They Walked Through Silence, Nails, and Rejection to Change the Way the World Talks to Itself: The Story of Selftalk
By
Jul 17, 2025
It didn’t start with a product. It began during the COVID-19 pandemic when the world paused long enough for people to look inward. But with that stillness came confusion, questions, and few accessible answers. Therapy was expensive and often hard to reach. Elena Oprea and Viorica Vanica began searching for alternatives.
Ten days of silence. Water fasting. Deep self-inquiry. These weren’t trends, they were survival tools. Slowly, they became part of a transformative process of self-reflection.
What began in Moldova grew to London, Silicon Valley, and back again not through hype, but through genuine healing. This isn’t your average startup story. It’s the unfiltered, radically human journey of Elena and Viorica, co-founders of Selftalk, the app helping people rethink how they engage with their inner dialogue.
Forget affirmations. Forget sugar-coated advice. Selftalk is built for those overwhelmed by their thoughts, stuck in emotional patterns, or unraveling from breakups. It’s built for real life, because that’s what these two women lived through before they built a single line of code.
From Burnout to Breakthroughs: Elena’s Origin Story
Born in Moldova, Elena Oprea dreamed big. As a teenager, she soaked up Gary Vee’s motivational videos. After university, she followed his advice to launch a marketing agency. But something felt off. The hustle made money, but lacked meaning. After six months, Elena started questioning everything.
She packed her bags and moved to London.
In London, Elena landed a job as a venture manager at Innovify, participating in design thinking sprints for successful startups. Despite her "dream job," she still felt empty. Behind the emails and pitch decks, Elena’s inner world was unbalanced.
One evening, she met a therapist who quoted £250 for a session. Elena chose not to book but thought, “I’ll learn it myself.”
Therapy, after all, is a skill for life. Elena enrolled in a year-long training program with Marisa Peer, a world-renowned hypnotherapist. Through RTT, Elena began healing herself, rewiring how she thought, felt, and led.
That’s when the lightbulb went off: What if therapy’s essence, emotional insight, grounded perspective could be more accessible? What if there were a way to hear what a therapist would say, right when you need it most?
That thought became the seed for Selftalk.
Ten Days. No Talking. And a Startup Was Born.
In August 2021, Elena checked into a Vipassana retreat, a 10-day silent meditation near London. No talking, no phones, no journaling just her, her breath, and her thoughts.
By day seven, Elena’s mind was opening in unexpected ways. She saw patterns she hadn’t noticed before and heard her inner dialogue with new clarity. It was then she made a decision: “It’s now or never. I’m building this app.”
Returning home, Elena raised £20,000 from angel investors in two weeks and made one call that changed everything. This marked the beginning of something extraordinary.
Viorica Vanica: A Mirror, A Journal, and a Lineage of Pain
Viorica’s journey to Selftalk was equally transformative. A connector at heart, Viorica had lived in and traveled to over 30 countries since leaving home at 19. But wherever she went, she ran into the same challenge:
“I couldn’t escape myself.”
After her fourth breakup each eerily similar despite different partners Viorica asked herself:
“Is it really them? Or is it me?”
Instead of jumping into another relationship or burying herself in work, Viorica turned inward. She created a custom journal filled with deep, reflective questions and gave it to her mother, asking her to write as if she were speaking to herself.
When Viorica read it, she cried. She saw her mother not just as “Mom,” but as a woman with untold stories. In her mother's words, Viorica heard her own inner voice.
This realization sparked Viorica’s passion for understanding transgenerational trauma, dysfunctional thinking, and the inner narrative that shapes how we feel, behave, and self-sabotage. She dove into family therapy and psychosomatic research. It changed everything.
When Elena asked Viorica to co-build Selftalk, she didn’t hesitate. Together, they began building something that would change how people communicate with themselves.
The First 100 Audios: Proof in the Pain
Without a product, no code, and barely a prototype, Elena and Viorica recorded their first audio sessions by hand. They created personalized psychoeducation audio responses a therapist might give to their concerns.
By the 50th audio, feedback was pouring in:
“I cried the whole way through.”
“I didn’t know I needed this.”
“Can I share this with my sister?”
They began selling the audios prices ranging from $9 to $79 and earned over $1,700 in early traction. More importantly, they realized just how scalable their idea could be.
Then came the call from Silicon Valley.
Tim Draper, a Unicorn, and a Fork in the Road
They won a competitive scholarship to attend a prestigious pre-accelerator program hosted by billionaire Tim Draper. There, they connected with venture capitalists and participated in B2B pilot tests, gaining valuable insights.
But instead of staying in Silicon Valley, they chose a different path.
They returned to Moldova, moved back into their childhood homes, and launched a bootstrapped B2C version of the app. No ad budget. No PR. No paid marketing. Just two visionary women with a meaningful mission and a product that would change everything.
Selftalk Today: Your Inner Voice, Rewritten
Today, the app is live on iOS and Android.. It helps users through self-therapy and self-coaching journeys, allowing them to work through personal challenges at their own pace. The content is designed by licensed therapists and grounded in principles of:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Ontology and Narrative Psychology
The lived experience of the founders and their team
Selftalk doesn’t promise to “fix” anyone. Instead, it helps users see themselves differently, shifting their inner dialogue while focusing on their values and commitments. It encourages users to identify emotional patterns, regulate thoughts, and practice healthier perspectives.
Selftalk has grown organically, resonating with those seeking deeper emotional connection. As Viorica says:
“People come for the tools, but they stay for the feeling of being seen.”
The Book: Nothing Else But the Truth
Their book, Self-talk: The Science and Practice of Creating Peace of Mind, serves as an emotional companion to the app. A blend of science, story, and healing, it takes a brutally honest look at what it means to do the work of emotional healing.
Available on Amazon, it’s not just a casual read it’s a reckoning.
The Road Ahead: 1 Million Journeys by 2026
Elena and Viorica have an ambitious goal: 1 million self-therapy journeys by 2026. They are building a human-first, AI-enhanced coaching model that keeps emotional transformation accessible and grounded.
They’re also developing group therapy journeys, anonymous healing spaces, and embedding Selftalk into workplace culture through the SMART Work Design model a post-COVID framework for organizational well-being.
But their biggest dream?
“That emotional hygiene becomes as normal as brushing your teeth.”
Try the App:
→ iOS: Selftalk on App Store
→ Android: Selftalk on Google Play
→ Website: selftalk.space
Follow the Founders:
For media inquiries, interviews, and features:
📩 support@selftalk.space
If you’ve ever wondered what healing sounds like… It sounds like two women whispering back your worth until you believe it for yourself.
