02/08/2026
GREAT info on the dangers of social media “therapy speak.”
⚖️🧠 The Problem With “Therapy-Speak” Memes — And Why They Are Damaging Families
Social media is saturated with memes and posts encouraging people to “cut off” parents, family members, and loved ones in the name of healing, boundaries, or self-care. These messages are often packaged as psychological insight — but they are not psychology, and they are not law.
At Masterson Law, we see it all of the time - that’s how “common” it is. Think about that. This isnt healthy - this is a trend - with dire consequences. And we want to speak out against this trend, formally.
They are oversimplifications that ignore context, evidence, and the complexity of real human relationships.
Real relationships are not memes.
And they should not be treated with pedestrian thought.
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What These Messages Miss — Every Time
Nearly all of these viral posts share the same critical flaws:
• They collapse disagreement into abuse
• They treat discomfort as harm
• They erase nuance, history, and proportionality
• They validate avoidance rather than repair
• They remove accountability from all sides
A parent disagreeing with you is not abuse.
A parent setting boundaries is not abuse.
A parent disciplining rather than “affirming” every thought is not abuse.
Healthy families involve conflict, tension, growth, and repair. None of that fits neatly into a quote graphic.
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Why This Matters in Family Law
We are now seeing these narratives walk directly into courtrooms.
Parents are being shut out — sometimes permanently — without credible evidence of abuse, neglect, or danger. Judges and professionals are increasingly confronted with outcomes (no contact) rather than evidence (what actually occurred).
When cultural messaging teaches that:
“If I feel hurt, you are unsafe,”
the legal system is put in an impossible position.
Law requires proof.
Psychology requires context.
Families require compassion and accountability.
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The Real Truth That Isn’t Trending Online
True abuse exists — and when it does, no contact may be necessary and appropriate. No one disputes that.
But most family breakdowns are not abuse cases.
They are conflict cases.
They are maturity cases.
They are communication failures.
They are unresolved trauma cases.
And the answer to those problems is not erasure.
Cutting people off is easy.
Working through pain is hard.
Growth is not avoidance.
Healing is not silence.
Boundaries are not annihilation.
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The Cost We Are Paying
This kind of thinking is deeply divisive — not just socially, but legally. It is contributing to the breakdown of families, the erosion of intergenerational relationships, and the normalization of estrangement as virtue.
And once these fractures set in, they are extraordinarily difficult to repair.
Families deserve better than slogans.
Courts deserve better than assumptions.
Children deserve better than absolutism.
This is a serious issue — and it requires critical thinking, not catchphrases.
Masterson Law — advocating for truth, context, and the courage to think beyond the meme. ⚖️🧠
