Admittedly, when people are trying to find solutions to address relatively simple problems, they might find something helpful and practical in Chat GPT. However, what is being increasingly troublesome about this kind of app is that it is heavily biased towards agreeing, pleasing, and even colluding with its user.
An example I recently heard of at our clinic is of an adult who had many grievances about his childhood, and towards one of his parents. After using a Chat GPT program to unload all his complaints, the chat box issued a long “letter” summarizing all he wished he could have said to that parent. The letter was devoid of nuances and ignorant of the complexity of factors, relational issues and circumstances that affected his childhood. Nevertheless, the user felt “heard”, validated, even somewhat vindicated by reading this robot-generated summary.
In contrast to this, people reach out to our clinic wanting to better address the signs and symptoms of mental health issues, anxiety, phobias and depressive states being the most common. They want to come to resolution about their past, counter their conditioning or programming, and realign with their own sense of agency. They want to heal from accumulated years of limiting beliefs, stress or trauma, and regain a way of life that is more expansive rather than constricted. They yearn to feel connected to their passions and to like-minded supportive people rather than being isolated; they want to thrive and feel fully alive, rather than merely exist or survive on auto-pilot mode.
This is when a skilled counselling therapist, as I am, makes all the difference that a robot cannot make. The years of training and experience enable me to attune to the client, create safety, to recognize stressors, patterns, strengths, protective and defense mechanisms, core programming, and identify underlying reasons for dysregulation, and finally integrate repair tools to achieve wellness and peace of mind. Additionally, the state of calm of the attentive human therapist is likely to subtly and positively influence the nervous system of the client, thereby assisting him to journey back to the state we call calm/alive. In each person, there is a level of complexity that’s similar to the uniqueness of each star in the immeasurable vastness of the milky way. This uniqueness in clients and their challenges call for the caring attentiveness of a sharply attuned, skilled and highly experienced professional that can – unlike any robot – truly honor the dignity of each human client with whom they co-create a forward path of healing and growth.
If you find yourself craving to experience the multiple benefits of a counselling therapy process, I hope you will make the right choice and take the next step: to call Alpine (604 732-3930 and book a session or a free consultation.