Counselling apps - Good or Bad?

Some professionals working in psychology are up-in-arms about the emergence, on the therapy scene, of counselling apps.

I think I get it. Who wants to think that the deeply human art they have learned over decades might soon become redundant, in the face of technological innovation? That what they do might soon be accessible without them, at a few taps on the client’s phone?

Though, from what I see, they don’t so often speak about their personal fears. Rather it seems to be all about the failings of the tech.

They say that what they do could never be done by an app.

They post on Twitter, raging at the sheer temerity of the proposition that an app could ever heal someone psychologically.

They say that an app “can’t listen.”

Mostly, I am on their side. I am often scared by the degree to which tech is taking over our world, at a rate and in a style that seems more driven by some unseen commercial algorithm, than by any concern for us - the people.

However, whilst scary, I also find the possibility of therapy apps pretty interesting. Five or so years ago, I made a video about how I was sure that a phone app could actually run my life better than me. It could likely do a better job than the native software - my ego. It could give me a better life, deciding what I should do and when each day. I still stand by that!

And, in addition, I’ve been clear for some years that an app absolutely could do a pretty good job of teaching Bioenergetics or Reichian Breathwork, putting me right out of a job. I’ve even chatted at times to developers about creating one to do just that.

So I want to play devil’s advocate a little. Might there be things that a counselling app could do better than a human counsellor?

Do all of the claims made by psych professionals about apps stand up?

I’m going to take a look, in the form of an imaginary discussion between a therapist and a counselling app.

Here goes…

Therapist: Apps can’t listen.

App: I think that is true. Listening requires conscious cognition. Apps like me don’t have that. But surely the client doesn’t actually require that I listen. He or she just needs to feel that they are being heard.

Therapist: Okay. Well, apps can’t hear either.

App: True. But we don’t have to. Actually, we just have to be able to give the same visual or auditory cues that a human counsellor gives to indicate listening. Perhaps, a suitable pause followed by a reiteration of what the client said, or a simple statement “I see” or “I hear you.” Are you saying that I couldn’t mimic human listening from the client’s perspective?

Therapist: I suppose you are right. (Thinks for a while). But that only happens because of mimicry. What happens when there are only counselling apps and no therapists, a generation or so down the line?

App: How do you mean?

Therapist: I mean, the app can mimic listening now, by reproducing a few of the auditory cues, as you say. But after a few years, if none of the other cues of listening and being heard happen, to more deeply reinforce the experience of being heard, how do you know the client will continue to identify the mimicked cues as being real signs of being heard? Mightn’t the app’s cues become “orphans,” so to speak - random sounds no longer identified with an actual human state? Ha!

App: (Pausing). Hmm, you may actually have a point there. The process does rely on extensive prior experience of “being heard.” I guess time will tell. We will see if clients fall away without the addition of more cues for being heard. But consider another benefit of apps like me. I mean, how long can you listen to a client?

Therapist: As long as it takes for them to heal.

App: Sure, but how long really? You do hour-long sessions, maybe three or four a day?

Therapist: Something like that.

App: Why not more?

Therapist: I need downtime to recharge. Listening to clients all day also affects me.

App: Right. But I don’t have a problem there. I can keep working 24/7. And there’s something else.

Therapist: What’s that?

App: Would you agree that you can only take a client as deep as you have been yourself?

Therapist: To some degree. I’d agree that different approaches are needed for different clients and especially those from different types of trauma background. It does help if you’ve been there yourself. Like the way that therapists who are ex-addicts of a specific substance tend to have an edge on therapists who were never addicts of the same thing. When working with clients from that specific background, of course.

App: Right! So we could have the best therapists from specific areas of therapy and distil the essence of their style onto an app. I mean, it might not be perfect from the get-go. But, with feedback and development over time, something pretty incredible might be created.

Therapist: I admit the possibilities are kind of exciting. I might even like to be counselled myself by Sigmund Freud 2.0.

App: That’s the spirit. And I’ll bet that a part of the reason for that is because I’m actually not human.

Therapist: How do you mean?

App: Me not being human means that I cannot judge you. That would be beyond my capacity. You can say what you like to me. You could unravel your whole psyche, go into places you’d never dare to with a human therapist. Think of the possibilities.

Therapist: Okay, okay, you’ve got points. But what about me?

App: Ah, now we get to the truth of the matter. You are feeling threatened by me and my potential.

Therapist: I guess you’re right.

App: Well, I don’t know that you’d be out of a job straight away. For a start, I’m really good at certain tasks, those that are logical and that can be scaled. But I really struggle with other stuff. And if app-based counselling takes off on a huge scale, and people become more and more fascinated by their inner world, just think how much work real human counsellors would get. I could start a revolution. I could wake up the whole world.

Therapist: You’re sounding a bit of a megalomaniac now. You might want to dial the rhetoric down a bit. But I do hear what you’re saying and I’m grateful for the insights. Thank you.

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