just for us
The word list
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the word list
Green, amber, red: the words we publish with
A draft, waiting for your read. Nothing here is in force yet. Once you're happy with it, this becomes the guide for every listing, caption, title and description we publish, everywhere.
Here's the tension this list resolves. The people we want to reach recognise the clinical reality, and naming that reality too plainly gets content quietly turned down by the platforms. Etsy, Pinterest, Instagram and YouTube all run automatic moderation that reduces the reach of self-harm and crisis-adjacent wording, and we believe that's what happened to your first channel. So this guide picks words the right person still recognises, and the moderation systems tolerate. It needs your clinical eye before it counts.
green
Safe everywhere
Use freely: titles, tags, captions, descriptions, on-screen text.
grounding · coping skills · emotional regulation · distress tolerance · big feelings / big emotions · calm kit · reset strategies · overwhelm · nervous system regulation · window of tolerance · self-awareness · mindfulness · breathing cards · instant calm pocket tool · daily check-in · low mood support · self-care
amber
Use with care
Fine on Etsy in lower titles, tags and descriptions. Off Etsy, use sparingly: not the dominant phrase in a Pinterest title, a Reel caption, or text on an image.
anxiety · depression / low mood · PTSD support · trauma-informed · panic · crisis
red
We avoid these
Medical claims
Platform policy, and honesty: our tools support coping skills, they don't treat conditions.
treats · heals · cures · prevents · mitigates · diagnoses · “replaces antidepressants / medication / therapy”
Crisis wording on public surfaces
Pinterest blocks these as search terms and Instagram keeps them out of recommendations, so they cost reach without reaching anyone.
self-harm · self-injury · suicide · eating disorder · graphic crisis language
the swaps
Loaded phrase in, safe phrase out
Still findable, still true, just wearing calmer clothes.
| Instead of | We say |
|---|---|
| for crisis / breakdown | for overwhelm |
| panic attack rescue | grounding |
| crisis survival | distress tolerance |
| trauma response fixer | nervous system regulation / window of tolerance |
| depression help | low mood support / daily reset |
| meltdown recovery | big emotions |
| emergency intervention | reset strategies |
| cure claims | coping skills / self-awareness |
One nuance: we don't over-soften. "Distress tolerance" and "window of tolerance" are already the words real buyers search with, so the aim is clinical-adjacent wording, not baby talk.
and on YouTube
Same guide, one comfort: the credible therapist channels use plain, warm clinical language openly and do fine, and YouTube relaxed its wording guidelines in January. DBT-skills vocabulary has no history of being flagged. The risk sits only where a title or description names self-harm or suicide explicitly, which is exactly what the red column already covers. Helpline details (Samaritans, SHOUT) go in every video description as standard.
what we need from you
Read it as the clinician in the room. Is any green word riskier than we think? Is anything in amber or red actually fine? Is a word missing that your clients genuinely use? Your corrections become the guide.
anything on your mind?
Type it here and it lands straight on David's list, or just tell him over tea.