How AI is changing the future of psychotherapy
Therapy — whenever and wherever you need it!
You shiver as you shift around on the lumpy couch. Your therapist, gently asks you how your week has been. You tell her the usual: school or work’s the same as ever, you’re exercising somewhat regularly, not consuming as many bags of chips per week. Your favorite TV show started its last season, and you’re both excited and sad. Then, together, you work through your thought exercises.
A few days later, you find your thoughts a mess. You sit down on your own couch, shakily pull a warm blanket around your shoulders, and take a deep breath. You pull out your phone and open a chatbot app, the one your therapist recommended.
‘Hi! How are you feeling today?’ The green text on your screen reads, with a space for you to type your response.
Welcome to the future of psychotherapy: AI is here to help!
But, Apurva, WHY are we talking about mental health at all?
The number of people who have mental illnesses has doubled in the last decade, with every 1 in 5 people having a mental illness. Up to 74% of mental health diagnoses occur before the age of 24, depression is the leading cause of disability — the statistics and findings go on.
The U.S. spends $2.4 trillion on mental health yearly. If so many people have these problems, and so much is spent on trying to help them, then why are they still hurting?
So many factors contribute to this: many people can’t afford therapy and medication, it can be hard to find a good therapist. Most worryingly, the stigma around mental health is SO big that many people either a) aren’t fully aware something might be wrong or b) aren’t willing to admit it, both to others and to themselves.
Whatever the case may be, it’s clear that more action needs to be taken in fighting mental illnesses.
Enter artificial intelligence (AI)- what’s being done to help fight mental illness right now?
What’s being done now?
You’ll be surprised to find that technologies using AI are already being utilized for therapeutic purposes.
The University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) designed a virtual therapist named Ellie, who helps veterans with their war-related trauma and PTSD. The amazing thing about Ellie is that she can pick up on nonverbal cues (like facial gestures and general body language).
How awesome is that?!
Then we have PARO, the therapeutic and robotic toy seal, who is probably the cutest toy seal I’ve ever seen.
PARO helps patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s. It has five types of sensors (tactile, light, audition, temperature, and posture sensors) and utilizes reinforcement learning — for example. if you stroke it, PARO will remember the action that prompted it and will repeat that action.
We’ve talked about virtual therapists and cute robotic seals so far.
Now, though, I’d like to introduce you to my friend (drum roll please 🥁🥁🥁🥁)…Woebot!
The Wonders and Woes of Woebot
Woebot was founded by Dr. Alison Darcey in 2017 for young adults in college and graduate school. It costs about $39 / month, and is integrated with Facebook.
Like any other chatbot, Woebot is a form of artificial intelligence (AI) that utilizes machine learning. Specifically, it has a neural network designed based on the neurons in the human brain.
Neural networks are a set of algorithms that process sensory data. As data is inputted, Woebot accesses its knowledge base and gives out a response.
As the data is consistently inputted (for Woebot, the data is daily responses), neural networks help the AI recognize patterns — and recognize when something doesn’t match up. With Woebot, this would happen when a user gives a response which is drastically different from, say, one that’s been given over a couple of weeks.
All chatbots employ neural networks, but what makes Woebot different is its use of cognitive behavioral therapy.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a short-term form of therapy, the goal of CBT is to change patterns of thinking or behavior that are behind people’s difficulties to change the way they feel.
Woebot uses the following strategies that improve your mood:
- asking you to rephrase a negative statement into something more positive (most direct form of CBT)
- provides videos and word games to help teach about cognitive distortions.
- And (of course) tells you the occasional dorky joke
Woebot checks in on its users daily, and tracks users’ moods based on these responses. These moods are displayed on weekly graphs. Woebot learns through the users’ daily responses, and will know when something isn’t quite right based on the mood map it’s created.
The Implications
There’s no denying our innate need to be around others. Humans are social animals, and this kind of support and connection has been shown to increase happiness and reduce loneliness (and reduce blood pressure, no less!) So it makes sense that when mental health is at a low, human contact — often in the form of a therapist, who is qualified to help — is what helps the most.
There’s also the inevitability that despite their best efforts, Woebot’s conversations will start to feel less authentic and more scripted. This isn’t unique to Woebot — all forms of interactive AI will face this problem — but it’s especially important because Woebot is meant to help.
Woebot isn’t intended to be a substitute for a therapist. Woebot’s style won’t work for everyone’s needs.
However, when it comes to CBT, there are about 20+ years of proof (according to Woebot’s website) that suggests that internet-based DIY CBT can be as effective as therapist-delivered CBT.
I think the reason why internet-based therapy is so effective is because it’s not the form of therapy that’s changing — it’s the way it’s being delivered.
Research has found that we react to virtual avatars the same way we react to humans — we’re more likely to be vulnerable and share more embarrassing stories. This is HUGE for psychotherapy —opening up is the first step to getting better, after all.
As a society, we’re going to have face the facts: AI is going to be integrated into all parts of daily life, and it’ll be doing things that we were used to seeing humans do.
But this kind of change isn’t all bad — in fact, it makes things easier and way more efficient for all of us.
Given that there are millions across the world who will never have access to a therapist, Woebot provides easy access to one of the most effective forms of therapy — at just a fraction of the cost.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- As technology moves forward, mental health treatments will start to incorporate it.
- Chatbots like Woebot have been proven effective with their treatments using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
- AI therapy isn’t a substitute for human therapists — but it can still be effective.
Thanks for reading this article!! If you’d like to contact me, I’m on Linkedin, and I can (almost) always be reached via email: writetoapurva@gmail.com. Until next time!
