Artificial Intelligence and the Therapeutic Relationship: Pros and Cons to Its Use in Self-Work
AI…Artificial Intelligence…One would need to be living under a rock to not be hearing, seeing, or using this new and incredibly useful tool. This tool permeates all industries and is the talking point amongst colleagues, conferences, and communities. So, as a therapist and someone who wants to be informed as we move forward with tools never-before-available, I had to ask the question, “How can AI be used within the therapeutic relationship and/or people seeking self-improvement?”
As a group practice owner and clinical provider, I am a member of several social media chat groups. As with anything social media–related, these groups flow from every spectrum of perspective on AI’s use in the therapeutic field from straight-up fear of replacing therapists to denial it has a place for clients. Neither perspective serves us as individuals or the collective, so with that in mind, I wanted to provide three pros or ways of using AI as a therapeutic tool and three cons or considerations to be made for its use!
Three Ways AI Can Be Supportive of Your Self-Work
Supplemental support. Listen, therapy can be expensive, and if you consider potentially needing more support than just once a week, it’s pretty much off the table for most people. This is where AI can help, utilizing it as a tool to supplement in between therapeutic sessions.
Perhaps therapeutic sessions are bringing up particular topics. We know insight comes slowly, so as the subconscious is processing, full insight may not always come during sessions. AI tools can be discussed between therapist and client, such as prompts that can be applied and reflected upon after or prior to the next session. Perhaps these are given directly by the therapist or agreed upon together in session. Therapeutic homework is a great way to facilitate and speed up the therapeutic process, and AI is definitely here for that.
Real time regulation needs. We all have days where anxiety is higher than others or our nervous system needs regulation. Most people’s therapists are not available in between sessions (unless otherwise agreed upon), but panic and anxiety wait for no one!
This is where a prompt for nervous system regulation techniques can be very helpful. In just a few moments, you now have however many suggestions you desire in whatever way you best feel supported. Not everyone is calmed by practiced breathing methods, so streamlining the prompt to be, for instance, “please provide me ten regulation techniques to calm a panic attack that are not breathing-related,” it can give you quick, actionable responses that meet your specific needs.
Additional resources. Regardless of where you live or who you see as your therapist, we can be certain that if they are a licensed clinician, they are well-educated and -informed. This does not mean they know everything or have seen every available piece of literature or resource in a particular topic. They actually love when they are provided with new pieces that their clients have used and found helpful.
So, although your therapist may love and recommend a particular book, that may not mean it resonates with you. Try using a prompt with AI that provides various resources in digestible ways that resonate with you. Maybe you don’t read, but you devour podcasts. Try a prompt such as, “please provide ten podcasts that discuss patterns of relationship dysfunction.” Now, you have a variety of presentations to choose from in a way that fits into your specific preference.
Now…the other side of the coin.
Three Ways AI Can Be Harmful to Your Self-Work
AI cannot analyze a client’s behavior. We know from research that the greatest indicator of a client making progress is the safety and rapport built between client and therapist. Once a client has begun to feel safe and comfortable, change begins to occur. The therapist becomes an authentic, reflective place for the client and helps support the flow and cadence at which a client is processing. For this alone, one must be cautious of relying on an AI platform to generate therapeutic responses for lasting change.
The nuances of therapeutic skills include interpreting and using silence, immediacy, confronting, questioning, and most importantly, the reading of verbal and nonverbal clues. All of these and more benefit the client’s processing based upon the therapist's intuitive understanding of the client and their presenting concerns.
These are not skills AI is privy to and thus is providing information without a rooted understanding of a client’s needs, creating an unbalanced belief that AI has the answers and is similar to self-help books. Keep in mind that AI can be helpful but does not have the skills intuitive helpers have been trained to pick up on.
AI does not have a therapist's understanding of issues rooted in complex trauma. Whether it’s low-level depression, indecisiveness around career change, or significant relationship issues, therapists are trained in identifying and addressing complex trauma from a trauma-informed perspective and skilled in guiding clients as they build the resilience to navigate through it. It is imperative that a therapist knows what a client is capable of handling and protects against potential exposure to triggers and/or trauma before progressing.
If AI begins to bring up traumatic possibilities, there is no way to protect clients from the strain or lack of support the client needs to continue care. I have been with clients in the very sacred space of becoming aware of past trauma and have had to know what they can process and when.
Without this understanding, we subject people to re-traumatization, isolation, and potential co-morbid experiences such as addiction and other panic disorders. I think we all are aware of the “Googling Physical Symptoms Syndrome.” Before we know it, WebMD has given us a terminal diagnosis for something a licensed medical provider can verify is null and void.
AI builds an overreliance on an external authority. As licensed therapists, we know that each individual holds their very specific healing authority. It is through the processing of their own insights that individuals begin to understand their wounds and integrate the unique healing truth that navigates them out of therapy. Therapists hold space for that authority by not allowing the external authority to be transferred to them and force the individual to “sit in it.” This allows individuals to begin making sense of or connections to their experiences and allows the unfolding of new ways of being.
As we have seen in any online or media presence, there is a tendency to use platforms as a distraction. Dissociative scrolling has become an epidemic and removes the space in our lives to seek authenticity, which can only be found in silent, intuitive and reflective spaces like meditation, sound vibrations, nature, solitude, and other spaces void of “noise.”
Unfortunately, AI is a responder to our prompts, and it cannot differentiate between when a person needs support or space. Thus, an overuse as a means to seek answers actually prolongs a clients healing versus promotes it. I think we’ve all met someone who has way too many self-help books but is still living in a complete disaster most days.
In the end, AI can make all our lives easier. Whether it’s facilitating documentation or creating marketing strategies or outlines, we are all able to use AI to support the high demand of our lives. In terms of facilitating a person’s healing, I have to always stand firm in negating, as that is an individual’s superpower, and their therapists are the “Charles Xaviers” of this process.
And as a final disclaimer, this blog was written without the help of AI!