Tiny Ghost, Big Feels // Dispatches from the fine print of everyday emotions

004 - November 2025 (ok ok, better late than never)

💌 Status update: Misjudged the depth of a puddle and currently have damp socks
🎧 Currently listening: the newest Florence + Machine album 'Everybody Scream'
💬 Discussed: Rebuilding from zero and Listening well.

Getting To Zero

Has the time change really shifted your perception of each day? Every year I manage to forget how discombobulating I find this whole adjustment.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot of Jason Segal. (And while that might initially feel totally out at left field...stick with me.) Specifically, I've been thinking about Jason Segal's self-awareness and resulting analysis from specific interviews.

"I gather that...I experience life harder than I need to..." (source ~39:30)

"I wake up and I have to work a little harder to get to zero." (source)

And honey. RELATABLE. Samesies. And you know what? A powerful piece of self-awareness. The more clients I spend time with in therapy sessions, the more it becomes clear that there are many folks who feel this way. We're feeling big feelings and sometimes we're moving within spaces that just don't get it. Or we're trying to exist in structures that see it as a weakness rather than a strength.

As I continue writing my capstone paper, I am exploring this in more depth. Have you ever heard of the term 'epistemic injustice'? It's a term describing the type of inequity that occurs when a person is denied in their capacity as a person with valid knowledge, due to negative connotations linked to their social identity (Ritunnano & Qureshi, 2022). This is especially applicable in my paper, as part of my approach involves centring people with lived experience as collaborators rather than passive receivers.

Another train of thought emerges from this: 'hermeneutical injustice'. This term describe the harm when a person attempts to reconcile their own self-understanding with a different explanation of their experience that has been imposed by others (Ritunnano & Qureshi, 2022). I nerd out on terminology like this and yet it is lofty academic-speak that results in people reaching out for support and not necessarily being seen, heard or valued.

I like sitting across from people and listening. I appreciate the concept of listening well to include perceiving others as people with credible knowledge of their experience and also holding that their meanings and my meanings might not necessarily overlap. And that is more than okay.

See you on the internet.
(your tiny ghost in residence)
—Allison

Resources
Ritunnano, R., & Qureshi, K. (2022, June 8). Philosophy can help us connect, even in the face of psychosis. Psyche. https://psyche.co/ideas/philosophy-can-help-us-connect-even-in-the-face-of-psychosis