Mental health language—terms like triggered, trauma, and boundaries—is no longer limited to therapy sessions or academic journals. Today, these words are all over social media, podcasts, and workplace conversations.
Dr. Shauna “Doc” Springer sees this as both a step forward and a potential pitfall.
The Upside: Breaking Stigma & Building Understanding
When therapeutic language becomes part of everyday conversation, it can:
Reduce stigma around mental health struggles.
Encourage people to seek help earlier.
Give us a shared vocabulary to describe feelings, needs, and limits.
Improve self-advocacy by helping us express where we stand and what we need.
In high-stakes professions—where stress, trauma, and burnout are common—having the words to articulate what’s happening inside can make the difference between silent suffering and getting timely support.
The Downside: When Words Become Weapons
The danger comes when therapy terms are misused, overused, or weaponized. Examples include:
Avoiding accountability: “I can’t talk about this because I’m triggered.”
Controlling a conversation: using boundaries as a way to shut down dialogue entirely.
Labeling disagreements as “toxic” to avoid working through conflict.
While these phrases can be valid in the right context, misapplying them can block resolution, harm trust, and create emotional distance.
The Real Goal: Emotionally Safe Relationships
Doc Springer stresses that the point of this shared vocabulary is to build bridges, not walls. Emotionally safe relationships are not free of conflict—they are marked by:
Honest, respectful conversations
Willingness to own our part when things go wrong
Using therapeutic terms to clarify and connect, not to control or escape
When therapy language is used with mutual respect and responsibility, it fosters deeper connection, greater understanding, and lasting trust.
Why This Matters in High-Stakes Professions
For public safety, military, healthcare, and other high-stress careers, clear and honest communication is a lifeline. Misusing therapy speak can fracture teams, erode trust, and undermine the peer support systems that keep people mentally healthy. Using it well can deepen trust and make it safer to bring real struggles forward.
Call to Action
This week, in one conversation:
Use one mental health term (triggered, boundary, trauma, self-care, etc.) with the intention of building connection.
Follow it up with ownership—explain your perspective and invite the other person to share theirs.
Ask yourself: “Am I using these words as a bridge or as a shield?”
Works Cited
Kashdan, Todd B., et al. “Curiosity protects against interpersonal aggression: Cross-sectional, daily process, and behavioral evidence.” Journal of Personality, vol. 87, no. 3, 2019, pp. 530–546.
Tannen, Deborah. You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation. Ballantine Books, 2001.