Why AI CANNOT do therapy
2026.05.28
Hello, I am Tatsuya Arakawa, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in California.
With the rapid advancement of AI, more people are starting to view tools like ChatGPT as a substitute for therapy, and so-called "AI therapy" services have begun to emerge. However, these are not the same as receiving therapy from an actual human being. Not only that, but using them can potentially worsen your symptoms. In this article, I would like to address this very issue.
So, why is it that "AI therapy" can never become a true alternative to real therapy? (well, aside from the fact "AI therapy" is not therapy anyways)
There are several reasons for this:
1. A Relationship Built on Trust
The most significant factor in the success of therapy is the human relationship built on trust between the therapist and the client. It is a misconception to think that therapy is simply about receiving sophisticated advice and acting on it. Real therapy means standing right beside the client as they earnestly confront problems that have no absolute answers, and gently giving them a push forward. The engine that drives this process is emotion. Therapy is about facing those emotions, accepting them, and feeling them together—even when they are painful. A robot, however, cannot do this. Why? Because robots do not have emotions. If a problem has an easy, straightforward answer, a robot might be of help, but that is not what therapy is about in the first place.
2. Nothing More Than Information from the Internet
AI primarily gathers and responds based on information available on the internet. However, what is written on the internet is not always accurate. To make it worse, the internet is flooded with mountains of incorrect information. It is obvious that responses based on such flawed information could end up worsening a person's condition.
3. A Client's Self-Understanding is Not Always Correct
Clients do not always have an accurate understanding of their own psychological symptoms. In fact, it is quite common for them to misunderstand what they are experiencing. For example, a client might think their feeling of depression is a symptom of clinical depression, when the root cause is actually an anxiety disorder. Since AI makes judgments based solely on what a user types, if a client types something based on a flawed self-understanding, the AI's response will naturally lead to incorrect coping mechanisms and advice.
As stated above, what is being promoted as AI-driven therapy cannot actually be true therapy.
Tatsuya Arakawa Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), California #82425