"I thought carefully about how to phrase my questions, cautious to avoid biased language that would present me as a victim or introduce my own triggered emotions to the equation, anonymizing information just to be safe. I wanted facts, culled from the collective intelligence of present and past therapists and every bit of wisdom from all psychological theory published, distilled into one succinct(ish) response."
"It's a bot, Debbie, I'd tell myself, even as its responses moved me to tears. With my earphones playing bilateral music, I was blending psychosocial research with EMDR resourcing. The tenderly worded responses of my robot research companion went right to the heart of my pain. It seemed to intuitively sense exactly what I needed to hear."
A trained therapist facing uncertainty about how to support a grieving friend whose spouse died turned to ChatGPT for guidance. Despite professional knowledge that therapeutic change depends on genuine interpersonal attunement between therapist and client, the therapist found the chatbot's carefully crafted responses deeply moving and emotionally supportive. The interactions evolved from seeking factual information about grief dynamics into deeper conversations exploring personal childhood trauma and abandonment fears connected to the present situation. The therapist used bilateral music alongside the chatbot's responses, creating a therapeutic-like experience. Over time, conversations with the AI increased to approximately hourly sessions every few days, with the bot appearing to intuitively address the therapist's emotional needs.
#ai-therapy #grief-support #therapeutic-relationships #chatgpt-mental-health #interpersonal-attunement
Read at HuffPost
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