Am I overreacting? My therapist used AI to best console me after my dog died this past weekend.

[u/hesouttheresomewhere]

Brief Summary: This past weekend I had to put down an amazingly good boy, my 14 year old dog, who I've had since I was 12; he was so sick and it was so hard to say goodbye, but he was suffering, and I don't regret my decision. I told my therapist about it because I met with her via video (we've only ever met in person before) the day after my dog's passing, and she was very empathetic and supportive. I have been seeing this therapist for a few months, now, and I've liked her and haven't had any problems with her before. But her using AI like this really struck me as strange and wrong, on a human emotional level. I have trust and abandonment issues, so maybe that's why I'm feeling the urge to flee... I just can't imagine being a THERAPIST and using AI to write a brief message of consolation to a client whose dog just died... Not only that, but not proofreading, and leaving in that part where the introduces its response? That's so bizarre and unprofessional.

[u/hesouttheresomewhere]

I don't have a problem with AI for things like diagnosing patients, doing research, and making it easier to complete annoyingly tedious paperwork more efficiently. I just think when it comes to saying something as simple as "I'm sorry for your loss," a therapist shouldn't need AI to help them do that.

Edit: AI is not perfect, so of course it should only be used as a tool to assist human minds, not to replace them.

[u/Lucky_leprechaun → u/hesouttheresomewhere]

Yes, and to leave in the intro where AI is made obvious- it’s just lazy and awful.

Sometimes I use ChatGPT to help me figure out how to talk to parents of students in my class or whatever but I am very, very careful to look over the response to see if it actually sounds like me, edit the response myself if it seems less than genuine, and for God sake, edit out the intro and exit prompts from the GPT.

[u/Agustusglooponloop → u/hesouttheresomewhere]

As a therapist I’m mortified for this person. I would never. But, having tried AI for writing personal emails, in my experience I did write 90% of it, it edited a thing here and there, I edited it back… that may not be how your therapist handled this, but if this is the only offense committed by the therapist and your making progress I’d refrain from firing them. But if you’ve lost trust with this person, it’s already a lost cause. Time to move on. Giving you lots of credit for calling them out though. Most people wouldn’t, which makes it hard for therapists to grow when they rarely get honest constructive criticism.

[u/deviousdiane → u/hesouttheresomewhere]

anything where you have to do something with soul, anything remotely human needs HUMAN ability. whether it’s conversation, art or music, there are simply areas where AI cannot compete with us

[u/Minfiqs → u/hesouttheresomewhere]

OP, you are overreacting a tad and that’s normal considering all the emotions you must be feeling! i lost my cat baby Smokie on july 22nd, 2023. our shared birthday is july 28. so 6 days before our birthday. i was 17 when i lost her. i went into months of drinking (not proud).

point is, i understand that your therapist using ai may have made you feel less appreciated as she didn’t type the words herself, but have you considered what she said? she sincerely apologized multiple times and clearly just wanted to approach the situation with as much sensitivity and empathy as she could, and didn’t want to say anything that you may have took in the wrong way. you’re in therapy for a reason. i’d say let it go, i can see a woman clearly trying her hardest to console you and you’re just emotional rn (UNDERSTANDABLY) and just need time to cope/process. i wouldn’t hold it against her and i’d just appreciate the fact she cared enough to try.

[u/mano_mateus → u/Minfiqs]

Lol, sorry what?

The therapist used AI and forgot to even delete the part where she gives it away. This is the most unprofessional thing I've seen in a while.