Will AI replace psychological counselors?

Wen| Open up life

With the rise of large AI models such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek, people’s writing skills are amazing, and the focus of psychological counseling is on conversation and language work.

Will psychological counselors be replaced by this AI peer?

AI is making its debut in psychological counseling

In November 2022, OpenAI launched ChatGPT. The consistency of context creates a feeling similar to human dialogue, known as the ChatGPT moment.

Some researchers have tested AI’s theory of mind, which is the ability to understand other people’s mental states, such as discovering false beliefs, reading hints, understanding sarcasm, etc. When comparing GPT-4 with 1907 human participants, it was found that GPT-4 performed at or above humans. [1]

The rapid trend of AI capabilities makes people believe that it can be competent for more tasks in consulting.

Last year, a comparative study between AI consultants and human consultants found that GPT-4 based on the CBT cognitive behavioral therapy prompt word project had a higher degree of compliance with CBT methods in counseling. [2]

AI-based psychological counseling and psychological healing products have also begun to explode, including virtual consultants, psychological question and answer robots, etc.

How does the consultation effect affect?

The key to solving the AI substitution puzzle lies in understanding the core mechanism by which psychological counseling works.

In 1936, psychologist Sol Rosenzger first noticed that although there were differences between various psychotherapies, the effects were roughly similar.

It’s much like a game in “Alice in Wonderland” where all winners are won: the contestants can start and end whenever they want, and the Dodo, as the referee, finally declares: Everyone has won, everyone has a prize.

Rosenzger used the Dodo Hypothesis to describe the competition between therapies, in which everyone wins.

He believes that the difference in the effectiveness of psychological counseling does not come from psychotherapy itself, but from common factors behind the therapy, such as expectations, relationships, relationships with counselors, etc. [3]

“Is the Dodo Hypothesis true? What common factors affect the effectiveness of consultation?

In 1997, psychologist Bruce E. Warmpold completed the most systematic meta-analysis of counseling effects, summarizing 113 comparative studies of psychotherapies from 1970 to 1995, confirming that differences in therapies have little impact on counseling effects. [4]

These common factors that affected the effectiveness of counseling were integrated into the situational model. [5]

old found thatWhen initial trust is established at the first glance, the consultation effect is influenced by three paths.——

1. Path 1: Real Relationship
2. Path 2: Expectation formation
3. Path 3: Action feedback

The first is the real relationship, which refers to the sincere and open interaction between the two parties during consultation, transcending professional roles and achieving real connection between people. Becoming yourself in a real relationship is the key to healing.

Real relationships are exactly the same as Rogers, the founder of humanistic consulting, who believes that the three prerequisites for the transformation of consulting are sincere, unconditional positive attention and empathy, which is also creating real relationships.

Then there is the formation of expectations, and the client believes that completing the consultation will achieve the goal, just like the placebo effect of Xinzeling. The key to the formation of expectations is to reach consensus on the goal, as well as the interpretation and method of achieving the goal.

The work alliance often referred to in consultation is that consultants and visitors have the same goals and tasks. This is the focus of expectation formation. All therapies have a self-consistent set of theories and techniques to shape expectations.

The last factor is to guide visitors to take beneficial actions. It is not a grand change, but a minimum action to verify the feasibility of the new way of living and enter a positive cycle of change-reward-re-change.

According to empirical research by Warmpold and others, when three paths work, the consultation effect will occur.

Can AI replace psychological counselors?

Is AI competent in the three paths of consultation effectiveness?

Goals are the key to Path 2 (expectation formation), and AI has potential. Some people have the experience of being moved by AI. Although their inner thoughts are not expressed, they are expressed by AI, creating the feeling of being seen. Although this is an illusion of empathy, it also confirms the ability of AI.

AI also has advantages in explaining and methods to achieve Path 2 goals and has good compliance with consulting knowledge. Current industry attempts are to enable AI to complete interpretation based on theory through prompt word engineering.

AI also has potential in feedback on actions on Path 3. When constraining the client’s situation and theoretical framework, AI can find targeted and specific suggestions and say whether there are clever ideas that flash.

Therefore, it is optimistic that AI has the potential to reach a higher level in Path 2 (expectation formation) and Path 3 (action feedback) of consultation effects because they are more knowledge-based.

The key question is, is AI competent for the real relationship of Path 1?

irreplaceable interpersonal relationships

Real relationships are based on two common factors, one is truthful presentation in interpersonal relationships, and the other is perceptual feedback in interactions.[6]

AI cannot make people feel in an interpersonal relationship and present themselves truthfully. This is the fundamental limitation of AI——

Please imagine a scene:

There is a problem in your heart and you feel conflicted. There are three ways to respond, write in a diary, talk to an AI, or talk to someone?

Just imagine and believe in these three methods will also make you feel different.

The reason why you feel different is simple. Even if AI develops to a high enough level, you still regard it as a tool and cannot build a feeling of interpersonal relationship. Cheers, sorrows, sorrows, and sorrows are meaningful only when they are connected to others.

The existentialist philosopher Martin Buber divides the relationship into two types: me and it and me and you. The relationship with AI is my relationship with it.

This is an instrumental relationship that objectifies the other party, only cares about function, and projects unilaterally. But in turn, I trapped myself in my fixed script with it.“”

Under the tool relationship, the so-called growth is just to patch problems, repeat the original old path, limit oneself to a specific role, and cannot grow. Just like in intimate relationships, when there is only my relationship with it, then only the secular function of daily necessities, rice, oil and salt to bear children is left.

Real growth is to break out of the fixed script.Re-choose your own model and direction.

No longer act out of fear, habit, or external expectations, but make choices based on your inner true feelings and values and enter your shared relationship. Just as, if we have a profound intimate relationship, we will realize that you and I have greater enthusiasm for life.

Although AI is also trying to anthropomorize, tools and people are no longer clearly separated. For example, Replika’s virtual partner creates a virtual personality by remembering key information and mentioning it in subsequent conversations.

However, in addition to technical limitations and ethical risks, the artificial characteristics of AI are fundamentally tool attributes and cannot generate interpersonal relationships.

Equally important perceptual feedback

The truthful presentation of interpersonal relationships is not a closed loop of the consultation effect, but also requires perceptual feedback.

Perception and response to each other’s state through multi-sensory channels, including verbal and non-verbal dimensions. This is another major limitation of AI.

Please imagine another scene——

You don’t want others to notice my vulnerability and insist on saying that I am doing well, but look out the window evasive.

Others ignore your expression and only communicate based on words that you have a good life. You won’t feel understood.

The AI core is trained based on text and cannot pay attention to other information. At the same time, feedback cannot be provided through other means, such as silence, eyes, expressions, etc.

As the 7%-38%-55% rule demonstrates, when expressing emotional words, non-verbal cues such as intonation and body language often outweigh the language itself. Although the research has specific contexts, it does reveal the key role of nonverbal communication in emotional expression. [7]

Phenomenological philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty believed that body and mind are not binary, that people do not have bodies, but bodies. Perception is not a conscious activity separated from the body, but the result of the blending of the body and the world.

So,The real perceptual feedback is the empathy generated by the body, not just the transmission of information。Sympathetic interaction is important in understanding life. When a person feels you, when you feel that a person feels you, such perceptual feedback can enrich the life experience.

Only information interaction cannot be effective perceptual feedback, because for life experience, no matter how much you know, you cannot live a good life, or even be bound by life experience. Information is only useful to the world beyond life experience.

Although AI’s multimodal emotional computing is the direction of technological development, integrating multimodal signals such as visual, auditory, and physiological signals from a single modality, such as the combination of text and voice tones to explain human emotions.

However, in addition to the complexity of perception of sacrifice in the eyes, ears, nose, and body, it hinders the development of AI’s multi-modal. At the same time, the specific feedback is also a sudden silence of people who lack dialogue, and you may feel uneasy. The sudden silence of AI will be a malfunction.

Even with more physical interfaces, AI is still data processing and fundamentally lacks the experience of being a physical subject existing in the world. Digital simulation cannot create empathy interactions.

There is no substitute for consultants who create real relationships

The real relationships created by psychological counselors cannot be replaced by AI. Not only is technology in its early stages, it is fundamentally limited.

Therefore, the ability of psychological counselors to create real relationships has become even more important——

On the one hand, consultants should be more themselves and have a stronger subjectivity, making it easier for visitors to enter into a co-existing relationship and present truthfully.

The key to becoming yourself is to face life issues and break out of rigid scripts. The disclosure of life experience is the entrance for visitors to enter the shared relationship.

At the same time, improving the ability to interact in empathy is the core of perceptual feedback.

Empathic skills are important, such as perceiving conflicts between a client’s language and behavior. But more importantly, be with your own feelings. When you feel yourself more and you feel others more, you feel like you are under the skin of the other person and feel his emotions and needs firsthand.

If psychological knowledge is compared to a map, life experience is the territory. The rise of AI has made knowledge more popular and intelligent, but it is not that the more maps there are, the wider the territory.

Consultants also need to cultivate their own life experiences, use themselves as a bridge, and support visitors to expand their own life boundaries.

Subdivide scenarios to let AI better serve you

Although AI cannot create real relationships, it has brought fundamental changes to the healing field and found ways to leverage it.

Analyze the healing scenarios based on the cornerstone of consultation effectiveness and the real relationship. Through two dimensions, the type of relationship presented truthfully (tool relationship/coexisting relationship) and the interaction method of perceptual feedback (information interaction/symbiotic interaction), a healing scenario matrix is built to analyze AI’s positioning in different healing scenarios. and boundaries.

1. Scenario 1: Specific problem solving Based on tool relationship and information interaction, the value proposition is information assistant. Assessment interpretation, emotional diary analysis, behavioral tracking analysis, etc. belong to this category. AI can assume the primary executor, while consultants design the framework and monitor quality.

2. Scenario 2: Specific topic experience Experience is generated based on tool relationships, but requires empathy interactions. The value positioning of such scenarios is professional leadership. For example, stress management courses, emotional regulation training camps, psychological drama performances, etc. Professionals play a leading role, and AI can be used as an auxiliary tool, such as identifying and refining requirements. As multimodal technology evolves, it can assume greater roles.

3. Scenario 3: Answers to Inner Problems Turning to the coexistence relationship, but focusing on information interaction, the value positioning is that the mentor solves doubts, similar to the following scenarios, solving puzzles, listening to emotions, and discussing problems. Human existence is the core, perhaps because the relationship is trustworthy, or because a real person is needed. AI can play a pre-existing analytical role here, form preliminary assumptions, and provide systematic summaries afterwards, but it cannot replace one’s existence. However, the evolution of virtual personalities will expand the boundaries of AI.

4. Scenario 4: Expansion of life experience Based on the symbiotic relationship, through symbiotic interaction, the value is positioned as companionship support. Such in-depth scenarios are needed in life experience areas such as in-depth consultation, crisis intervention, and life expansion. At this time, it becomes important to unconditionally enter the state of coexistence and empathy, while the outside world is interference. AI can become a partner after the dialogue, but intervention before and during the dialogue should be avoided to maintain the purity of the experience.

A four-quadrant healing scene matrix,It not only reveals the role and limitations of AI tools, but also helps different participants in healing scenarios find the key points and paths.

Adhere to value and use tools well

A consultation is a complex process, which not only involves the expansion of life experience, but also the solution of specific problems, such as evaluation and interpretation. Consultants divide scenarios and rationally apply AI tools, which can not only improve consultation efficiency, but also improve consultation effectiveness.

Similar to consultants, creators who create healing value through products can also find the value rationality of specific scenarios and not be taken away by AI tools.

Current AI technology is more suitable for information assistants and is a healing scenario that can be closed in the current loop. The rest of the scenarios are auxiliary and intervene in a certain link of the value chain.

For example, psychological assessment, the interpretation of the self within a certain framework, symbiotic relationships and symbiotic interactions are not the focus of assessment. AI can give a more targeted and personalized explanation and has a unique role.

Users of psychological counseling and other treatments should clarify the focus of current needs. Different needs point to different healing scenarios, which also determine the boundaries of the role AI can play in them. Recognize the priorities of your own needs and better obtain growth support.

“Whether we enthusiastically affirm or deny technology, we are never free and bound to technology.[8] Continuously reflecting on how AI will reshape consulting relationships and personal growth is the way to enrich life experience.

References:

1.  Strachan, J. W. A., Albergo, D., Borghini, G., Pansardi, O., Scaliti, E., Gupta, S., Saxena, K., Rufo, A., Panzeri, S., Manzi, G., Graziano, M. S. A., & Becchio, C. (2024). Testing theory of mind in large language models and humans. Nature Human Behaviour, 8(7), 1285–1295.↩︎

2.  Iftikhar, Z., Ransom, S., Xiao, A., & Huang, J. (2024). Therapy as an NLP Task: Psychologists’ Comparison of LLMs and Human Peers in CBT. ArXiv,abs/2409.02244.↩︎

3.  Bruce E, Warmpold, Zach E, Emmel. (2019). Psychotherapy Debate (Ren Zhihong, Trans.).↩︎

4.  Wampold, B. E., Mondin, G. W., Moody, M., Stich, F., Benson, K., & Ahn, H. (1997). A meta-analysis of outcome studies comparing bona fide psychotherapies: Empiricially,” all must have prizes. “. Psychological Bulletin, 122(3), 203.↩︎

5.  Wampold, B. E. (2015). How important are the common factors in psychotherapy? An update. World Psychiatry, 14(3), 270–277.↩︎

6.  Gelso, C. J. (2011). The real relationship in psychotherapy: The hidden foundation of change (1st ed). American Psychological Association.↩︎

7.  Albert Mehrabian. (2025). In Wikipedia.↩︎

8.  The Question Concerning Technology. (2024). In Wikipedia.↩︎