Therapy language used to be confined to clinical settings and academic journals, but now, it crops up everywhere from TikTok captions to relationship arguments. Very few non-professionals using this language have a full, well-rounded academic understanding of the concepts they’re actually invoking. As a result of this, therapy language has quickly started to lose its original meaning. Therapy Language Weaponizes BoundariesFew therapy terms have entered popular culture as fully (or as confusingly) as boundaries have. Ironically, this dynamic undermines the very safety that therapy language is often used to protect.

Source: Forbes January 19, 2026 13:44 UTC