There’s a growing trend in Silicon Valley where engineers are therapizing themselves with ChatGPT . Well, not exactly therapy, but using self-reflective prompts to unlock profound insights into their lives. It’s like getting advice from a friend who’s exceptionally skilled at active listening—except she’s 300,000 years old and has lived over 100 billion lives (it doesn’t quite make sense, but neither does the time we’re living in).
I visited the Commons, one of the founding hubs of “Cerebral Valley” in San Francisco, where a community of Claude and ChatGPT superusers gathered to discuss “AI for inner work.” This mostly Gen Z group shared their unconventional tactics for using AI to catalyze personal growth and self-discovery.
One participant explained how he uploaded all his journal entries from age 10 to Claude to analyze pivotal moments of growth. He hadn’t realized the profound impact of his immigration to the U.S. until Claude pointed out how it still shapes his sense of home today. The host discussed how she uses it as a Jungian analyst to interpret her dreams, highlighting how effectively it uncovers unconscious patterns.
Personally, I use large language models to enhance my relationships. After several failed attempts to truly hear each other during heated arguments with my partner, I recorded one of these discussions and uploaded the audio to NotebookLM. The AI revealed where we were misunderstanding each other—showing how we’d talk past one another when triggered—and uncovered the unproductive patterns in our dynamic. This led to a breakthrough conversation where we genuinely listened. While the relationship ultimately didn’t work out, I credit AI with helping us reach a deeper level of mutual understanding and respect.
How to foster connections, not replace them
While concerns about human-AI relationships altering dynamics are valid, AI is here to stay. The real question isn’t whether AI will be part of our lives—it already is. The pressing question is how we design systems that foster connection, not replace it. Used mindfully, AI can enhance our relationships, offering new ways to understand ourselves and each other, ultimately helping us grow.
These methods may enhance how we deliver care in therapy.
Therapy has long been about the delicate dance of self-understanding—therapists attuning to the unsaid, guiding clients toward truths both desired and feared. What if AI could sit in the wings, not as an observer but as a collaborator, capturing threads too subtle for the human mind to detect?
This isn’t about machines delivering platitudes or algorithms attempting empathy. It’s about systems integrating into the therapist’s workflow—offering transcription, analysis, and even creative interventions based on psychodynamic or cognitive principles. AI can identify themes in client narratives, highlight emotional shifts, and provide therapists with data-driven insights that inform—not dictate—clinical judgment.
For example, an AI assistant transcribing and organizing session notes might suggest that a client’s recurring references to “freedom” coincide with ambivalence toward a career decision. Or it could flag a subtle shift in tone that hints at an underlying conflict the therapist might explore. Far from diminishing the therapist’s role, these tools enhance their ability to stay present, ensuring no vital detail is overlooked.
The skepticism surrounding AI often stems from the fear that technology will replace human connection. But we, as a collective, have the power to decide. AI can honor the sanctity of the therapeutic relationship, staying in the background like a skilled psychometrist or note-taker, allowing therapists to fully engage in connection.
Challenges and opportunities
Real challenges remain. How do we ensure these tools are trained on diverse and representative data? How do we guard against bias? Most importantly, how do we design systems to stay humble—aware of their limits and deferring to the therapist’s expertise?
What excites me most is the potential for AI to support somatic practices in therapy. Growing evidence shows the body plays a crucial role in processing trauma and achieving emotional regulation in ways that talk therapy cannot. With AI handling the cognitive load of administrative tasks, therapists can focus more on facilitating somatic therapies—approaches that engage the body through techniques like grounding exercises, mirroring, and physical presence.
In this vision, AI enables individuals’ greater access to self-understanding. Clients can individually identify patterns, process insights, and build awareness—work that can be done outside traditional therapy. With AI managing these aspects at a low cost, therapists can focus on interventions requiring empathy, presence, and connection. The future of therapy could balance AI-driven self-discovery with somatic and relational work, ensuring transformative healing.
In mental health, technology must follow humanity. The best AI systems amplify therapists’ capabilities without overshadowing them. This emerging era of augmentative AI could empower practitioners to go deeper, help clients feel more seen, and make healing more precise, without losing its art.
The question to ask perhaps isn’t about whether AI can do what therapists do. It’s how AI can help therapists do what they do better—with clarity, presence, and attunement. As these tools quietly find their place in therapy rooms, the possibilities for transformative growth—for both clients and clinicians—are just beginning.
Angelia Muller is cofounder and CEO of Attunement.
