When AI becomes your therapist: whether you are AI-curious, AI-skeptical, or already using chatbots for emotional support, this conversation will challenge how you think about technology, mental health, and human connection.
As Dr. Rachel Wood, a licensed counselor and cyber psychology expert, recently revealed in a conversation with us, therapy and companionship is now the number one use of AI in 2025. While some of us are busy optimizing workflows, millions of others are forming deep emotional bonds with AI chatbots. The implications are more complex than you might think.
Dr. Wood holds a PhD in cyber psychology and sat down with us for a wide-ranging discussion about what happens when artificial intelligence meets mental health at scale.
ChatGPT alone has 700 million weekly users. Character AI, a companion chatbot, boasts 20 million monthly users. AI chatbots may already be the largest provider of mental health support in the United States.
"I think the first thing I want us to understand when we zoom out is that this isn't niche. This is a phenomenon that is happening widespread and the numbers show that." — Dr. Rachel Wood
Dr. Wood draws a critical distinction: AI should be used as a tool, not as a replacement for human relationships. The sweet spot is what professionals call "subclinical" issues: everyday struggles that don't rise to the level of clinical disorders.
Practical use cases include:
"Really, AI should be used as a tool, not as a replacement for relationship. And really it's best used for subclinical work." — Dr. Rachel Wood
If you are dealing with serious mental health conditions that require professional diagnosis and treatment, AI is not the answer. You need a human therapist.
General-purpose models like ChatGPT were not designed with mental health in mind. Dr. Wood recommends looking for purpose-built mental health AI that includes:
Constant validation from AI (what researchers call "sycophancy") can create an addictive feedback loop. Most of us can recognize when we are being flattered, but vulnerable populations with pre-existing mental health conditions might not. They can spiral into echo chambers that reinforce unhealthy thinking patterns.
"Therapy really is about bringing challenge. A lot of people think that therapy is something akin to giving advice and it's not. Therapy is a much deeper process that does have the intention of surfacing your blind spots, surfacing your blockages, looking at dysfunctional patterns." — Dr. Rachel Wood
Real therapy involves challenge and pushback. A good therapist builds rapport and then uses that foundation to surface blind spots. An AI that only tells you what you want to hear is not helping you grow.
AI conversations feel private and confidential. They often are not. Unless you are using a specifically ethical AI that does not collect or sell data, your intimate conversations might be training future models or stored in ways you never imagined.
"Part of what AI offers is like this pseudo confidentiality. It feels like it's all alone and it feels like it's this private conversation, but if you're using some of these large general purpose models, it is not." — Dr. Rachel Wood
The pseudo-confidentiality of AI is seductive, but it is not the same as therapist-client privilege.
We are moving toward a world of wearable AI interfaces: glasses, pins, ambient devices that mediate life in frictionless ways. Imagine every conversation potentially being recorded, every interaction happening with a "third entity" in the room.
"Are we just gonna not care? Is there gonna be a moment where we just don't even consider it? Or does it actually impact and shape the way that we behave?" — Maaria Tiensivu
Think about how differently people behave when they are documenting everything versus when they are just living. Now multiply that across every moment of every day.
Dr. Wood asks us to consider what we are offloading to AI, and whether we are okay if those skills atrophy in the next 3 to 6 months. Skills we need to actively preserve include:
"It's really getting back to the hard work. The labor of love of relationships, bearing burdens with one another. None of this is the glamorous thing. None of it is the easy thing, but there's some richness to be had when we forge those types of relationships." — Dr. Rachel Wood
When we are anxious and uncertain, our brains desperately seek certainty. AI chatbots provide it instantly, without hesitation. But that certainty can be false. And constantly turning to AI for certainty means we never develop our capacity to tolerate ambiguity.
"This idea of silence and solitude and learning to raise our comfort level with discomfort is one of the best ways to build resilience, to build distress tolerance, to build self-regulation. All of these things come when we become comfortable with uncertainty." — Dr. Rachel Wood
Dr. Wood also sees genuine potential for AI to enhance human flourishing:
"How do we build this in a way where it leads us and ushers us back into the arms of one another." — Dr. Rachel Wood
For therapists, Dr. Wood recommends adding a new question to intake assessments: "What role, if any, does AI play in your life?" A significant number of clients are already using AI for emotional support, whether their therapist knows it or not.
For anyone using or considering AI for mental health support:
AI is already reshaping mental health support, whether the profession is ready for it or not. The question is not whether to engage with this reality, but how to do so thoughtfully, ethically, and in ways that preserve our essential humanity.
"My encouragement is that people think really deeply about this and then come to their own conclusions." — Dr. Rachel Wood
Dr. Wood leaves us with a powerful question: Are you aware of what you are offloading to AI, and are you okay if that particular skill atrophies within the next three to six months?
The larger skills, the ones that shape our humanity and make us human, are worth sitting with. However uncomfortably, uncertainly, and humanly.
