Recovery from Therapy Speak: What Jonah Hill Can Teach us About "Boundaries"

Amanda discsusses the Jonah Hill texts that went viral this past weekend and how it demonstrates a broader issue with people not understanding what boundaries are and weaponizing therapy language. She gets into how we lack nuance and default to all or nothing thinking and how this hurts our close relationships. She breaks down what boundaries are and the differences between boundaries, demands and requests. She breaks down the 6 different boundary types and examples for them all. Finally, she discusses how she believes Jonah Hill could have approached this conversation if these truly were the things he needed in a relationship.

Obviously this is an incredibly nuanced topic. I am not going into who was right or wrong and I don't think we have enough context to call someone a narcissist so please understand this episode is about what this situation can teach us and the broader issues with therapy speak and therapists on social media.

Resources listed:

Bustle Article on Therapy Speak: https://www.bustle.com/wellness/is-therapy-speak-making-us-selfish;

NBC article about Jonah Hill and therapy speak: https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/jonah-hill-texts-show-harms-social-media-therapy-speak-relationships-rcna93507;

Vanity Fair article on Therapy Speak: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2023/06/esther-perel-amateur-therapy-speak

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