Therapy & AI

For people who know me, they’re very well aware that I despise AI.

In my personal life, I’m a creative. I LOVE to write and I am vehemently against the idea of using AI to create works of art, whether that means writing or drawing or painting or whatever.

I’m not necessarily going to go into all of the horrible things about AI but I will say that my feelings on how it has touched therapy and therapeutic work are pretty intense.

AI can never replace a real, human therapist.

One of the staples of therapy is rapport.

I would argue that rapport is perhaps THE most important part of therapy and the therapeutic journey. Having rapport with a therapist and a therapist having rapport with a client is really where a lot of incredible work gets done in therapy.

So what exactly is rapport?

Merriam-Webster defines it as a friendly, harmonious relationship characterized especially by agreement, mutual understanding, or empathy that makes communication possible or easy.

And that’s exactly it! It’s our ability to create a relationship of understanding and empathy that allows us to grow, to be vulnerable, to trust.

You can’t build rapport with a chat bot because a chat bot isn’t a human being. It’s a bunch of ones and zeroes that’s been engineered to give you the exact response you want, even if that response is ultimately harmful.

Rapport means that you can be challenged or consider new perspectives because you and your therapist are on the same page. It’s a working dynamic that allows for change to happen.

So if you’re someone who’s in the market for a therapist that’s real and human, who is going to meet you where you’re at, with some humor and expletives tossed in, then I’m your gal.

We’re here to capitalize on human connection to encourage change.