May 19, 2026
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become increasingly common in present day society, particularly in the mental health sector. Clients can use AI to learn about their symptoms, some therapists have integrated AI-assisted note taking, and there even is the trend of using AI “therapy.” It is important to understand how AI works so that you can differentiate between the dangers of relying on AI in therapy, and the ways it can be used responsibly to enhance care.
As a registered psychotherapist who has been practicing for the past 5 years I can see both the risks and opportunities for using AI in therapy. While AI can help be a supportive tool in the therapeutic process to enhance care, it cannot replace the sense of safety, feeling of attunement, and ethical responsibility of a trained professional.
Psychoeducation is one of the biggest powerhouses of therapy. It allows clients to understand why they feel a certain way, how their nervous system responds, and discover what tools help. AI can offer explanations, examples and exercises which for many people can provide a sense of clarity and control helping accelerate the healing process.
AI can be a great source of support between sessions as it can provide scientific based coping strategies, help clients organize their thoughts, help track mood patterns, or even be space for a client to journal. When using it lie this it can reinforce therapeutic work and help clients feel more prepared for their sessions.
For therapists AI can help reduce the labour of administrative work but drafting emails, summarizing research, creating check lists, help create psychoeducational content, and aid in note-taking during client sessions.
While therapy can be beneficial it can also be quite costly and can be challenging for certain people to access. AI (if used responsibly) can help close the barrier with some of these aspects by offering immediate support, providing low-cost psychoeducation, anonymity, and help for people who are hesitant to seek therapy.
Therapy is relational, and while AI can mimic empathy it cannot feel it. Unlike a trained psychotherapist who can track subtle cues and respond with attuned judgment. AI does not have the ability to recognize changes in tone, body language, or eye contact which are some of the most essential components of psychotherapy. The drawbacks of missing these can lead to overlooking trauma responses, missed signs of dissociation, failure to repair ruptures, or reinforcement of unhealthy patterns. AI can stimulate warmth, but it cannot coregulation, presence, or human connection.
All though AI models vary and operate differently, general models are not trained to assess risk, make ethical decisions or understand context. This can become dangerous for vulnerable users as tends to generate responses based on patterns and not clinical reasoning. This risks it affirming harmful behavior instead of challenging it, reinforcing cognitive distortions, provide inconsistent responses, and offer unsafe guidance around complex topics such as self-harm or substance use.
Confidentiality is a sacred part of the therapeutic process and as AI platforms are not regulated by any health-privacy laws, such as PHIPA or HIPA, they pose a threat to the client’s privacy. Clients’ may also not realize their conversations may be stored, analyzed, or used to train future AI models.
With AI tools being available 24/7 and with the lack of boundaries, it can very easily become a “digital crutch.” By offering of frictionless validation AI can make real-world relationships feel hard in comparison and this may lead clients to avoid those real relationships as they build a parasocial attachment. Moreover, it prevents us from learning how to tolerate discomfort and silence
AI cannot call emergency services, assess for immediate risk, or provide crisis intervention, which increases the risk for vulnerable clients. This can make complex topics, such as high-level suicide risk, dangerous.
What is important to remember is that AI can be helpful if used ethically and responsibly but cannot replace genuine human connection. Think of AI as tool to aid in the therapeutic process rather than a system to replace it.
Cheyanne Dsouza is an individual and couples therapist who uses a person-centered approach to provide warm, empathetic counselling support. She works collaboratively with clients experiencing anxiety, depression, ADHD, cultural concerns, relational challenges, and other mental health concerns. Her approach may include CBT, emotionally focused therapy, the Gottman Method, ACT, mindfulness-based approaches, and DBT.
.svg)
.svg)
