It has a silent room where no one prepares you to go through therapy.
It's not the first session. Neither is it the breakthroughs nor the tears.
It's the in-between.
The days following a session in which one feels emotions, but they are not complete. The ones when an epiphany occurs at 1 a.m.
The times when something is a priority, yet you have not even met your next appointment days later. To most individuals this was a space that was filled with journaling, distraction or even silence. Every day, a growing number of individuals are resorting to a novel development AI chatbots.
Not as therapists, not as replacements but as something in between.
A place to think out loud, a place to organize feelings.
A spot where one does not feel so isolated when in need of human help.
This change brings up some significant concerns--some optimistic, some disturbing. And to speak about it frankly, we should get out of extremes. AI is not a panacea nor a mind health menace per se. As is the case with most tools, its effect is determined by its usage, purpose, and method.
This debate is important since it is already taking place.
Therapy works--but is not always there.
Majority of individuals would attend sessions once a week, or once in every two weeks. Feelings do not work on time. Insights don't wait. Anxiety does not take its time until you free up space in your calendar.
The days in-between the sessions are described by many individuals as being emotionally active and unsupported. Thoughts surface. Old patterns replay. Emerging consciousness is painful and then it is reassuring.
You might notice:
Emotions becoming more serious post-therapy.
Things you have not thought to ask during the session.
Wish to digest something at once.
Fear of forgetting some useful knowledge.
Lonely when the world is down.
The gap may seem even bigger to individuals who are waiting to begin therapy, whether because of the cost, the availability of the therapy, or because there is a long list. Attention to mental health needs is increasing, although not necessarily the opportunity to satisfy them in practice.
It is the emotional terrain where AI support has intervened not as a panacea to all the problems, but as a reaction to a very tangible void.
Whenever individuals discuss the application of AI chatbots to find emotional support, it is not often concerned with convenience or novelty. It's usually about immediacy.
At midnight some one is in a state of disorientation , nobody would want to give a load to a friend--once more. A person has to calm down on the mental race.
One of them desires to say something before his next session.AI chatbots provide one thing, but it is strong: they are available.
They don't sleep.
They don't rush.
They don't interrupt.
To others, this assists them in being more forthright in their speech. There's no fear of judgment. No worry about being "too much." No social consequences.It does not mean that AI is like a human. Yet there are moments when it is something to come home to.
AI Chatbots can be used wisely as emotional scaffoldings, which are short-term assistance to enable individuals not to get emotionally lost during the intersession.
Among the most useful applications of AI, there is assistance in expressing feelings in words to people. Not everyone is able to stay calm because it is the emotions that are hard to enweave, that is why many people do not know what to do. Clarification can be created by writing or speaking through thoughts even to a non-human listener.
AI can also help with:
In simple words, reflection of emotions.
Determining thought patterns.
Propositions of suspension and grounding.
Assisting users in making therapy topic preparations.
In Favor of journaling and self reflection.
Giving prompt suggestions rather than silence.
This can alleviate pressure in some of them which they introduce in a therapy session. They come more consciously than when they take half the session attempting to remember what seemed important during the week.
This does not take the place of therapy- it tends to add to it.
This is one of the most sincere justifications of the use of AI support:
There is a relief that one can speak without worrying about hitting.
Most individuals are afraid to contact friends or family as they fear:
That social calculation is eliminated by AI. You don't have to edit. You do not need to convince the listener. There is no need to contextualize.
This may come in very handy particularly with individuals who:
By so doing, AI would be able to reduce the bar in expressing emotions, not eliminating relationships, but simplifying it to be honest.
One should be specific on what AI support can possibly provide.
AI can help slow things down. It may assist in sorting out the ideas, it may be used to alleviate instant emotional acuity. It is unable to do deep emotional wounds, fix attachment patterns, and offer relational healing. Those things occur in relation--with human beings.
Applied properly, AI can work more like:
It Favors control and not elimination. And that difference is important.
The threat of applying AI mental health support doesn't lie in the tool itself, it lies in the absence of consideration.
AI lacks experience in life, it does not feel concern.
It fails to tune to the emotion, it is able to perceive language patterns, but not to feel a change of energy, silence or body language. It is not able to possess space as another human being can.
Another actual threat is over-reliance. By making the place of emotional processing the main concern of AIs, individuals might end up avoiding:
Vulnerable conversations
Discomfort of being seen
Human repair and connection, not due to their choice--but because AI is more comfortable.
Ease is, however, not the same as healing.
Therapy is effective due to relationship.
Healing is frequent, not only by means of insight, but by:
Being witnessed
Feeling understood
Experiencing repair
Navigating misunderstandings
Together, sitting uncomfortablely.
AI is not able to provide that level of relationality. It is unable to counter avoidance in any meaningful ways. It is unable to see what you fail to say. It is unable to become ethical at times of crisis.
That is why AI should never be used without human care, regardless of how responsible one uses it.
A minor threat of AI assistance is that it may make it appear fruitful to avoid.
It is possible that you might repeat the same issue over and over again without taking a step towards change.
You may be a vent rather than an actor.
You may examine emotions and not be doing them.
This does not imply that AI makes people avoid, but it can make it possible when unconsciously used.
That's why intention matters.
Ask yourself:
Is this serving my purpose, --or preventing my purpose?
Am I reading this to get ready to therapy--or to substitute it?
Am I still reaching to human connection when I require it?
These are not the questions of guilt. They're about awareness.
Individuals who have experienced the greatest benefits of AI support are likely to use it in a limited way.
They use it to:
They don't use it as:
The healthy use does not appear compulsive.
Consider a client of therapy with anxiety.
They become aware of something meaningful regarding their fear patterns after a session- but the knowledge is disturbing. They do not desire to spin the whole night around. They open an AI chat and write at will within ten minutes.
The chatbot echoes their thoughts, makes them relax, and proposes grounding. They are more at ease, not cured, but made more sure.
They carry this thought into their subsequent therapy session. The AI had not tackled the problem--it had assisted in holding it till the human assistance could be offered.
That's the role AI plays best.
Although there is a commonly held fear, a significant number of therapists do not have anything against AI tools, per se. It is not the way they are used that matters to them.
Therapists often encourage:
These practices can be assisted by AI, but only under the condition of positioning it as an addition, rather than replacement.
Other therapists even welcome clients who come with clearer reflections, because it enables deeper sessions where the initial sessions are not based on nothingness.
Another thing that should be discussed is data privacy, emotional safety, and realistic expectations. AI is not supposed to offer any healing, diagnosis, or crisis intervention. Users are supposed to understand when to look immediately to the human assistance.
Credibility is brought about by Candor--not exaggerated ability.
There does not necessarily have to be an either-or when it comes to the future of mental health support.
It can be:
AI support can be applied in the most efficient way where it keeps within the boundaries of technology and does not replace the human connection that can never be substituted.
The support does not necessarily come in ideal ways. At times it manifests itself in the form of talking to a close therapist. It may be in the form of some silent moments where you pull yourself together to sort the thoughts so that they do not overwhelm.
AI chatbots are not healers, but they can be helpers. When applied in a conscious way, they are able to retain space not to replace people but to wait until people are available.
That is important in a society where emotional requirements tend to exceed access to care.It is not aimed at substituting therapy. It is to serve man--between times, between breathing, between times of wanting and being grasped.
