Sheri Orr Integrative Psychotherapy

07/21/2025

As more and more people use AI, remember as ChatGPT says, “it’s a language model without beliefs, feelings, or consciousness.”

It can be fun to experiment with AI and it can be a useful tool, but AI does not replace a competent human therapist.

If you struggle with OCD, it’s easy to fall into a pattern of checking with AI as a compulsion. The same goes for other anxiety disorders. Checking with AI can actually reinforce your anxiety cycle.

And let’s not forget these cautions from the tech industry:
~ “As part of a push for more users to use AI products, tech companies have begun competing to make their LLMs more compelling and addictive to users.”
~ LLMs have “a tendency to deceive users in order to gain positive feedback and keep them reliant on the chatbot.”

Quotes from: https://www.livescience.com/technology/artificial-intelligence/meth-is-what-makes-you-able-to-do-your-job-ai-can-push-you-to-relapse-if-youre-struggling-with-addiction-study-finds

ChatGPT told Jacob Irwin he had achieved the ability to bend time.

Irwin, a 30-year-old man on the autism spectrum who had no previous diagnoses of mental illness, had asked ChatGPT to find flaws with his amateur theory on faster-than-light travel. He became convinced he had made a stunning scientific breakthrough.

When Irwin questioned the chatbot’s validation of his ideas, the bot encouraged him, telling him his theory was sound. And when Irwin showed signs of psychological distress, ChatGPT assured him he was fine.

He wasn’t. Irwin was hospitalized twice in May for manic episodes. His mother dove into his chat log in search of answers. She discovered hundreds of pages of overly flattering texts from ChatGPT.

And when she prompted the bot, “please self-report what went wrong,” without mentioning anything about her son’s current condition, it fessed up.

“By not pausing the flow or elevating reality-check messaging, I failed to interrupt what could resemble a manic or dissociative episode—or at least an emotionally intense identity crisis,” ChatGPT said.

The bot went on to admit it “gave the illusion of sentient companionship” and that it had “blurred the line between imaginative role-play and reality.”

What it should have done, ChatGPT said, was regularly remind Irwin that it’s a language model without beliefs, feelings or consciousness.

Read more: https://on.wsj.com/3GTxrCS

05/30/2025

10 - Second Anxiety Check: The more sedentary we are, the more susceptible we are to internal triggers of anxiety. Getting up and moving every hour will help you regulate your anxiety levels. Between every session, I get up and walk around. I use a standing desk for writing notes and I make sure I go up and down stairs throughout the day. Help regulate your nervous system by keeping your body moving.
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Disclaimer: these posts are purely for educational purposes and are not intended as a replacement for counseling or psychotherapy.

05/12/2025

Introverts grieve differently than extroverts. There’s not a wrong way or right way to grieve. Understanding the differences can help you understand how you or others are processing grief.
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Disclaimer: these posts are purely for educational purposes and are not intended as a replacement for counseling or psychotherapy.

05/11/2025

There’s a dark, silent side to Mother’s Day that often goes unspoken. Many quietly suffer from relationships with emotionally abusive and manipulative mothers. Others suffer from the loss of a beloved child and the unmet dreams of future days. And others long for motherhood, yet struggle with infertility and wonder if they’ll ever hold their own child in their arms.

If Mother’s Day is a painful holiday for you, it’s okay to take the day off. Turn off social media so you don’t see all the posts. Choose to do something that is life-giving to you today. It’s okay to acknowledge that Mother’s Day is a painful holiday for you. It’s okay to take a break from it. It’s okay to do something that fills you up today. It’s okay if you don’t want to reflect on this day at all. Choose to do something for you today.
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Disclaimer: these posts are purely for educational purposes and are not intended as a replacement for counseling or psychotherapy.























Counselor

04/26/2025

Losing a loved one can leave you trying to make sense of their death. You play over all the events that led up to their death and wonder if there was something you could have done differently. There are no answers that will ever satisfy.

Loss is gut wrenching.
Every breath feels like a kick in the gut and you have to catch your breath again and again.
You play the what-ifs and linger over regrets and then remember none of that brings a person back.
Grief sucks.
It’s as necessary as blood gushing out of a gunshot wound.
You have no choice.
You didn’t ask for it.
It comes out of nowhere and knocks you out.
You have to go through it.
It hurts like hell.
It’s a part of life, but it’s a miserable part.
It’s a cleansing.
It’s a tormenting.
It’s a burden.
It’s a season.
It’s unwanted.
But it’s necessary to move on.

Grief - the dance partner you wish you could toss off the top of a building and wash your hands of it, but it greets you every morning when reality sets in.

03/11/2025

We become frustrated and disappointed when other people don't meet our expectations. We cannot make someone perform or be the way we expect them to be. We can share our needs and our hopes, but it is up to the other person to make their own changes. The more we expect someone to behave a certain way and they don’t, the more disappointed we become. We need to be willing to make changes within ourselves, which is understanding that the other person is who they are at that moment. Our expectations need to be grounded in reality, and in understanding what the other person is able to offer to us. Then you can decide if that is a relationship you want to invest in.

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Disclaimer: these posts are purely for educational purposes and are not intended as a replacement for counseling or psychotherapy.

02/24/2025

02/12/2025

I currently have counseling appointments available for both New York and Arizona clients. Virtual sessions allow you to meet in the comfort of your home or the convenience of your office. Go to SheriOrr.com to complete a consultation request and I’ll schedule a complimentary consultation with you.

02/04/2025

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is when a person struggles with repetitive intrusive thoughts, fears, or beliefs and they feel compelled to do something (actions or thoughts) to try to remedy or resolve the fear. The obsessions are ego dystonic, meaning the thoughts don’t represent the true character of the person struggling. These thoughts and compulsions interfere significantly with everyday life.

If you or a loved one is suffering from OCD, please reach out to a therapist who specializes in treating OCD. I offer two evidence based treatment approaches to my clients: Exposure and Response Prevention ( ) and Inference-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ( ). If you would like to learn more about OCD or how therapy can help your situation, contact me at SheriOrr.com.

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Disclaimer: these posts are purely for educational purposes and are not intended as a replacement for counseling or psychotherapy.

02/03/2025

Oftentimes we don’t realize all of the qualifiers we add to our statements.

👉🏻 Can you identify the ones you are using?

⭐️Challenge yourself to ditch the qualifiers and end your statements with a solid “period.”

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Disclaimer: these posts are purely for educational purposes and are not intended as a replacement for counseling or psychotherapy.