The Instagram Therapy Trap

THE POP PSYCHOLOGY PROBLEM

- BY RIHAAB MOWLANA

You don't need to scroll far to see it. Toxic, triggered, gaslighting, boundaries; the vocabulary of psychology is everywhere, from captions to conversations. We're fluent in therapy-speak without ever stepping into therapy. The words are meant to signal growth and self-awareness, but more often than not, they sound borrowed, flattened, and overused. And nowhere did this hit me harder than when a student recently explained why she hadn't submitted her assignment.

She didn't talk about stress, deadlines, or even forgetting. Instead, she spoke about “protecting her peace”, “managing her nervous system”, and not having “the emotional capacity to engage”. She hadn't done the work, but she'd fully processed not doing it.

It wasn't evasive; it was polished self-awareness. But the phrasing felt lifted straight out of an Instagram post.

When I shared that moment on social media, the response surprised me. The comments were full of recognition, discomfort, even defensiveness. Clearly, this wasn't just about one student; it was about how all of us have started talking. And that conversation online made one thing clear: this deserved a closer look.

How Therapy-Speak Escaped the Therapy Room

This isn’t the first time psychology has seeped into popular culture. In the 1960s, terms like "complex" and "repression" filtered into everyday speech, even among those who had never read Freud. In the 1990s, talk shows and self-help books mainstreamed therapy culture. Oprah championed the language of healing long before Instagram existed.

But social media has accelerated the process. Where once these terms trickled in through books or television, today they flood through Reels, TikToks, and carousel posts. Vocabulary that once belonged in therapy rooms now circulates in bite-sized, aesthetic chunks designed for sharing.