Therapy dupes are one of the latest TikTok trends.

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You might have seen a trend on TikTok known as the "therapy dupe." Therapy dupes come in many forms: dying your hair, organizing your closet, buying new pens, and drinking a well-crafted latte. It's hard to know how serious the trend is (TikTok is full of ironic humor), but the point is that therapy dupes mimic the benefits of actual therapy.

What Are Therapy Dupes?

Therapy dupes aren’t really new; we used to call it “retail therapy.” When you consider that most therapy dupes involve buying things—one list includes a $1,000-dollar pair of fur-lined loafers—they may not be so different after all. Therapy dupes are supposed to provide you with the same benefits as real therapy, but they’re cheaper (unless we’re talking about those loafers) and more readily available.

Are Therapy Dupes Real Therapy?

Of course, the idea that buying new pens can stand in for therapy assumes that therapy is just about making yourself feel better. Anyone who has actually been to therapy might disagree. Real therapy requires work and commitment, and some of your sessions are likely to be anything but comfortable. Eventually, therapy might make you feel better, but not in the way fur-lined loafers do.

It's easy to dismiss therapy dupes as wellness consumerism, but they reveal something important: Sometimes we need help, just not the clinical kind. Being a human isn’t easy. Each new stage of life brings confusion, pain, and uncertainty, and we face complex questions with no easy answer.

Even though life is tough, it doesn’t always require a session with a professional. Therapy dupes are pointing to a void: the space between “I’m in crisis” and “everything is fine.”

What's the Alternative to Therapy Dupes?

Where can you turn when you don't necessarily need a therapist, but you still need to think through life's challenges? This in-between space has long been the home of philosophy.

Philosophers tackle the big questions that all of us face. How do we find meaning in our lives? What should we believe? How do we deal with the pain, loss, and heartbreak that is an inevitable part of being human? Philosophers throughout history have argued that philosophy's true aim is to help people live well. The recent popularity of Stoicism suggests that people are looking for exactly this kind of help.

Therapy dupes are all about making yourself feel better, but you might need more than that. We don’t just want to feel better about life’s problems; we want to understand them. Not every big question we face has an answer, but we don’t always need one.

Sometimes gaining a better understanding of the problem or challenge is the key to feeling better. Therapy dupes might help you not think about your problems, but philosophy can help you think through them.