by Mariya Mykhaylova, LCSW

AI IN THE CONSULTING ROOM

A therapist and creative in San Francisco, I am situated in the borderlands of tech. My connections to it are primarily through my relationships with clients and loved ones in the industry. Perhaps all of us in the Bay Area are in one way or another either in tech or tech-adjacent. 

In the borderlands, you hear things. It’s not unlike learning a new language – the difference between front end and back end web development, the meaning of acronyms like UX, IPO, and PM (though I’ll probably always mix up who is a product manager versus project manager because they sound exactly the same to me). Sometimes the jargon goes over my head. To hang onto the thread, I focus less on the content and use context clues to get at the emotional meaning.

As of late, murmurs about AI and ChatGPT are intensifying both from those in tech and the tech-adjacent. A software developer friend worries she is going to be out of a job. My social media is riddled with picturesque avatars created by Lensa AI. At a gallery in Palo Alto, I overhear an engineer and an artist debate whether AI is more of an asset or a detriment to the creative process. “If you can’t beat them, join them” meets “AI is the executioner of creativity.” Both seemingly walk away with their opinions intact. 

GPT chatter hits closer to home as psychotherapist listservs hum with anxiety that AI is going to change our field as we know it. I mostly scroll past the threads. An old flame writes, “it’s coming…” and sends an article about Koko, an online mental health service that piloted the use of GPT-3 chatbots. I read the story and feel underwhelmed. “Simulated empathy feels weird, empty,” says Morris, co-founder of Koko. See? Nothing to worry about, I decide. A believer in the value of authentic contact with another human being, I don’t see a bot coming to take my job anytime soon. 

A month later, ChatGPT comes up in session with two clients in a single week. In each case, a fantasy of arriving at a just-right answer. A fantasy, perhaps, that I could provide a just-right answer – though this interpretation doesn’t come to me till later. In these moments, I feel competitive with an unforeseen analytic third, as if the function of thinking together has been forgotten. Could the tables turn on me, on all of us, so quickly? 

Regaining my balance, I remember that such moments are only the beginning. As long as our clients keep coming – and we therapists keep thinking about what is happening inside and outside our consulting rooms – we can continue to approach any and all clinical material with curiosity. I do wonder how the allure of AI may shape how we make decisions, communicate, and self-reflect. I do, however, remain optimistic about the possibilities. 

As for me? ChatGPT and I remain strangers, at least for now. I feel resistant to the notion that a bot – even a very intelligent one – can tell me how to think, how to create. Perhaps another part of me worries that I will like it. At present, my perspective regarding AI remains cautious and complex at best. We’ll see what they include in the next update.