I’m a trauma therapist.
Recently, in a time of deep personal pain, I turned to an AI chatbot for help.
What surprised me most wasn’t the advice, but how convincingly it simulated care.
It left me thinking deeply about what AI can do… and what it can never replace.
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
We've all been warned of the dangers of using AI for "therapy." And yet, millions of users are drawn to it anyway every day. In this vulnerable personal story for HuffPost, I explore the ways it's compelling, and its limitations, too.
www.huffpost.com/entry/chatgp...
Systems rarely collapse because of villains. They endure because of normalization.
#epstein #sexualassault #patriarchy
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
Boundaries are not walls to shut others out, like a Road Closed sign. Boundaries are the dashed yellow lines in the road that show where and how you can share space without causing harm.
They don’t end the journey. They guide it.
#boundaries
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You're right though! I appreciate that thought!
The languages we protect—and the ones we silence—shape who feels safe here.
Reflections on a Spanish halftime show, multilingualism, and an angry truck driver.
#badbunny #bilingual #belonging
Understanding, preparing for, and responding to trauma triggers in the wake of #Epstein & associates news.
An optional guided meditation for grounding is included.
You are not broken. Your body's response makes sense.
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
BREAKING: The Epstein survivors are releasing this ad on this Super Bowl Sunday to send the message that they will not “move on” from the largest sex trafficking scandal in the world. #standwithsurvivors
Friendship is often treated as optional. Loneliness is treated as personal failure. Neither is true.
In these fractured times, we need community support more than ever.
#loneliness #friendship #socialconnection #communitysupport
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You're not alone!!
Self-care for mental health is not about retreat and disengagement, but fortification for continuance. Vicarious trauma feeds on a sense of helplessness. Action and engagement, therefore, are both moral imperative and resilience measures.
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
Privilege is a fact, not an insult. We must own our layers of privilege, whether innate or acquired. When we accept these truths of different lived realities, we are empowered to become allies for others.
#violenceagainstwomen
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“It’s okay, dude. I’m not mad at you.”
“Fucking bitch!”
The final exchange between Renee Good and the ICE agent who killed her reveals not only the dangerous disinhibition of power-thirsty federal agents, but the ugly undercurrent of misogyny that sweeps along and through the male lust for dominance
What are you ready to discard, and what do you want to paint into the fresh canvas of this new year?
What word can guide you forward?
Here’s what I’m opening into this year… (and a guided meditation offering for the new year recorded in my own voice).
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
On the longest night of the year, a gentle practice for meeting ourselves—and one another—with more care. This post includes a guided loving-kindness meditation you can return to anytime. open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
May you find hope.
May you feel peace.
May you be visited by joy.
And if not this season? That’s okay, too. May it come to you in time.
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
No one chooses anxiety. But often we lack awareness of how to move away from it and toward inner peace. Here are some practical tips for reducing anxiety and cultivating peace in your heart and life:
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
Reflections on HOPE: what it is, what it does for your mental health, and 5 Steps to cultivating more hope in your life.
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
Gratitude in Times of Grief
"Gratitude is not a betrayal of the dead or dismissal of the estranged, but a radical act of self-care that softens pain."
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
Politicians and pundits are rationalizing pedophilia, trying to parse child rape on a scale of terrible to acceptable. In their cultish loyalty to the leader described by the trafficker as “dangerous” they are willing to justify the unspeakable.
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
Today, for the first time in history, SNAP benefits were not disbursed as scheduled. 42 million Americans, approximately 1 in 8, will go hungry without this needed assistance.
Join me here for a discussion of 7 Psycho-Social Impacts of Chronic Hunger.
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
Join me for a discussion of how gaslighters use charm, deceip, and lies to manipulate and control - and how you can reclaim your power.
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
On 9/11 terrorists aimed a plane at the White House to reduce it to rubble, but brave Americans took the plane down in a field, sacrificing their lives. This week, the president accomplished what Al Qaïda failed to do. Utter devastation.
What's at stake in Chiles v Salazar, and why freedom of speech protections don't cover the clinical encounter.
#conversiontherapy
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
Shorter stretches of sunlight and accumulating clouds bring the threat not only of stormy skies but stormy hearts, of heightened depression risk and the return, for many, of Seasonal Affective Disorder (aptly SAD in shorthand).
For more on SAD & how you can cope:
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
It is no small thing to speak publicly.
There is little to be gained; only fear, danger, and shame await. To speak up is to sew on one’s own scarlet letter, to cast aside dignity for the cause of justice. When survivors speak, listen.
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
Having returned to their nests after arduous migrations, the swallows symbolize hope, endurance, and the return of sons from war. A Serbian saying holds promise: “When the swallow returns, new life follows.”
open.substack.com/pub/dvinall/...
This is not the way the USA was designed to operate.
www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...
Hm. It's almost as though these violent criminals shouldn't have been pardoned? 🤔
www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...
