☀️Sunny with a Chance of Hell🔥:
A Therapist Gets "Political" and Builds an App
Over the past 7 days, the Chicagoland area has experienced 70-degree temps, golf-ball-sized hail, light snow, flash flood warnings, and high winds. Aaannnd do you know what all of that means???? If you guessed Spring is truly nigh, you guessed right!
☀️ 🌨️ 🌊 ⛈️ 👩🏽💻 🌿 💐 🌪️
It's my time of year. I feel myself getting energized, if not downright giddy. Yet, like Mother Nature in Chicagoland for false-spring round 1, I've been navigating a wide range of internal weather. From one day to the next, I have had a hard time determining if I need emotional sunscreen, a deeper connection blanket, or a box of wine. There have been quite a few days where I just end up crying in a turtleneck like Carl Thomas in the early 2000s.
In all seriousness, 2026 has been a non-stop shock and awe campaign for those of us witnessing the brazen fuckery of the ’Merican machine, and a life-altering experience for those who have suffered the terrible misfortune of actually engaging with it. Now, as a therapist, some may be of the mind that my political and social criticisms aren’t professional and should remain private. To those who hold such beliefs, 🤷🏿♀️. I don’t know what to tell you. I’m a person first, and a real Macro practice Social Worker second. I work with people. Real people who are scared, tired, confused, and overwhelmed. I specialize in working with women, many of whom have experienced marginalization, trauma, and layered complexities. I can’t turn a blind eye to the 160-plus little girls being murdered with the help of my tax dollars. I can’t …no, I won’t …let toxic positivity gloss over the rollback of women’s rights and ICE’s domestic terror. Not to mention the fact that we live in a country that’s just gone one-two step over the Epstein files and those horrible little DOGE kids who straight-up stole sensitive data while marking life-saving funding measures for elimination.
And in the face of all of it, what is one to do? I’m doing my best to support my clients and community with honesty. Yet, I know it’s not “enough” because it’s almost impossible to know what enough could even be. During these times, I’m doing my level best to hold on to the words of my very first instructor in my MSW program… “don’t be immobilized by the magnitude of the problem”.
So in these early dark days of 2026, I’ve been trying… just trying to listen, hold space, and find ways to be genuinely useful to myself and others.
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🫧🪣Mopping the Ocean🌊: And Other Things I've Been Trying
And I write. For me, everything meaningful starts with writing. Yet, lately, even my best and most sincere ideas feel trite and unappealing.
Sitting with my clients as they share myriad, layered, and most of all valid concerns, I hear them express a desire for immediate and often externally based relief. Generic self-care advice and even the pop-culture notion of a 60-minute session once a week or every other week can feel like Band-Aids. These things fall short not because self-care and therapy aren’t beneficial; they fall short because they are often applied arbitrarily, without consideration of a given person’s unique and nuanced experiences, needs, and priorities.
Right application starts with right inquiry. And right inquiry takes time, time many people genuinely feel they don’t have. Beyond surface solutions require beyond surface exploration. But who has the time and capacity to deep dive when they’re struggling to keep their head above water?
So I built an app. And before we go further, I want to be honest about something. Even as I was building it, I kept asking myself if it mattered. The world is genuinely on fire. People are scared about food, fuel, their kids, their future. Some folks are afraid the US will bomb their children’s school. And here I am like… here’s an app. Here’s a wellness review. I really think it will help.
But here’s what I actually built it for. I built it for the client who comes to therapy wanting tools and skills to just feel better, who hasn’t yet discovered that having “tools” such as coping skills isn’t the same as being skilled. I built it for the person who was so gung-ho about their homework at intake, and by week three, genuinely doesn’t have the bandwidth. I built it for the woman who does the deep work in session, gets real clarity about her childhood, her relationships, her patterns, and then goes home to a life that doesn’t slow down to let her integrate any of it. Sixty minutes a week doesn’t undo thirty years of patterns in six months. I know that. She knows that. This is what lives in between.
It’s not a fix. It’s not therapy. It’s not going to put out any fires. And you don’t have to be in therapy to use it. It was built for the woman who wants an honest, practical, depth-oriented way to understand her own life better. It’s snorkel gear. A way to slow down, look clearly at what’s actually going on across your whole life, and choose where you want to focus, on your own terms, at your own pace.
Meet The Cope-Aesthetic. Your snorkel gear, if you will. (Scuba optional.)
The Cope-Aesthetic (TCA) is a personal wellness app with one core belief: curated wellness for a life by design. Most wellness apps assume the goal. TCA starts by asking: What is your life actually like right now, across every area that genuinely matters?
Your Wellbeing Review: Across 18 Life Areas
The heart 💗 of TCA is its proprietary, comprehensive Wellbeing Review. A full, honest look at your life across 18 Life Areas, most of which wellness tools have never thought to ask about.
If you’re looking at the Life Areas and noticing that they include things like Cultural Identity and Belonging, Safety and Trust, Governance and Rights, yes. Intentionally. Because wellness for Black women is not separate from living in a political moment, navigating institutions that were not built for us, and wondering whether our community sees us clearly.
The review covers approximately 490 questions across 18 Life Areas, and it takes about 5 to 15 minutes per area to complete. That sounds like a lot. It’s okay. You don’t have to complete it all at once, and you don’t have to complete it before you start using the app. Many features are available to you right away. Completing the full review unlocks all features, including your personalized tools and your 30 or 90-day check-in cycle. Come back to it when you’re ready. Your progress saves automatically.
Where Intention Meets Data: Daily Tracking
The Daily Check-In is available as soon as you complete the intake. Mood is always tracked. Everything else, sleep, energy, medication, movement, water intake, mindful minutes, and journal notes, is yours to select based on what actually matters to you.
Over time, your check-ins build a picture. You’ll start to see patterns in what supports your wellbeing and what doesn’t. The app tracks this through your Wellbeing Index, a composite score across your life areas that gives you an overall picture of how you’re doing over time.
Completing your Wellbeing Review allows you to select your priority life areas and access their respective tools, giving your daily practice somewhere specific to go.
***And for the girlies who like to track moon phases 🌔 with their moods, there’s a lunar phase calendar for that too.
Five Ways TCA Supports You
Daily Check-Ins: A few minutes each day to check in with yourself. Mood, plus whatever else you choose to track.
Life Area Reviews and Tools: Complete your Wellbeing Review across 18 life areas and unlock personalized tools specific to the areas you want to focus on. You choose your check-in pace, every 30 or every 90 days.
Provider Partnership: If you're working with a provider, TCA can be used alongside your care. Completely optional and always yours to control.
Nuanced Learning: An ever-growing in-app library of articles, exercises, videos, workshops, and resources to support your growth at your own pace.
Community Resources: National and Chicagoland resources organized by practical, social, and material needs, right in the menu.
I want to be clear. I in no way believe that self-care, no matter how nuanced, is a substitute for human connection and community support. Individual wellness tools are not the answer to collective problems. TCA includes a Community Resources section right in the menu,with national and Chicagoland resources organized by practical, social, and material needs. Food access. Housing and legal aid. Mutual aid. Crisis support. LGBTQIA+ safety. Community connection. Because sometimes what you need is more than a check-in."
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What The Cope-Aesthetic Is Not
The Cope-Aesthetic is not therapy. It is not a clinical service. It does not constitute counseling, and it is not a substitute for professional mental health treatment. It is not a crisis or emergency service. If you are in crisis, please call or text 988 (the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline), or text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line).
What TCA is: a personal wellness tool. A self-knowledge tool. A place to track, reflect, understand, and grow at your own pace, on your own terms.
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FAQ
What is The Cope-Aesthetic?
TCA is a personal wellness web app for understanding yourself more fully, tracking your well-being across 18 life areas, and building daily habits and tools that actually fit your life.
Who is it for?
TCA was built for the woman who wants an honest, practical, depth-oriented way to understand her own life better, whether she’s in therapy or not.
Is this therapy?
No. TCA is a personal wellness tool, not a clinical service. It does not provide therapy, counseling, diagnosis, or emergency support of any kind.
Is it free to beta test?
Yes. Beta users have free access to the app. Your participation helps us build something better.
What does beta testing involve?
Using the app, completing the Well-being Review, trying out the Daily Check-In, exploring the features, and sharing your honest feedback. You are not committing to anything beyond your own willingness to show up and reflect.
What platform is it on? Do I need to download anything?
TCA is a web app. It runs in your browser on your phone, tablet, or desktop. No download required.
What happens to my data?
You retain ownership of your personal data. Your content is never sold or shared with third parties. Please review the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service in the app for full details.
I’m already in therapy. Can I still use this?
Yes. TCA is a standalone wellness tool that can complement your existing care. During beta, Provider Partnership access is limited to Nuanced Healing providers only.
Do I have to complete the Well-being Review all at once?
No. Your progress saves automatically. Come back to it when you’re ready.
What if a question doesn’t apply to me?
Almost all items include a Not Applicable or Prefer Not to Answer option.
What happens after beta?
Beta users will be kept informed regarding post-beta decisions via the contact information on file. Beta users will receive advance notice of any changes.
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Alright. You made it to the end. That means something.
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