Solace
Building a New Layer of Support for Grief

Grief is usually associated with bereavement, but loss has a wider vocabulary. Sometimes something simply feels different, heavy or wrong, without a person having the language to call it grief. That creates a gap before support can begin.

About a third of conversations with Solace’s grief coach start without users clearly identifying their loss. Sarah Gwilliam, founder of Solace, sees this as part of a broader problem. People experience forms of loss that existing systems do not always recognize, leaving them to make sense of those experiences largely on their own.

Solace is a digital grief-support platform that provides individuals with a private place to talk through loss with an AIguided grief coach, along with tools for reflection, journaling and remembrance. Available directly to individuals, the platform is also designed to work alongside support offered by healthcare providers, hospices, employers and other organizations, extending support into the time between appointments, groups and human conversations.

Solace did not begin by asking how artificial intelligence could be made to sound human. It began with a different question. “The question wasn’t how do we make AI sound human. It was how do we build a good grief coach?” says Gwilliam. The answer was not a predefined path through grief, but space for people to describe what they are experiencing.

Curiosity over Certainty

Solace personalizes support by listening, reflecting and validating while asking thoughtful questions rather than deciding what a person’s loss means or how they should feel. Relief can exist alongside guilt, anger alongside sadness and emotions that do not fit familiar ideas of grief. The coach follows the person rather than assigning their experience to a category.

Grief also changes over time. What someone needs immediately after a loss may differ from what they need later. Solace retains relevant context so users do not have to repeatedly explain the same relationship or experience, allowing the coach to respond to where someone is.

That context also connects the platform’s tools. Within provides journaling prompts, including those shaped by conversations with the coach. Honor helps users gather stories and memories into a tribute in a tone they choose. Daily Check-ins offer another way to engage. Together, these tools give people different ways to engage with their grief depending on what they need that day.

More than 1,200 conversations have shaped Solace’s understanding of those needs. People often arrive seeking validation before they know exactly what they need, asking whether what they are feeling makes sense or whether it is grief. Many do not initially have the language to describe their loss. Privacy can give them room to say things they have not yet been able to say aloud.

Rehearsal Space

Gwilliam describes Solace as a “rehearsal space” where people can put difficult experiences into words before taking them into relationships or professional settings. Some use it to prepare for therapy sessions. Its role is to help people find the language and confidence for those conversations.

That also defines Solace’s boundaries. It is coaching, not therapy. It does not diagnose, provide crisis care or position AI as a human companion. Conversations are treated as private, and users retain control of their information. When appropriate, the coach can encourage users to build relationships and access professional resources.

For organizations, Solace can extend support between appointments, groups and conversations without replacing the people already providing care. A hospice might offer it alongside a bereavement program, while healthcare organizations can support patients and caregivers navigating diagnosis, anticipatory grief or major life change. Employers can offer an additional layer of support beyond bereavement leave without building an entirely new support team.

The opportunity is not to substitute human connection, but to make support easier to access. By combining AI-guided grief coaching, reflection tools and clear boundaries, Solace is building a new layer of support for people who may not yet have the words for what they are grieving.