Al Jazeera Podcasts.

Today, AI ChatBots are reshaping what therapy looks like.

I think that chatGPT can help therapists step up their game.

We're in a moment where therapy bots are everywhere.

But is the tech really that good, or are we just that lonely?

I'm Natasha Altaro, and this is the take. I'll be honest.

I did not expect to take chat bot therapy seriously when I started researching this story,

but then I came across this study out of Dartmouth College, where participants spent

eight weeks with an AI therapist, and to my surprise, many felt real relief.

They had less anxiety, fewer symptoms of depression.

Some even felt a connection.

Now, the research is still early, but it did make me pause.

If a machine can comfort us, what does that say about us?

About the kind of support that we're looking for and maybe not getting.

I reached out to Michael Alsay.

He's a clinical psychologist and author based in New York.

Michael, thank you so much for being here. I have so many questions. But before we dive in, I wanted to

just kind of like set the table here to understand, how do you define

therapy? Yeah, so the technical definition is, it's the art and science of healing through a relationship.

But it's better to actually see it, which is through a metaphor. And the metaphor is going to therapy is like having a table

set before us, and we're inviting all the different sides of us to come to the table. And we're curious

about which sides talk the most, which sides talk the least, and which sides aren't even invited

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