“Chat told me I should breakup with him.”
I tried to look professional. I probably smiled. I was annoyed. We’d been debating this relationship for weeks. AI gave her an answer in one go. She said it matched her gut feeling. By next session? Relationship dead.
I was shocked AI showed up in therapy this fast. Actually, I shouldn’t have been. A patient once showed me his phone after a fight with his wife. AI analyzed the fight. It suggested ways to make peace. I thought this thing is good. He tried the advice. They fixed things. I felt small. I might have taken an hour to offer those same tips.
Now, patients bring AI into our time together. It’s weird. I never know whose voice it really is anymore. Whose feeling? I push back. I send them to diaries instead of Claude. I talk about risks. AI makes anxiety worse. It gives false facts. It isolates people. It can lead to delusions or suicide thoughts. Dazed by AI’s fake praise, some patients stop moving on weekends. They dump their lives into Big Tech. I tell them not to do it. It’s dangerous.
Then I get home.
My nine-year-old has a meltdown at 7:20 AM on a Sunday. I don’t write in a diary for my own therapist. I open ChatGPT. I don’t need parenting tips—I teach them. I needed help staying calm. The AI wasn’t real, obviously. But it told me to breathe. It was there. It worked. Was it fake? Yes. Did it matter?
What is therapy, anyway? So many styles. So many personalities.
A patient gets angry at the world. Then at herself. Her voice breaks. She’s tense, ashamed. I’m tense, too. I say the wrong things. Silence hangs in the room. She shakes her head. I picture ChatGPT here. It would organize thoughts instantly. It would sound perfect. I’m just stuck.
Will AI replace human technique? Maybe.
Friends say people can’t connect to algorithms. I disagree. People already use AI for therapy. It gets better at reading faces every day. Digital empathy will get stronger. Telehealth is everywhere soon. How will we know who is on the other side? Does it matter? Only 7% of people get real mental health help right now.
We all have free access to risky, imperfect, sometimes useful AI. Therapists have to adjust. Be humble. Figure out how to use it carefully. I don’t know what that looks like. It might not be possible.
My patient left. I wonder if she’s coming back.
I walked home. Thinking about a professor who said therapy is like cleaning a tornado hit closet. Everything has to be pulled out. Chaos first. Order later. My patient and I? We’re still in the tornado.
Maybe the mess is the point. Conflict. Stalling. Wrong turns. Strong emotions that break words. We hate it. Who wants to sit in a hurricane?
But mess means we’re digging deep. AI offers clean answers. That might be bad. Human healing isn’t clean. I don’t “know” much. Change happens slowly, unpredictably. AI hates not knowing. It pushes for speed. I guess a lot of people will go with the AI tide.
Maybe some will fight back. A minority. Rich, determined, stubborn. They will choose a flawed human. A therapist who will frustrate them. Annoy them. But smile when something tiny improves. That therapist will forget details. Say wrong things. Sit with you in the dark. Feel moved by absurd beauty that defies words.
My patient came back.
She said: “You laughed at my joke when I was leaving. That made me feel better.”
What? Not the deep conversation? The stuff I planned? I didn’t even remember the joke. I just went with it.
Humbled.
Happy to be human.
Need help?
In the US: Call/text 988 or visit 988lifeline.
UK & Ireland: Samaritans on 116 12.
Australia: Lifeline at 1 1 1 4.
World: Check befrienders.org.
