AI is changing the way people think about their mental health. It is now possible to describe your struggles, your relationships, and the patterns you keep finding yourself in, and within minutes be given a surprisingly coherent explanation of what might be going on. In some ways, that can be genuinely helpful. It can put words to something that has felt confusing for a long time. It can help a person begin to reflect on themselves differently. It can even point towards patterns they had not...

A portrayal is a structured way of expressing unresolved feelings that are driving psychological symptoms in the present. When feelings from earlier relationships were too overwhelming, too dangerous, or too painful to experience fully at the time, they don’t just disappear. They get defended against. They get redirected. They get turned inward. And often, they show up later in ways such as anxiety, self-criticism, depression, relational difficulties, or a persistent sense of being stuck. A...

Most people don’t start looking for therapy because they’ve neatly named the problem. It’s usually more like: something doesn’t feel right. You might be getting on with life on the outside, but inside there’s a sense of strain. Anxiety that keeps returning. The same relationship situations playing out again. Or that frustrating gap between understanding yourself and actually feeling different. I’m Ben Jones, a BACP-accredited psychotherapist. I’m based in Nottingham and I work online with...