We Believe Words Matter: Words as Tools of Therapy
We at Well believe that words matter: the terms we choose to use to describe ourselves are central to how we understand our identities and experience, and thus how we see ourselves and wish to be seen. We also believe that more can be done to make sure you are in control of conversations about your mental health care.
Therapy, among other things, is a means of empowerment, a means to better understand ourselves. In this context especially, the words we use matter, and shape how we relate to the world, and how others relate to us.
We believe language can be transformative, and that it is important that you and your therapist are purposeful in how you use language to understand each other. Often, particularly in relation to mental health, language can function as a barrier rather than a means for empowerment because health providers use medical jargon without unpacking the meaning of terms for patients, let alone how a term applies to each individual’s experience. In this context, there can be a gap between the words we use and how these map onto our experiences. When this happens, language can be alienating and confusing, distancing you rather than helping you understand and begin to heal.
With this in mind, we have created the Well Glossary, a resource to help remove barriers between you and your healing. We believe that when we truly listen to each other, healing can begin, and, even knowing that, it can be hard to get a conversation started. Too often, communication is imprecise through misunderstanding, and we know that it can be difficult to formulate questions about things you might not fully grasp; how can you ask for precision in language if you’re not entirely sure what things mean or how to apply them to your experience?
Too much in mental health care can be disorienting rather than empowering. We want to do what we can to make sure you and your health provider are both speaking the same language, and we want to be sure that your care promotes new ways of understanding yourself and the world, rather than just giving you new terms to apply like band-aids without affecting your self-perception. The Well Glossary serves as an entrance point to a conversation with your therapist and yourself, giving you access to terminology that might otherwise feel elitist and apart from you and your experience.
It is important to us that this terminology is democratized, as well. We don’t want to create a pamphlet that feels sterile and impersonal. Our Well Glossary is written by and for you, from the perspective of patients rather than health care providers, and it incorporates many voices to emphasize that experience varies. We also understand that simple definitions can, at times, be unhelpful. To combat this, we include examples with each term to illustrate how it may work in real life — how it is experienced. By doing this, we make sure the Well Glossary is alive and meaningful, giving you a starting point to refine and negotiate the terms that illuminate your experience.
Of course, it is important to note that the glossary itself is not meant as a completely finished product; instead, we hope that it can be used to start conversations. Terminology itself is often lacking in context and complexity because no single term can represent all possible modes of experience, and we know that everyone experiences things differently, and no two people mirror each other. Because of this, we hope that the glossary can serve as a starting point for meaning, as something that you can pick up and add to, expand on or renegotiate, that you can use as a base layer to add personal complexity and experience. These terms are meant to be augmented, they are meant to be filled with elements particular to you.
Empowerment is not possible with cookie-cutter, over-simplified terminology. Like every aspect of our approach to care, we value partnership and individually appropriate care. We want you to feel you have a voice when it comes to your mental health care, and we hope to join you in the conversation.
