Good Bones: Taking Inventory
We spend so much time focusing on what we've lost that we rarely stop to ask what survived. And once we find those pieces, another question quietly follows: Does this still belong? Episodes 6 and 7 explore the inventory we take after life's hardest seasons.
Healing Changed the Questions I Asked
Healing isn’t just about understanding your story. It’s about learning what is yours to carry and what isn’t. In this week’s Good Bones reflection, I explore the questions that transformed my understanding of grief, boundaries, and responsibility.
A Short Fuse
If you met Susie, one of the first things you might learn is that she is proud of her short fuse. She says it like a warning and a badge of honor. She does not let people push her around. She does not wait quietly when something is wrong. She speaks up, demands answers, and usually gets what she came for.
In some situations, that can look like a superpower. Susie gets the answer, the apology, the table moved, the bill corrected, the phone call returned, or the problem handled while everyone else is still deciding whether they should say something. But the same thing that gets Susie results also costs her.
The Problem With Making AI Your Therapist
There is another difference between bringing your pain to a therapist and bringing it to an AI tool. Therapy has a container. That container includes ethics, training, confidentiality, HIPAA privacy protections, legal responsibilities, professional standards, and clear boundaries around the relationship.
Confidentiality is not absolute. There are limits, including situations involving safety, abuse or neglect reporting, court orders, or other legally required disclosures. But those limits are part of a known professional and legal structure. A therapist is responsible for explaining those limits and protecting the client’s privacy within them.
AI does not offer that same therapeutic container. When you type the most private parts of your story into a digital tool, you are placing them inside a technology system. That system may have privacy protections, data controls, and security measures, but it is still not the same as sitting in a confidential therapy office with a licensed professional.