yo im a big fan of therapy and encourage it a lot and dont think it should be stigmatized but im finding this fetishizing of it as a cure all very unnerving

saying “go to therapy” as a first response defense mechansim is not great. either 1. assert your own boundaries and capacity to (not) help or 2. listen and engage with empathy

it is absolutely ok to have different leves of engagements and suggest that a professional skillset might be needed to unpack things

but as a rote response and the sole response, its lacking

normalizing therapy doesnt mean forcing it onto people or turning it into a meme. it means allowing for it to be a non stigmatized activity and an option for treatment

also the act of going to therapy does not make you Good. it is not innately virtuous and it does not guarantee transformation or healing.

i also worry that some people hide behind therapy to avoid facing personal and social accountability for harm they have perpetrated, by cloaking it in “therapy is the work i am doing, i know im a mess”

in short, therapy is not restorative justice in action

nor is therapy reparations in action

its a tool with vast potential, not all positive

therapy is not inherently dismantling systems of oppression