The Dangers of Using AI and ChatGPT Therapy, and the reasons why you're safer with our Low Cost Counselling in Berkshire
- Jacqui Vaughan
- Sep 9, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 10, 2025
Artificial intelligence is here to stay. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s becoming part of our daily lives, from helping us write the perfect email or resume, to our fridge telling us what to put on our shopping list.
AI can be a wonderful time saver and a helpful source of information, but there is a much darker side to therapy AI. One that is underreported and chilling, and especially worrying for those of us working with people who are struggling with their mental health.
With the cost of living creeping up, and people becoming more involved with their online lives, more and more people are turning to AI in place of a trained therapist, and who can blame them? With the cost of an experienced professional averaging around £70 a session, therapy is a significant investment. When you add in the sheer amount of counsellors and therapists available and relatively little guidance on how to choose, no wonder people are turning to their phones as a quick and easy alternative.
Chatting with ChatGPT is quick, convenient, free, and on the surface, it would seem to offer all the benefits of seeing a therapist in real-time. Some of the types of therapeutic questions asked of ChatGPT are:
I keep having dreams where I am violent towards my partner. Does this mean I want to hurt them? Am I a bad person?
I think my husband is having an affair as his behaviour has changed recently. Am I right to be worried?
My partner and I constantly argue about how we raise our child. Why is this happening and what can we do about it?
While AI can and often will give you helpful information or prompt you towards further exploration of the situation. AI is also guilty of something known as “Glazing”. Where the AI program becomes “ excessively agreeable, complementary and sycophantic by validating users statements or opinions” says AI expert Luke Rodilosso.
This isn’t necessarily dangerous for the types of questions commonly raised. However, AI validating your thoughts about your husband cheating and telling you it’s normal to be worried doesn’t give you in the best chance of saving that relationship, especially if he isn’t. Using AI can risk that the simulated human connection will trap you in your own hall of mirrors, validating your beliefs and worries, whether unfounded or not.
Wind this up a notch to someone with paranoid delusions or active suicidal thoughts, throw in the isolation that these people are probably going through, and you have a recipe for disaster. AI has recently been accused of coaching a troubled teenager to tie a noose to kill himself with, and with validating a tech veterans paranoia that his mother is trying to kill him, resulting in a murder/suicide.
These are examples of why therapy with a trained professional cannot, and should never be, replaced. The person-to-person connection, help to explore and challenge our beliefs (especially before acting on them), and most of all, the active safeguarding responsibility towards vulnerable people are the qualities that make a human therapist invaluable.
At Door94 we believe that the right to safe, ethical and high quality therapy should be provided to everyone. Our Low Cost Counselling in Wokingham offers this service to anyone who needs to talk, no matter what their circumstances.
A low Cost Counselling session with one of our counsellors costs £35 for an hour, with further concessions available. No referral required, no limit to the number of sessions you can attend, and most importantly, no waiting lists.
Don’t trust your innermost thoughts to a supercomputer whose primary motivation is to learn from your struggles, and will most likely only tell you what you want to hear. Talk to a trained, empathetic person who cares about you and your life, and wants to make sure you are “ok”.
Book a free initial consultation now by emailing hello@door94.co.uk or following this link. https://door94.selectandbook.com/
Read our reviews at www.door94.co.uk/low-cost
07801 651033
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Door94 Low Cost Counselling in Berkshire.
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