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THERAPY/COACHING
A message from Dr. Smith: "I understand there are many reasons someone might seek professional therapeutic support.  Sometimes an individual needs a safe, confidential place to "think out loud" and sort things out. Everyone encounters life situations such as illness, death of a friend or loved one, or other life transition issues. During those times it can be very helpful to speak with someone you trust to respect your privacy, be non-judgmental, and offer insights from another perspective.

At other times, a person may need help finding the motivation to act in ways to improve their work lives,
relationships, overall quality of life, and opportunities for transcendence. And of course, if someone is suffering
from depression, anxiety, trauma response, or other painful or difficult experiences, why suffer any longer than
necessary, or to go through it alone?

Sometimes I may assume more of a coaching role, sometimes Cognitive-Behavioral steps are clearly the best approach, and there may be other times when one needs to go deeper and understand the underlying influences acting upon one's patterns of behavior, thoughts, or feelings and hypnosis may be the most effective approach.

Hypnosis is known to be very effective in helping to treat anxiety, pain, adjustment to and mitigation of various
illnesses, weight loss, smoking cessation, depression, and trauma. I have also found hypnosis VERY effective in helping people sharpen their focus for work performance, sports, graduate, medical, or law school entrance exams and other academic-related matters.

While maintaining a mindful approach to life is always helpful and important, there is no one-size fits all in therapy.
I meet people where they are at, without judgment, and live and practice by the tenet: "Your therapy is about you and
for you."
Raindrop
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Artificial Intelligence "chatbots" as the therapists of the future?
        Robot

Seriously, as the post at the following link explains, there is a movement afoot to try to replace human therapists with "chatbots." Dr. Smith was interviewed regarding her concerns about this development for the following post:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you will read, Dr. Smith was quoted, regarding her knowledge of scientifically conducted research, that one of the most important aspects of therapy is the rapport and relationship the client/patient experiences with the therapist. That kind of bond is simply not possible with a voice coming over your computer created by artificial intelligence, i.e., a "chatbot."

As you will also see, if you read the post, one of the tech contributors to the post, either ignoring or not knowledgeable of the extensive research that has been conducted on the psychological and even physiological benefits of various types of therapy, claimed that therapy with a psychologist or other professional therapists is an "expensive sham." But with all due respect to the numerous advances made by the high tech industry over the past several years, what training do chatbots or their programmers receive in psychology, psychological research with regard to effective interventions, mental health, human resilience and needs, compassion/empathy, therapeutic ethics, etc?

Additionally, Dr. Smith is very concerned about the risk of confidentiality being violated in an exchange with a chatbot, although her concerns expressed in this regard were not published in the blog post. Professional, licensed psychologists and other licensed therapists are bound by the legal and ethical demands of confidentiality, other than when someone seems likely to pose imminent danger to self or others. How can a robot speaking through a computer be bound by the same? Furthermore, in this day and age of identity theft and people's emails and lives at continuous risk of being hacked, how will it be possible to know the real intention behind a chatbot trying to induce someone to reveal their very personal information and vulnerabilities on-line?

Just because something is available, doesn't necessarily mean it is a wise thing to incorporate into one's life. Dr. Smith implores you to please think these issues through carefully before opening yourself to this new trend.