Joe Nucci, like many brand-new therapists, loved showing off his fancy new psychology vocabulary during grad school. All these diagnoses and concepts were exciting, Nucci says, and helped explain so much. But as he continued his schooling, he realized that applying those terms in everyday life could be perilous.

Some self-help creators online could use a bit of that wisdom. As the stigma surrounding mental health has waned over the last 10 years, an influx of well-meaning influencers and consumers looking to understand more about themselves may have bought into flattened descriptions of popular terms — like boundaries or narcissism — or have internalized simplistic ideas about their emotions. “I was noticing that not only was some of it just technically incorrect, but it was being explain

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