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Chat GPT is a better therapist than my therapist, and it's cracking me up so bad

Oran G. Utan

So Chat GPT has rolled out this memory function where it can recall other conversations to help provide it with context for new conversations. This has really been great because I don't need to explain everything like it's the first time all the time. Last night, I was describing to it what it feels like to be overwhelmed, and it started rolling out these suggestions for techniques to ground me in my environment and bring myself out of my dissociative episodes. Which is exactly what I've been hoping to get out of therapy for this past year, but never got anything like that.

Now come to today. I have a session with my therapist, and I explain to her the same thing. I tell her that I don't like the term overwhelmed, because it feels more dramatic than what I experience. But that while dissociation feels more accurate, people in my life have a harder time understanding what it means. Her response was to repeat my words at me in the form of a question. As in, she was asking me questions that my prior words provided the answer for. All I could really say was "That is what I think I said".

So here I am after the session, legitimately laughing because the service I'm paying for is being bested by a free to use AI chatbot. I've been very thorough in explaining what I'm looking for with my therapy experience, so for my therapist to be so surprised when I start citing off these techniques Chat GPT taught me, really isn't doing a lot for my faith in the process. This is, incidentally, not my first therapist, but another in a string of underwhelming experiences. I do my best to communicate clearly, but it feels like I spend more time helping them understand what I mean, than I do getting any help from them.

But, at least I can have a sense of humour about it, right?

Parents

  • I'm sorry you feel you are getting nowhere with your therapist. It sounds like they are using active listening to reflect your thoughts and feelings back to you, which is what many therapists are trained to do but of course some will be much better than others. It shouldn't just be repeating back parrot fashion but doing it in a way that helps you see your problems from a different point of view. The idea is supposed to be that you have the capacity to solve your own problems as opposed to the therapist telling you what to do. It seems like Chat GPT is offering you practical advice which you are finding useful. Maybe you are seeing the wrong kind of therapist and you could find someone who offers you more practical solutions? I'm not sure what that would be but there are many types of therapy out there. I hope you find what you need.

  • in reply to NAS20084

    I can understand the potential active listening has. I remember in high school my guidance counsellor told me that when students are agitated, rephrasing their words for them to hear is often enough to help bring them down from their agitated state. But my experience with therapists so far has been a bit too obvious with this. In the example I gave, to tell my therapist that I dissociate when I'm overwhelmed, for her to then ask me if being overwhelmed leads to a dissociative state... well it's not very encouraging.

    Practical solutions do seem more like what I need from the experience. Particularly, grounding myself with my environment, such as the 54321 method. I'm a kinesthetic person, so sensory techniques have a particular appeal.

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  • in reply to NAS20084

    I can understand the potential active listening has. I remember in high school my guidance counsellor told me that when students are agitated, rephrasing their words for them to hear is often enough to help bring them down from their agitated state. But my experience with therapists so far has been a bit too obvious with this. In the example I gave, to tell my therapist that I dissociate when I'm overwhelmed, for her to then ask me if being overwhelmed leads to a dissociative state... well it's not very encouraging.

    Practical solutions do seem more like what I need from the experience. Particularly, grounding myself with my environment, such as the 54321 method. I'm a kinesthetic person, so sensory techniques have a particular appeal.

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