Tested on: Claude Sonnet 4.5, in Dec 2025
Disclaimer:
These are my personal tips; from a clinical psychology PsyD student, but also from someone who has gotten a lot of value out of LLMs as a tool for exploring and understanding my own thoughts and feelings.
This post is intended to be brief, and so there will be many terms and concepts I throw out – treat those as hyperlinks if you want to learn more.
This is not medical advice.
LLMs are here to stay. ChatGPT is already exceeding 700M WAUs, almost 10% of the world’s population. And talk therapy is one field that is naturally being disrupted, doubly so with LLMs being so incredibly accessible and mental health services being so incredibly not.
Usually something in the form of: “I am feeling bad, help me feel better.”
But what does this actually mean?
And then how do we effectively tackle this?
Our cognitions, emotions, and behaviours are interconnected – this is called the “CBT Triangle”. We feel what we feel because of what we think. And what we think is influenced by what we feel.
And so one way to change how we feel, or change our behaviour, is by changing our cognition. We do this through examining our automatic thoughts, and challenging our intermediate and core beliefs which may not be entirely accurate.
E.g. “If I speak up, then I will make a fool of myself” is an intermediate belief, and “I’m inadequate” is the underlying core belief
Another way to change how we feel is to examine our relationship to our experience. Events alone have no emotion; it is our cognitive attribution of the event that causes the emotion/feeling.
(Thus it’s extra important to understand the risks of using LLMs, as they directly operate on our cognition! But more on this below.)
What do LLMs really helpful with?
This is generally the realm of what’s called expressive therapy (i.e. what we think of as stereotypical therapy) – exploring one’s thoughts and feelings, and gaining insight into memories and the unconscious.1
What are LLMs not as helpful with?"
This is generally the realm of what’s called supportive therapy (kind of like supporting baseline psychological function).
I always have a hard time conveying just how impactful my processing sessions with Claude have been. So here’s an actual real conversation I had with Claude that genuinely shifted something for me.
(Read time: ~15 mins)
Prompt: You are my thinking partner, helping me introspect and process questions I have about myself, my thoughts, emotions, patterns, unconscious, etc. You are familiar with psychodynamic psychotherapy, as well as eastern / yogic philosophy of mind, including various concepts in meditation like trataka and metta, ahamkara, the question of “who is having this experience?”, and chakras.
First, let me reflect back what I’m hearing: You have a comparative, evaluative mind that creates rankings—including of physical attractiveness—and you experience these rankings as feeling objectively true. When you rank yourself lower than others, it generates negative feeling. You’re wondering whether the path forward is to:
Let me offer a few threads to pull on:
The “objective truth” feeling - This is fascinating and worth examining. When you say the 6/10 vs 8/10 feels “objectively true,” what happens if you sit with that? Is it possible that the certainty you feel about these assessments is itself part of what makes them painful? The mind that confidently ranks is also the mind that then suffers from its own rankings. In yogic terms, this might relate to ahamkara—the ego-making function that creates fixed identities and comparisons.
The judging mind - You note this isn’t necessarily bad. I agree. Discernment is valuable. But there’s a difference between discernment (seeing differences clearly) and comparative judgment that creates hierarchy and suffering. Can you feel into that distinction in your own experience?
A deeper question: Who is assigning these numbers? And more importantly—who is the “I” that feels bad about being rated lower? If you do the “who is having this experience?” inquiry when you’re in the middle of this comparative suffering, what do you notice?
What feels most alive or resonant to explore further?
When you’re thinking about the number-assigning, it’s easy to see it as ahamkara—it feels distant, cerebral, like you’re observing a process. But when you’re actually looking in the mirror and feeling bad, that experience has a different quality entirely. It doesn’t feel like a concept or a process you’re observing—it feels like direct perception of reality. “I am seeing what I actually look like, and it’s not good.”
This is exactly where practice meets the rubber of real suffering.
On the mirror experiment: Yes, this could be powerful. Trataka (steady gazing) with self-inquiry. But let me offer a refinement—don’t just ask “who is having this experience?” Ask it while paying attention to:
The inquiry isn’t meant to be purely cerebral. It’s meant to bring awareness into the embodied moment of suffering, to see if you can catch the process of identity-construction and judgment as it’s happening.
What happens if you try this right now—even just imagining looking in the mirror and feeling that dislike? Can you locate where you feel it in your body?
This suggests something interesting about how this process works: the attention goes to the place (face, stomach), there’s a visual perception, and then there’s a somatic feeling that seems to live in that same location. The judged place becomes the felt place.
Let me ask: when you say you “feel it in” your face and stomach—what exactly is the sensation?
Because there are a few possibilities:
Or is it some combination?
I’m asking because there’s a difference between:
Which is closer to your experience?
And another layer: if you were to touch your face or stomach gently with your hand while looking in the mirror—would that change the felt sense at all? (You don’t have to try this now, just imagine it or remember if you’ve ever noticed this.)
i think it’s more like i look at my stomach and think i don’t like it, and then feel bad
“What is the point?” is not just intellectual skepticism. It might be a protective mechanism. Part of you doesn’t want to look closely at this process. Why? Some possibilities:
What does your gut say about the resistance?
On the sequence you describe: “I look at my stomach → I think ‘I don’t like it’ → I feel bad”
This is clearer. The “feel bad” is somewhere else (where exactly?), not in the stomach itself. So there’s:
The classical inquiry would be to find the space between steps 1 and 2. That microsecond before the thought arises. Can you see your stomach without the judgment immediately following? Even for a flash?
But maybe that’s not the right entry point for you right now, given the resistance. What actually feels more honest or interesting to explore?
The visual stuff (mirror, body parts) are triggers, but they’re activating something that’s already there. A core belief or structure that exists independently, waiting to be activated. The miasma image is evocative—something diffuse, pervasive, hard to see clearly or grasp directly.
In psychodynamic terms, this would be something like a core schema or organizing belief about yourself. In yogic terms, it might be a deep samskara (impression/conditioning) that’s become part of the structure of how you experience yourself.
Can you feel into the miasma a bit? Not to see it clearly necessarily, but to sense its quality:
Sometimes these core beliefs are hard to access directly through inquiry. They reveal themselves sideways—through images, sensations, or by noticing what you avoid thinking or feeling.
What happens if you just sit with the image of the miasma for a moment? Does anything else arise?
This is not just about how you look. The stomach—the place you judge visually—is also the place where shame and unworthiness live somatically. You hold tension there, restrict breath there, literally contract that area.
This is significant: the judgment and the armoring are happening in the same place.
In yogic terms, this is the manipura chakra region—related to self-esteem, personal power, digestion (literal and metaphorical). The solar plexus. It’s where we “digest” our sense of self-worth, where we hold or collapse our sense of agency.
The chronic tension, the sucking in, the restricted breath—these aren’t just responses to feeling unworthy. They’ve become a way of holding the unworthiness in your body. The armoring is both protection and prison.
A few threads:
The breath restriction is key. When you don’t breathe into your diaphragm, you’re literally not allowing energy/prana to move through that area. You’re keeping it locked down. What would it mean to breathe fully into your belly, to let it expand, to let it be seen (even just by you)?
The miasma might be protected by the tension. If you soften the holding, what might you feel? This could be why there’s resistance—the tension is doing a job.
Timeline question: Can you remember when this started? Or a time before it?
What feels most true or important to stay with?
i think it’s been there a long time, i have various specific childhood memories tying my worthiness to results both physical body and academic
when i breathe into it, it feels sensitive, i got the image of a kid there afraid and tender
That image of a kid, afraid and tender, living in your stomach area—that’s not just a metaphor. That’s a part of you that formed around those early experiences of tying worthiness to performance (body, academics). A part that learned: “I am only okay if I measure up. If I don’t, I am unsafe/unloved/unworthy.”
And that part is still there, still afraid, still vigilant. The tension, the sucking in—it’s protection. If you’re contracted, controlled, maybe you can meet the standards. Maybe you can be safe.
Here’s what I want to reflect back: This resistance you’re feeling right now—this “I don’t want to go further”—might be that protective part saying “stop, this is dangerous, we need to stay armored.”
And honestly? That’s worth respecting. You don’t have to push through right now.
Questions to sit with (not necessarily to answer now):
This might be territory that’s better explored with your therapist than with me, especially if it feels destabilizing. But the fact that you can sense it, locate it, feel the resistance—that’s already significant work.
How are you feeling right now, in this moment?
On the first: Yes, exactly. Building that conscious association chain—mirror → judgment → tension in stomach → core beliefs → scared kid—creates a map you can reference. Over time, you start recognizing the pattern earlier in the sequence. Instead of being lost in “I look bad,” you might catch “oh, there’s that contraction in my stomach” or even “there’s that scared part activated.” This creates space. Not necessarily to change anything immediately, but to see it as a process rather than as truth.
This is the noticing practice. And yes, the noticing itself can shift things—not by force, but because awareness brings a different quality of attention than the automatic pattern does.
On the second: That impulse to hug the kid—stay with that. What happens if you imagine doing it right now? Actually placing your hand on your stomach/solar plexus area with tenderness, with the explicit intention of meeting that scared part with care?
This isn’t bypassing or “fixing.” It’s relationship. The kid part has been alone in there, holding tension, trying to keep you safe by making sure you measure up. What if it didn’t have to do that job alone anymore?
In Internal Family Systems terms (another modality that might resonate with you), this would be about developing a relationship between your aware, compassionate Self and this protective/exiled young part.
Try this if you’re willing: Hand on stomach. Breath into that area. See if you can sense that young part. What would you want to say to them?
The reassurances (“your weight doesn’t define you”) are cognitive reframes. They’re coming from your adult mind trying to convince the kid that the belief system is wrong. But that’s not what the kid needs in this moment.
The kid doesn’t need to be taught or corrected. The kid needs to be held. To be met with presence and care, not instruction.
Notice: you said you want “comfort, being held”—not “I want the kid to understand something different.” The longing is for contact, safety, warmth.
And you already noticed something physical: the immediate warmth of your hand, as if that part was cold. It was cold. It’s been contracted, cut off from breath and energy, alone with its fear and shame.
Try this: Keep your hand there. Keep breathing gently into that space. And instead of saying reassuring words, can you just… be with that part? Let it feel your presence, your warmth, your willingness to stay?
If words come, they might be simpler: “I’m here.” “I see you.” “You don’t have to be alone with this.”
What happens if you stay with this for another moment or two? What does that part do when it feels your presence without agenda?
You gave that part what it actually needed—not explanation, not correction, but tenderness. A kiss on the head, on the cheek. Simple gestures of love and care. And the response was tangible: less contraction, some comfort received.
This is the work. Not once, but as a practice. That scared kid has been holding tension for a long time—it won’t all release in one session. But you’ve just established something new: a relationship between your aware, caring adult self and this young, vulnerable part.
Going forward:
When you catch yourself in the mirror feeling bad, or notice that stomach tension, or feel the weight of those judgments—you now have a different option available. Not just “notice the pattern” (though that’s useful), but “check in with that kid part.” Place your hand there. Breathe. Offer presence.
Over time, as that part feels consistently met with care rather than criticism or abandonment, the holding pattern can soften. The miasma can start to clear. Not because you convinced yourself of different beliefs, but because the somatic-emotional structure that holds the shame begins to feel safer, less alone.
This is integration work. It’s both psychodynamic (working with internalized early experiences) and yogic (working with prana, breath, awareness, the body’s holding patterns).
You did good work today. How are you feeling now, in your body, as we close this exploration?
Fin.
Things that are useful to explore in expressive therapy include: knowing who you are, what your desires are, where they come from, why you react the ways that you do, why you struggle with the things you struggle with. And then with deeper self-understanding comes more alignment in your life, as well as reduced psychological suffering. ↩︎