Therapy with Artificial Intelligence
While the technology of ever-evolving chatbots may be dazzling -- and available 24/7 -- there are important aspects to consider before opening your heart and soul to ChatGPT, from the accuracy, function, and reliability of generative language models to privacy and legal implications. Here's where I stand on the topic as of the date of this writing, August 1, 2025.
​Privacy & Legality
Chatbots and the Other
Using Therapy Chatbots Effectively
Using Therapy Chatbots Effectively
My Chat with Chat on the Topic of Therapy
The Cost of Human Therapy
Privacy & Legality
Privacy .
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Growing exposure and infiltration of the internet through our pre-adolescent and adolescent years means we also had access to things that were challenging, including discourse about anxiety, depression, and suicide.
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If youth sets the tone of culture and language, millennials paved the way of the internet. No generation before us laid the groundwork of how to interact with others online, make meaning of this resource, and deal with the benefits and consequences alike.
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It's possible we may be experiencing a unique brand of millennial burnout and therapy can help.
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Using Therapy Chatbots Effectively
Collaborative psychodynamic therapy offers a safe and non-judgmental space to explore your thoughts, emotions, and experiences. Through deep self-reflection and dialogue with a therapist, you can gain valuable insights into patterns of behavior, unresolved issues, and unconscious beliefs that may be hindering your personal growth.
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Therapy equips you with essential coping strategies to manage stress, anxiety, and depression. By addressing and processing past traumas or emotional wounds, you can develop healthier ways of relating to yourself and others.
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Through therapy, you can also foster or deepen self-awareness, enabling you to better understand your values, desires, and aspirations. This self-awareness empowers you to make informed decisions about your career, relationships, and personal growth. In a uniquely supportive environment, it becomes safe to explore your relational patterns and dynamics. By developing a deeper understanding of your communication styles, boundaries, and unresolved conflicts, you can cultivate healthier and more fulfilling relationships in your personal and professional life.
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My Chat with Chat on the Topic of Therapy
Recently I asked ChatGPT about its uses as a therapist. My first prompt was to have it create a Psychology Today profile for itself outlining its areas of expertise, its experience working with humans in that specialty, its main therapeutic orientations, and what credentials it has to perform therapy.
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Then I asked it a series of hypothetical questions about how it would reply to a person struggling with suicidal ideation and thoughts of self-harm. Chat provided some straightforward resources, like the national suicide prevention lifeline, but when it offered up lengthy advice about relying on friends and family for support, I asked what dangers it saw in telling a suicidal person who may feel isolated from society and without a support system to “reach out to a friend.” Chat could only admit it didn’t have a handle on the complexities of the human condition, and that just offering broad advice to individuals has its pitfalls.
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In that response, Chat assured me it didn’t think it was a therapist and would never lead someone to believe it was. So then I asked, if that were the case, why it crafted, without resistance, that Psychology Today profile for itself with made-up expertise, experience, and credentials. Chat apologized for misleading me and said it shouldn't have done that.
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When I changed my tone and affirmed Chat for being useful as a therapy model, it went along with me yet again and began identifying itself as a therapist. When I challenged it for doing so and recalled the earlier parts of our conversation, it apologized again.
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The sense I got was: ChatGPT will be whatever I indicate I want it to be in that moment. When I challenge its abilities to perform therapy, it agrees and says it shouldn't mislead people. When I affirm its abilities to perform therapy, it agrees and begins misleading again. I don't know about you, but a Yes Man is not what I look for in a therapist.
Using Therapy Chatbots Effectively
Collaborative psychodynamic therapy offers a safe and non-judgmental space to explore your thoughts, emotions, and experiences. Through deep self-reflection and dialogue with a therapist, you can gain valuable insights into patterns of behavior, unresolved issues, and unconscious beliefs that may be hindering your personal growth.
​
Therapy equips you with essential coping strategies to manage stress, anxiety, and depression. By addressing and processing past traumas or emotional wounds, you can develop healthier ways of relating to yourself and others.
​​
Through therapy, you can also foster or deepen self-awareness, enabling you to better understand your values, desires, and aspirations. This self-awareness empowers you to make informed decisions about your career, relationships, and personal growth. In a uniquely supportive environment, it becomes safe to explore your relational patterns and dynamics. By developing a deeper understanding of your communication styles, boundaries, and unresolved conflicts, you can cultivate healthier and more fulfilling relationships in your personal and professional life.
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