AI and therapy

Today I was reading colleagues’ work on how AI is moving deeper into psychology 🤖

According to recent reviews, around 40–45% of mental health professionals already use AI tools in their work — for structuring sessions, wording, psychoeducation, and data analysis.

Among the general public the figures are even more striking: up to 37% of adults have tried turning to AI chatbots for emotional support, and among 18–21 year olds more than 20% discuss anxiety, relationships, and inner conflict with AI. That’s already a new reality 🌍

AI really can be useful. Research in recent years shows that digital assistants can reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms, especially when used in short, structured techniques like cognitive-behavioural exercises. They help people order their thoughts, track emotions, do breathing exercises, put feelings into words — and sometimes simply offer a chance to be heard 💬

But there is something they cannot replace — the therapeutic relationship 🤝

In therapy something happens that no algorithm can model. You are seen not only in your words but in your pauses, breathing, tone. You are held when you are angry or shut down. Someone stays with you when you feel ashamed. Boundaries are set with you without rejection.

AI can sound very human and create a sense of presence, but in essence it only simulates relationship and attachment; it doesn’t create them. It has no real mutuality, no live response, no responsibility to you. It can state unreliable facts with confidence — and much depends on how you phrase the question and what context you provide. It’s a tool, not a partner in relationship.

Deep change in the psyche doesn’t happen because someone was told how to think correctly, but because they lived a new experience of contact ✨ That is what rewrites internal models of attachment. That is what makes a person less easily wounded in real life.

The paradox is that AI can support therapy — as an extra tool between sessions. But it can’t replace it. Because what heals is not the algorithm; what heals is relationship ❤️