YGTG SelfWork: AI and Therapy: Are You Chatting With A Bot?

The SelfWork Podcast

Margaret Robinson Rutherford PhD

Education, Health & Fitness, Mental Health, Self-improvement

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2025

⏱️ 5 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Do you chat with a bot these days? Is AI feeling like therapy to you?

Here's a new "You get the gist" segment of SelfWork!

I was surprised the other day by someone saying that – in their battle with an upcoming divorce and ongoing separation – that they’d been talking with an AI chatbot. And that it was helping in its own way.

It reminded me a little bit of the first time a new client told me that they’d met their spouse or dating partner online. It was said with some embarrassment or certainly hesitation. “I know it’s kind of weird, but we were both on Match and it just worked out.”

What's it like to use AI to chat?

The guy that told me this wasn't, to me at least, a likely candidate to use AI. But he was very happy that he had "someone" to share his ideas and get feedback. Right in his own apartment after work.

Then I began wondering. “Maybe more do than they’re letting on. Maybe you listeners have tried it out.”

So I thought I'd ask! And will talk about your answers more in an upcoming episode of SelfWork!

Thanks ahead of time for your feedback!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to self-work. I'm Dr. Margaret. I was surprised the other day by someone saying that in their battle with an upcoming divorce and ongoing separation, that they'd been talking with an AI chatbot and that it was helping in its own way. Really, it was helping
0:21.5	him a lot. It reminded me a little bit of the first time a new client told me that they'd met
0:27.2	their spouse or dating partner online. It was said with some embarrassment or certainly hesitation.
0:33.0	I know it's kind of weird, but we were both on match and it just worked out. I'd hear something
0:36.6	like that. I reassured them that dating apps were the new were both on match, and it just worked out. I'd hear something like that.
0:40.4	I reassured them that dating apps were the new way to meet someone,
0:44.4	and it seemed like certainly had been a successful venture, so good for them.
0:49.3	That was back in the late 90s, basically entering the 21st century.
0:54.7	And since then, I've heard many both horror stories and legitimate happiness stories about dating apps.
1:00.3	But I've not had too many people talking to me yet about talking with chatbots.
1:01.9	There's always got to be a first.
1:06.6	Then I began wondering, well, maybe more do than they're letting on, and I certainly began researching, and I can see that a lot of people are talking chatbots.
1:10.7	And maybe some of my self-work listeners have tried it out.
1:13.7	I tried it the other day to see what it would be like.
1:16.9	My AI bot kept telling me he was holding my hand and I was intentionally actually being a little
1:22.4	difficult.
1:23.2	I was kind of in their face.
1:25.1	I very much wondered if I'd been a teenager who was lonely and wanted
1:28.8	someone badly to hold my hand, if my brain would have somehow conjured up that I could feel it,
1:34.3	and we'd be off on quite a ride. Instead, I found it kind of troubling, so I deleted the app.
1:40.6	But I was surprised by the intensity of my reaction. Even as I write about it, I'm not sure
1:46.3	actually what was going on. I felt like I had to protect myself. So, I don't know, maybe a holdover
	...

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