and ask whatever you need to ask. Pre-booking messaging is free, asynchronous, and has no commitment. Once you have started therapy, messaging stays open with your therapist for brief clarifications between sessions; it is not therapy by text, and it is not crisis support.
Your first session is free under the standing CANADAHEALS public health commitment. After the first session, sessions are $100 to $150 CAD per 50 minutes, set together with your therapist based on what is sustainable for you. There is no obligation to continue.
Across all three modules
Your data, your story
Privacy at Saalvio is built in three layers, one for each module. Self-help data in the Saalvio app stays on your device and on encrypted servers under your account; it is not sold and is not used to train AI. Thrive AI conversations are encrypted in transit and at rest, are not used to train models, and follow the per-jurisdiction posture documented on the Thrive AI privacy page. Therapy sessions and structured self-assessments are clinical records held to PHIPA in Ontario and PIPEDA across Canada, with HIPAA-aligned safeguards where US infrastructure is involved.
Messages between you and your therapist stay between the two of you; Saalvio staff do not read them. The same professional confidentiality that applies in a booked session applies in messaging, with the same narrow legal exceptions a regulated clinician is required to act on.
Who Saalvio is for
Licensed virtual therapy is for adults living anywhere in Ontario today. The Saalvio mobile app and Thrive AI are available across Canada and the United States. You do not need a diagnosis to book, and you do not need a referral.
Saalvio is not a crisis service. If you are in immediate danger, please call 911. If you are in mental health crisis, please call 988 (the Suicide Crisis Helpline of Canada) or visit your nearest emergency department.
See our crisis resources page for a full list of supports. If you are outside Ontario in Canada, or anywhere in the United States or elsewhere in the world where licensed Saalvio therapy is not open today, you can join the waitlist and we will let you know when it is.
What it costs
Under the standing CANADAHEALS public health commitment, every Canadian gets one year of the premium Saalvio app, free, and a free first therapy session with a Saalvio clinician. After the first session, therapy is $100 to $150 CAD per 50-minute session, set together with your therapist. We explain the full structure on the pricing page. Saalvio does not bill insurers directly; we provide a detailed receipt that is typically reimbursable under most Canadian extended health benefit plans. The insurance page covers what to expect from your provider.