Therapy Uncomplicated: The Blog

In November 2025, the American Psychological Association issued a health advisory on using AI chatbots and wellness applications for mental health. The original statement can be accessed here . This is an opinion piece in response to the recent concerns of AI therapy and mentions the topic of suicide. The stories highlighted in this post aim to bring awareness and thoughtfulness to the tragedies and concerns of AI technology. “See You on the Other Side, Spaceman” ChatGPT made

No, It Is Just in My Head Jun is a Mandarin speaking Chinese American man in his 40s living in San Francisco, California. He arrived at a local mental health clinic wanting to do something about his insomnia, lack of motivation, and body pain. He originally requested a female therapist, but since the facility didn’t have any openings from its female clinicians, he ended up seeing a male therapist who also happened to be of Chinese descent.  During the first session, the thera

A Story Behind Window Blinds Kwanjai, is a woman of Thai heritage in her mid-20s living alone in an apartment in the city of Denver, Colorado. While pursuing a Masters of Nutrition degree at a local university, she was always known for her extroverted “happy-go-lucky” personality amongst her colleagues. In the winter of 2019 when the COVID pandemic first became a health concern in the US, the initial public reaction was a mixture of confusion, denial, and fear. Amongst people

Trigger Warning: This vignette contains descriptions of sexual trauma. Discretion is advised. Click HERE if you wish to skip to the rest of the content. A Story of Bad Romance A friend was telling me about his recent experience shopping at IKEA while we were sharing a meal at his place. The story he would tell me was full of tension and drama. A year ago, he met a woman at an art night at a local brewery. He is an average-looking guy whose had some trouble with dating for ye

A Sincere Offering From a Trauma Therapist In the discussion of mental health, “trauma” is a big word for many. It often conjures feelings of fear, curiosity, of being overwhelmed, even being puzzled .  In the second half of 2025 through the beginning of 2026, I am presenting a six-part blog series covering trauma in an educational but relatively straightforward approach. The information presented is based on evidence-backed research, as well as my own personal and profession

On January 21st, 2025, a day after the inauguration of Donald Trump, the Episcopal bishop of Washington D.C., Mariann Edgar Budde, led a prayer service at the National Cathedral. During her sermon, she asked for “mercy … to the gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families, some who fear for their lives”. Further, she asked to extend mercy to “the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings”, “labor in poultry farms and

“You Have to Love Yourself First”, They Say. One night,   I was in a car with my friend, driving around town on a cold winter evening. The sky was dark, and the street was lined with wet, slushy, gray snow. I knew this friend before I moved to Colorado - We first met in California in a mindfulness and meditation community. He left California before me to pursue a romantic relationship. When I decided to come to the mountain state for a new career, he helped me get settled in

This post is part of a series. It is highly recommended that you start from Blog #6, Loneliness Part 1: Our World is Run on Relationships. A Personal Story I am going to be vulnerable and share an incredible personal story with you. When I was around three years old, my parents and I lived in an eight-hundred sq. feet high-rise apartment in Hong Kong. My dad led a small team of network engineers working night shifts in a hospital, so oftentimes I didn’t get to see him in the

This is the second of the two posts aiming to respond to the mental health concerns relating to the 2024 election of the United States. Discussing with our co-host, Dylan, in which he mentioned there have been numerous reports to hotlines of emotional distress,  this post focuses on a sub-topic of abuse and survivorship. We will continue to explore loneliness in post #9. Election 2024 and the Topic of Abuse In the wake of the 2024 election many of us were left in shock and di

In this and the following post, we are bringing you two posts focusing on current events. Posts in the “Focal Point” series are short takes on things with specific aims. This time, we are responding to the mental health concerns relating to the recent election of the United States with two posts highlighting distresses that have arisen for many after November 5th - one about anticipatory grief and the other one about the topic of abuse and survivorship. We will continue to ex

In this series of posts, we are going to explore the topic of loneliness. Loneliness has been the scourge of our modern age—creating mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and feelings of isolation. Loneliness creates rifts in our communities, fuels addictions, and sometimes drives people to extreme violence.  Loneliness is a complex phenomenon. In order to understand this topic, we have to explore parts of our psyche. We feel lonely often as emotional distress as

Picture in front of you an image of a healthy person. What do you see? Do you see someone you know? Does that person have a  particular “vibe”? Do they fit into certain health and wellness stereotypes—lean, muscular, good-looking? Are they of a certain height? Body type? What emotions are they displaying? Lastly, does this image inspire you Do you feel Joy? Content? Or do you feel jealous? Guilty? Ashamed? Sad? A lot of us are constantly being bombarded by ideas of what healt

In the last post, we explored the idea of how anger protects us from danger and  yucky  emotions—feelings we learned to dislike since childhood. We also know anger starts physiologically as bodily sensations.  In our last discussion about anger, we will be talking about how our body instinctively wants to release anger .  Nervous System Instincts A lot of our feelings and behaviors are set responses, and the experience of anger and aggression is often part of a bigger process

In the last post, we covered the whys  of anger – the reasons anger exists, its protective function and the purposes it serves. As we dive deeper into the different aspects of anger, I want you, our reader, to become curious about how this content applies to your personal experience, and notice what stories, emotions, and feelings this brings up for you. The Difference between Anger and Aggression: A few years ago, I was working with a client who never seemed to be able to ge

A Story in Middle School about Anger When I was in middle school, other kids would bully me. One time during lunch, I was standing in line, minding my own business, when out of nowhere, three of my classmates shoved their way to the front of me. They stood shoulder to shoulder, blocking me. My eyebrows furrowed in irritation, as anger started to bubble within, rising up my spine. I wanted them to stop messing with me— I couldn’t let them get away from this. I knew I needed to

A client once told me mental health is   too complicated to understand. There’s so   much information available, it’s hard to figure out what to believe. I told them that while it may be confusing to navigate, what they need  isn’t necessarily to know everything there is about the psyche. The focus  is always  going to be on how to have the wellness you deserve. What can be helpful are methods and perspectives to make them feel better. I remember them nodding in agreement, bu