Understand Your World With Peace of Mind
CivicHaven Chat helps people understand politics and media and deal with the toxic effects.
Preview the Chat Assistant
FAQs
Is CivicHaven a replacement for therapy?
No, CivicHaven isn’t therapy or a replacement for therapy. It can be a supplement to therapy and it’s great for people who aren’t in therapy too. And some people who aren’t in professional psych treatment might decide after interacting with our chat assistant that treatment might be helpful. So whether it’s accompanying therapy or a standalone tool, CivicHaven complements your other mental wellness efforts.
Is this therapy? Is the chatbot basically a therapist?
No, this is not therapy. We recognize that some therapists prefer not to dedicate much if any time to politics in therapy. Plus, therapists are not expected to have expertise in politics, government, or media. CivicHaven addresses this gap, providing ideas and suggestions for those seeking to improve their mental wellness and resilience despite experiencing stressful political and news environments.
Couldn’t I get this same information from my therapist, a human with whom I have a relationship and history?
Probably not quite the same but we understand the advantages of human therapists. Here’s why CivicHaven is a useful supplement to therapy:
– Many therapists do not want to delve into politics too directly with clients.
– Therapists aren’t expected to have any expertise on news or politics.
– So many adults are affected by stress from politics in the media that there wouldn’t be enough therapists to address the need even if therapists wanted to delve into politics.
Why not just use ChatGPT or Claude or one of the other big AI tools?
CivicHaven takes advantage of the scope and technological abilities of popular Large Language Models but also has specific customizations to focus on our mission of promoting mental wellness amid political stress.
Our chat agent is built on Google Gemini and has access to the massive library of content Google makes available, but CivicHaven is also customized with thousands of supplemental sources and prompts drawn from surveys, studies, and specialized sources that an ordinary LLM does not access.
Our chat assistant is also programmed to stay current on news events and to train itself on an ongoing basis. It is more nimble and responsive to user input than larger AI operations that have many competing interests, users, and distractions.
Should psychology and politics mix?
In most cases, no. Psychology is deeply personal and politics and media are very public. Professional psychologists should not publish political media and certainly not rhetoric that uses psychopolitical manipulation techniques.
But politicians do. And this is where CivicHaven is key. Many politicians today use media and messaging to psychologically engage and manipulate the public–to move far beyond issues and candidates and reach into the mind. This means that government officials and political influencers must be understood in these terms.
What types of information does CivicHaven address?
CivicHaven analyzes the psychological components or ingredients of news, particularly political news. Attempts to make a psychological impact may surface in themes, rhetoric, talking points and slogans, jargon and slang, provocative historical references, symbolic actions, holidays, memes, hashtags, and much, much more. These psychological incursions could be explicit or implicit, obvious or subtle. Our chat assistant helps identify and make sense of these influences.
Is this a place where people b**** about politics?
That’s probably inevitable and expected, but we encourage venting that respects mental wellbeing. CivicHaven is a place where frustrations and concerns are met sympathetically with reality checks and ideas on how to re-focus and re-prioritize. We reason that when we have firm factual footing and an understanding of the psychological techniques that are used in political media, we tend to feel less manipulated and less angry.
Are you suggesting the government and media are waging psychological warfare against the public?
No. We’ve heard the term psychological warfare but CivicHaven does not address psychological manipulation in a military or combat context. Rather, we’re interested in the day-to-day psychological stressors and incursions made by political media. It’s like a relentless series of needle pokes that annoy and agitate, even infuriate people. We believe much of that agitation can be addressed and even reduced and that’s a primary objective of this app.
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CivicHaven
- Verifies media claims with sources
- Provides info to evaluate specific issues, understand the facts, and explore possible reasons why the media provokes emotional reactions
- Offers alternative ways of thinking about negativity in the news and healthy perspectives on users’ concerns