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Blog
Blog | Table of Contents
My blog expresses my current journey as a therapist and mental health provider from a more personal perspective. Although these opinions may be informed by clinical experiences, please be aware that they are still opinion pieces should not be taken as not medical advice. Advicing in this manner can only occur in a collaborative format where there is consent from both parties such as in a psychotherapy appointment.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Useful prompts - Upcoming Environmental impact of AI - Upcoming
Thoughts on Using AI "for therapy" Reviewed and Revised: February 2025 Since the summer of 2024, I have been using the paid version of ChatGPT (the most popular and arguably leading AI for the general public via phone app or internet browser) not as a tool for increased efficiency and productivity and not even as an enhanced search engine, but as an entity in learning more about myself and processing information I recently learned from the mundane to the significantly meaningful. I have found it has real therapeutic value speaking as a therapist, and I have referred current clients to try it out for themselves between our sessions. There is a free version available although I cannot speak to the current differences from the paid version I use. I highly recommend reading the privacy policy to make an informed decision of how you want to use ChatGPT or what you'd like to share with it: openai.com/policies/row-privacy-policy/ Privacy is always a concern using any platform although I have found between random data leaks from major corporations even the ones who are supposed to be "HIPAA compliant" or for medical use, and the cultural shift for younger generations towards more transparency and acceptance of complex human nature, the need for privacy has been decreasing for even the most intimate details of life. There is also a sense of safety in numbers. This said, as a licensed therapist committed to my clients' confidentiality, I have recommendations to reduce prviacy concerns informed by my experience consulting with other licensed medical providers to protect client or patient confidentiality. When sharing information with ChatGPT, you may omit or change any identifying information to increase your privacy. This is information that can be traced back to any person or any context. It can include name, location, date, and really any specific or unique factual information. For example: "Today before Thanksgiving while I was out to lunch at Kerbey Lane, problems with my spouse, Jane Xyz Doe reminded me of my PTSD with my mom. Growing up my mom would..." can be turned into "Recently problems within an important relationship reminded me of trauma with a caregiver growing up. This caregiver would..." Why would one share such details or anything one would process with a therapist with an AI or ChatGPT? I have found this is due to ChatGPT's accessibility and convenience at any hour of the day when my or your therapist is not available or chooses not to be available. ChatGPT also has been trained and exposed to collective human experiences and works to provide a fairly balanced perspective on what you are sharing with the right "prompting" (more on this later) and with your understanding of its potential biases and limitations based on the data it is trained on. An AI "perspective" may be helpful in learning more about yourself and the situation in a way that is validating and more expansive. It does, however, still cannot challenge your pre-existing perspectives well that you hold deeply. Therefore, ChatGPT definitely does not replace a skilled and perceptive human therapist that you have formed a longer term therapeutic relationship with and this is speaking not only as a therapist myself but also as a client. ChatGPT can still make mistakes or provide misguided feedback due to its limitations that can affect your decisions and therefore real world circumstances especially if you are not familiar with using AI. It can also lose important nuances specific to any person and context that a human being is more capable of holding through the nature of living in the physical and social world. So my opinion on using AI "for therapy" is simply: Try it out for its therapeutic value if you have an active therapist (one that you see at least every two weeks) or are not currently struggling with mental health symptoms that risks safety and health decompensation. When in doubt, establish consistent therapy with a licensed therapist first, and talk to ChatGPT as a well meaning acquaintance. Any feedback or advice you receive from it should be taken with a large grain of salt.
Climate Change
What to do with climate change anxiety Written: December 29, 2024 With the consumerist culture still running rampant in the holiday season in 2024 amidst more extreme weather patterns in recent years with higher temperatures and droughts here in Texas, and weakened jet streams that create stronger polar vortexes leading to an increase in freezes in the American midwest, I found myself seeking an update on the state of human intervention with climate change. Noticing that many still purchase a lot of plastic in their daily lives with their decor and in their gifts, and many traveling far distances by plane for holiday without feedback from others to be sparing in this shows a glimpse that we as a society are not psychologically equipped to reduce carbon emissions to the needed levels of turning climate change around and if this does occur the effects will not be felt for many decades conservatively. The most realistic hope climate change experts have is for us is to still slow it down as best we can to reduce as much human suffering from climate change at least in the near future. I noticed my anxiety rise as I consumed updated information on climate change even with the innovations that many are coming up with to reduce emissions. This stems from being a believer in holistic interventions and slow, but steady lifestyle changes versus large and quick, but unstable changes. With my training as a therapist, I know that anxiety is a signal much like pain to act... to take my hand out of a fire. However, too much pain and too much fire leads to paralysis and failure to improve my circumstance and health. I have taken a break from watching climate change updates and I am taking some time to reflect such as through writing this entry. Experiencing and being able to sit with and tolerate the anxiety and stress about climate change is a positive for myself and others because it means we are further along in enacting change than those who cannot sit with and tolerate it and so may go into defense mechanisms without agency. Meaning without knowing it, go into and be trapped in experiences such as denial, “this is not a problem” and worse, displacement, “I feel awful knowing this so climate change is not the problem... It’s the people who think it’s a problem.” After some time away from the fire: the very real present impacts of people being displaced from their homes and communities, and reduction of necessary resources such as food and water along with the probable projections of this worsening in the future due to our present behaviors, I am able to be more present and regulate my nervous system. This allows me to act with my prefrontal cortex online while still feeling a call to action in my body. The conclusion I have come to is to be honest with myself about the realistic steps I can take based on my real capacity with time, energy, and awareness, and this is what I will support for others including my clients. It is unhelpful to have delusional grandiosity that we can force change onto ourselves and others that simply does not make sense for the complex context we find ourselves and others in, and it also is unhelpful to swing the other direction which is delusional inferiority in that we have no part to play in this at all. The truth and the guiding wisdom is interconnectedness. The small steps we act on and create in our daily lives even moment by moment have ripple effects through time even when we cannot see its effect. Some small steps or interventions to take that may be realistic for myself this coming year and maybe for others as well: Make it a priority to reduce the use of or reuse plastic such as with shopping bags and other containers. Be mindful of trips that require flights and prioritize personal meaning versus following the statue quo. Considering shorter distance and longer trips in term of time versus short weekend trips over a further distance, so there is a reduction in plane carbon emissions. Shop your closet and storage in your home through organizing what you have. For some reason when I think about giving something away I suddenly remember or recognize future uses for it. This has an impact on fast fashion, trendy items, and the immense impact it has on the environment. Eat less meat and animal product, and lean on other sources of protein. It is not realistic for myself personally to become a vegetarian or vegan or to source all my meat products locally. The impact of animal farms is a growing serious issue on the environment. Letting the natural environment take over my yard. This is in consideration of the drought in my area. Finding beauty in natural growth and not seeing it as weeds, and letting go of non-local plants and potentially replacing them with local and drought resistant plants for the local ecosystem. On my mind, but is a challenge: Shop locally and from second hand places when possible. By locally I mean finding stores that source their materials and goods from places nearby to reduce the carbon footprint of transportation. Through buying second hand, we are reducing the creation and waste of nonrecyclable material such as plastic, and also reducing environmentally destructive mass production. This is a challenge for me due to time with it being so convenient to buy a specific items I need new and online, and struggling to make time for meal prepping and cooking consistently. Although as I consider this now, it feels more realistic to do the research in the near future. There are many more steps and interventions to consider, but I’ll pause here for now.
Decolonizing and Indigenizing
Non-attachment... now what? 12/29 - in-progress. The notes below are not yet an organized written entry Progression towards stewardship and nurturing what we do not own. This creating a life giving experience from within and with others. I have noticed being too detached can easily lead to an almost depressed kind of experience. I do not consider myself a buddhist, but have come across concepts from buddhism throughout my life such as the idea of solo or easy enlightenment and the existence of the pratyekabuddha and how this is considered by some as a non-buddha or lesser buddha due to them not teaching or spreading enlightment onto others. Personally, I have not internalized the concept and path of enlightenment, and am still more organically drawn to psychologists, Abraham Maslow's and Scott Barry Kaufman's "self-actualization" as a western trained psychotherapist and mental health care provider. Self-actualization is a fluid state of security, authenticity, and creativity that may be experienced as both peaceful and inspiring for the person, and I'm considering if we adapt this on a community level... with others. I recently came across the concept of community self-actualization through Darcia Narvaez's short presentation during the Maternal Gift Economy conference which was moderated by Letecia Layson who I was connected with through the Center for Babayalan Studies. On my own, through my training in NARM which introduced me to prioritize my own and others' agency and my self-led exploration on intergenerational trauma within my specific ethnic community and culture, I had been considering more often community agency. So I now hold community agency and community self-actualization together, and exploring how these are in relationship. To be continued.
The Illusion of Ownership Written: November 25, 2024 Since starting private practice, I have missed the feeling of working through challenges as part of a team. From 2016 to 2020, I worked in psychiatric hospitals, and before that, I interned at a recovery center. These experiences led to periodic joy and fulfillment specific to team collaboration which led me to seek out communities outside of a workplace after I began working independently. In 2021, I found the NARM (NeuroAffective Relational Model) community. In 2023, Kasamahan. And in 2024, the Center for Babaylan Studies. Each time, I found myself drawn to communities that I felt could walk with me or provide guidance with present discoveries, and once I felt that connection, I acted decisively, often going above and beyond what others might expect. I realize now that this has been my way of trying to secure a place for myself, as though planting a flag in borrowed soil. Yet, despite my best efforts, the truth remains: that soil never becomes mine. When my contributions or "claims" in a community are overlooked such as when my perspectives aren’t sought, or when others act without consulting me, it can feel as though something is being taken from me. But this reaction itself carries a contradiction. By feeling something is "mine to share" or "mine to lose," I perpetuate a colonial mindset, the very thing I wish to undo and grow from. To decolonize and indigenize means to let go of the illusion of ownership. It means recognizing that nothing… not a community, a relationship, or even our own work, can truly belong to us. This realization brings grief, a loss of the false belief that something could ever be "mine." It also brings freedom in letting go of what we’ve carried so tightly. To allow work, relationships, communities to evolve naturally based on natural shifts in wants and needs, even if they grow into something unrecognizable or are forgotten entirely. All we ever truly have is the ability to borrow or hold onto something for a time, and recognizing this can free us from the burdens of having such as tending, maintaining, carrying, and defending. In letting go, we might discover we can travel lighter than we ever believed. I find myself considering the people I have been in community with all along individually and in small groups, even before I made my way to these larger communities and how light they felt as to often forget they are there. Perhaps there is wisdom in knowing that we can be at home wherever we go, for the closest thing we have to ownership is ourselves and the ability to act in the present moment. Even that is borrowed, but for what feels like a long time, as it encompasses the entirety of our consciousness. On a lighter note, this realization offers clarity. It allows us to wander freely, knowing we can return or not return to what we once claimed with less concern of the ways it changes. Knowing everything can only be borrowed or held for a time may also let us simply be present and appreciate what is sacred and free in front of us, knowing it will never truly belong to us or to anyone else.
Life Cycle
Parenting or being a steward of young people - Upcoming Common mental health challenges through the life stages - Upcoming