The question is the address. The image is the message.
The system speaks two card languages, and the method lies in how they come together.
Question card — the address
It says what the conversation is about and who speaks to whom: 720 questions in three rounds of growing depth, from getting to know each other to conversations that would otherwise never begin.
Image card — the message
It carries what has no words yet. An image has no correct meaning — what you see in it is your material for the conversation. An image is always a valid answer instead of words.
Six safety principles
- Free choice. No one pressures anyone to draw or to answer.
- The right to pass. Any card may be set aside with one word — no explanation needed.
- Confidentiality. What is said at the deck stays at the deck.
- The card belongs to whoever draws it. Only they interpret their image and their answer.
- Your own words for your own body. Everyone speaks in the words they choose.
- This is a conversation, not therapy. The people in the conversation choose the depth themselves.
Six decks, one path
Each deck bears a name from ancient Greek myth — not as decoration: the myth describes the work the deck does.
The Delphi Deck
Round one: getting to know each other and warming up — a safe space for conversation and learning the language of the cards. 240 questions.
Above the entrance to the temple at Delphi stood two words: Know thyself. This deck begins exactly there.
The Aristophanes Deck
Round two: closeness and attraction — from flirting and tenderness to the threshold of sexuality.
In Plato’s Symposium, people were once whole, until they were split in two; ever since, each of us looks for our other half.
The Eros Deck
Round three: sexuality and associations — a direct, respectful conversation in the adult round.
In the earliest myths Eros is a primal force that moves all living things — not the cherub on a postcard.
The Hestia Deck
Closing cards for every session: looking back, gratitude and returning to everyday life. Recognisable by their yellow edge in any deck.
Hestia is the goddess of the hearth — by her fire every journey ends at home.
The Dionysus Deck
The couples’ module “Body to Body” — the final level of addressing, only for two and only with a mutual yes.
Dionysus is the god who enters the body; at his festivals boundaries are agreed, not crossed.
The Ariadne Deck
40 art cards for the whole system — without words or titles, so the image stays open to your own meaning.
Ariadne’s thread lets you enter the labyrinth and find your way out — the images take you where words have no path yet, and bring you back.
Every box carries three lines: SOIRAS · the deck’s name · what it does. The digital decks will be available from launch day, 23 November; the printed edition will follow, and we will announce pre-orders in our news.
Try a few cards
Samples from every deck. For the adults-only decks we show the gentler questions here — the full deck goes deeper.
The full version: 810 questions in six decks and 40 art cards. Digital decks from 23 November.
Prices
Digital decks in the app on your phone or computer. Available to buy from launch day — 23 November.
Starter pack
The Delphi Deck (240) + Hestia closing cards (30) + Ariadne art cards (40). The start of the whole system.
€10.99
Introductory price · valid until 22 December
The Aristophanes Deck
240 questions: intimacy and attraction.
€8.49
Introductory price · valid until 22 December
The Eros Deck Adults only
240 questions: sexuality and associations.
€10.99
Introductory price · valid until 22 December
The Dionysus Deck Adults only
60 cards: the couples module “Body to Body”.
€6.49
Introductory price · valid until 22 December
Full system Adults only
All six decks: 810 questions and 40 art cards.
€29.49
Introductory price · valid until 22 December
Upgrade to the full system Adults only
For Starter pack owners: the Aristophanes, Eros and Dionysus decks — with their own code.
€18.50
Introductory price · valid until 22 December
Printed box — coming soon
The cards will also come as a printed edition. When the box can be ordered, we will announce it in our news and email everyone who has signed up for news.
How buying works
- SOIRAS may only be bought by adults (aged 18 or over).
- After payment, your access code arrives by email straight away; use it to open the decks in the app on your phone or computer.
- One code works on up to two devices.
- Each purchase has its own code: one per deck, one per set.
- You can buy as a gift: the code is sent to the recipient with a gift card, or to you if you choose to give it in person.
- Payments — via Paysera; the available payment methods are shown on the payment page. Prices in euros, final. You are charged at the moment of purchase. For card payments your bank may ask you to confirm the payment (strong customer authentication, e.g. 3-D Secure); we never see or store your card details.
- We sell to buyers in the European Union. Digital decks are delivered by email immediately after payment.
- SIA «Herkules PSI» is responsible for the purchase, delivery, customer service and dispute resolution: info@soiras.com, Brīvības iela 92/94–1, Riga, LV-1001, Latvia.
- Phone and WhatsApp: +371 29440222 — as we are often outside Latvia, we reply fastest to WhatsApp messages and email; we return calls as soon as we can.
- Adults only The Eros and Dionysus decks, the full system and the upgrade are for adults only — when buying, you confirm that you are at least 18.
- Purchase terms, delivery and the right of withdrawal — in the Terms of Use and Sale.
Sample order form — sales start on 23 November
The form does not work yet. Before payment you will need to tick — without the required ticks you will not be able to buy:
How we process your data — see the Privacy Policy.
How to play
Start with the easiest questions and go deeper only when everyone at the table wants to.
- Start with the Delphi Deck. Getting-to-know-you questions — an easy start to any conversation.
- Take turns drawing cards and answering. Any card can be skipped without explanation.
- Finish with a Hestia card. It helps you look back on the conversation and return to everyday life.
When everyone is ready to go deeper:
Five ways to play
Draw blind
Draw an image card without looking and say what you see in it. A random image often helps you say what you would not choose to say.
Choose from five
Lay five images on the table and choose the one that best expresses your thought or feeling.
Ask the other
Draw a question and ask it to the other person — the one who is asked answers.
Answer with an image
When the other person has answered, reply with an image card. Two images side by side on the table are already a conversation.
Without words
For a few turns, just exchange images without speaking. Talk afterwards.
Your wellbeing
SOIRAS are conversation cards, not therapy, and they do not replace professional help. Everyone chooses what to answer — any card can be set aside, and the conversation can stop at any moment. If a conversation brings up difficulties in your relationship, or a question has left you with unpleasant or heavy feelings, we recommend contacting a couples or intimate partner therapist. If you feel unsafe or are in crisis, call 112 immediately.
For professionals and facilitators
For psychologists, therapists and group facilitators the system has a separate part of the handbook.
The handbook describes three facilitator roles and their limits, the group format, the anonymous-gallery mechanism for deeper topics and closing work with the Hestia cards.
About
Mission
To foster people’s skills in communicating with one another — by getting to know themselves more deeply and opening up more to each other.
Aim
To give people a language for the conversations that everyday life leaves without words — about closeness, intimacy and the body — so that the conversation with oneself and with another becomes more honest, safer and deeper.
Tasks
- To create a system of conversation cards of gradually increasing depth: from getting to know each other to closeness and intimacy (adults only).
- To develop question cards and combine them with Terēze Strautmane’s original art cards.
- To create an app for phone and computer that works without registration or accounts; your answers, choices and conversations stay with you — the only thing it sends to our server is an access-code check.
- To create a printed edition of the cards.
- To develop a handbook for psychologists, psychotherapists and group facilitators working with the cards.
- To create the system in Latvian, English and Russian, and later also in Spanish, German, French and Chinese.
Dr Aivis Dombrovskis
project lead; concept, question system and handbook
Psychotherapy specialist certified by the Latvian Psychotherapists Association (LPB) and psychotherapist in Europe (European Certificate of Psychotherapy, ECP); transpersonal psychotherapy specialist, clinical hypno-psychotherapist (UK), psychosexual and intimate partner therapist (COSRT, UK), certified EMDR therapist and systemic therapist working with systemic constellations in relationships, private life and business. He uses an integrative approach — hypnotherapy, EMDR, systemic phenomenology, body-oriented and transpersonal psychotherapy. Private practice in Riga and London, working with individuals, couples and groups.
He holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology (Dr. psych., Daugavpils University, 2014), as well as a bachelor’s degree in biology (Bc. biol.), a master’s degree in education (Mg. paed.) and a biology and chemistry teaching qualification (University of Latvia). For seven years he taught biology and chemistry at a boarding school, and he brings human biology, psychology and learning together in his work. From 1997 to 2001 he was director of the Gaujaslīči children’s home and shelter in Cēsis, and from 1999 to 2001 chair of the board of the Latvian Association of Heads of Children’s Social Care Institutions. Former lecturer at the University of Latvia, Rīga Stradiņš University and RPIVA, teaching psychological counselling, introduction to psychotherapy, neurobiology, psychophysiology, the biological foundations of the psyche, pathopsychology and work with psychological groups; at RSU he designed and led the course “Sex. Gender. Sexuality.”; he has also given lectures and seminars for teachers, doctors, psychologists, psychotherapists and psychotherapy specialists.
Author of research papers on human identity, family relationships, human sexuality, and questions of sex and gender identity, and now works as an independent researcher. He has studied the link between feminist identity and the family, presented his research at international conferences in Greece, Spain, Sweden and Turkey, and served as an elected expert in psychology of the Latvian Council of Science (2017–2020). Author and co-author of books (including Cilvēks ģimenē – A Person in the Family, Jumava, 2012) and author of forewords to many books. He has completed the manuscript of a popular-science book, Dzimums. Dzimte. Seksualitāte. (Sex. Gender. Sexuality.), in two parts: “Sex, Identity and Gender Identity” and “Sexuality”. From 2010 to 2013 he hosted the LTV1 programme Šeit un tagad (Here and Now), and he has appeared as a psychology and psychotherapy expert on LTV, LNT, TV3, TV5 and TV24. Founder and chair of the board of the Latvian Hypno-Psychotherapy Association (since 2008).
The idea came from his practice: again and again he sees that at the root of many problems — within people and between them — lies communication. When we do not know ourselves, there is no real conversation with ourselves, and so no honest conversation with another person either. SOIRAS is a way to begin both. These conversations go deeper than everyday talk: it was his experience as a psychosexual psychotherapist in the UK that encouraged him to speak about what lies below the waist as well — because that, too, is part of every person. The system rests on the tradition of projective methods and more than twenty years of practice.
Terēze Strautmane
art
Terēze Strautmane is a Latvian visual artist, curator and educator whose practice encompasses illustration, painting, ceramics and experiential installation.
Born in Riga, she has developed an international practice across Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and North America. She holds an MFA in Illustration from the University of Hartford and a BFA in Visual and Plastic Arts from the Art Academy of Latvia.
Her work explores symbolism, human consciousness, and the relationships between body, space and environment. She has exhibited internationally since 1999, with presentations in Mexico, Latvia, the United States, Russia, Sweden, France, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, including the Illustrators Wall at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (2021), the CPSA Annual International Exhibition (2016), and solo exhibitions including World of Dreams in Riga and Xalapa (2001) and Ibara at Cherado Gallery in Riga (2006).
For almost a decade, Terēze taught in the Visual Communication Department at Dar Al-Hekma University in Jeddah. Between 2021 and 2025, she was a core team member at Nuanu Creative City in Bali, serving as Art Director and art movement leader. She helped develop and led the Art Village and Aurora Media Park, directed and produced Suara Festival from 2022 to 2024, and organized artist residencies and open calls.
For the past three years, Terēze has been deeply engaged in somatic dance practices, exploring the connections between movement, emotion and self-expression. She also leads individual and group art-based self-discovery sessions. Her interest in self-discovery and meaningful connection informs her work with SOIRAS cards, which invite people to pause, listen and open up through conversation.
Her signature style — symmetrical figures woven from thousands of threads — is the deck’s second language. Every image is an original work created for this system.
The associative card images, deck card backs, logo and design elements on this page are original works by Terēze Strautmane. Publisher: SIA «Herkules PSI», Riga.