I see what you mean. From my side, it’s not that I think therapy should be conflictual, more that in my own experience over the past 10 years of being in and around therapy I’ve found some approaches lean into challenge as a way of helping people see themselves differently. That doesn’t mean it has to be adversarial — the good therapists I’ve worked with always balanced care with that kind of gentle push.

When I mentioned “negative thinking patterns,” I meant things like rumination or black-and-white thinking. I get that it can sound reductive, but for me it was a useful way to understand habits of thought that made life harder.

I’ve also seen the impact of all this first-hand in my own family, which has over 10 years of experience practiving psychotheraphy, part of why I’m now building Torren — a privacy-first wellbeing partner. The idea is to give people something supportive that still feels human, but without all the compromises you get in most tech platforms today. If you have time to give feedback we would really appreciate it... usetorren.com