Why Depth Psychotherapy Can’t Be Replaced by ChatGPT
I’ve been thinking about how much the world has changed in just a few years.
We can ask a machine anything and get an answer instantly. We can have groceries delivered within hours, therapy apps that promise healing at the tap of a button, AI that can mimic a human voice, even sympathy.
It’s easy to start wondering if we still really need each other.
But the kind of therapy I offer — the kind of therapy that has changed my own life — isn’t something that can be automated.
It can’t be downloaded or fast-tracked.
It’s something that only happens between two human beings — slowly, tenderly, imperfectly — over time.
When you come to therapy, you’re not just telling your story into empty space.
You’re entering a living relationship — one where everything about you matters.
Not just what you say, but what you hesitate to say.
Not just the words, but the spaces between them.
Not just your surface life, but the dreams, longings, and hidden griefs that live underneath.
I don’t listen like a machine.
I listen with my whole being.
I listen for the ache in your silence, the flicker of sadness behind your smile, the unspoken stories your body still carries.
Highly sensitive people, in particular, often feel invisible in the world.
You notice things others miss — shifts in energy, changes in tone, the small signals of connection or disconnection.
And you may have learned to tuck those sensitivities away, to move through life armored up, pretending you didn’t feel the hurt or the loneliness or the longing.
But you don’t have to do that with me.
I invite all of you to come forward — the tender parts, the messy parts, the parts you’re still trying to love back into being.
And I don’t just hear them — I feel them with you.
Depth psychotherapy honors the parts of us that aren’t obvious, logical, or linear.
It honors the unconscious — the images, dreams, and feelings that rise up when we finally slow down enough to listen.
It honors the truth that we heal not through perfect advice, but through presence — steady, compassionate, human presence.
A chatbot can generate reflections.
It can echo back what you say.
But it can’t feel with you.
It can’t grieve with you.
It can’t sit quietly with the unbearable and offer you its own beating heart to lean against.
Real healing happens in relationship.
It happens when someone stays with you through the discomfort.
It happens when someone sees the parts of you you thought were unlovable — and stays.
That’s what I offer.
Not just tools or techniques.
But care.
Real, living, human care.
If you are someone who feels deeply, who carries grief, who longs for a space where you don’t have to hide — I would be honored to walk alongside you.
I offer depth psychotherapy for highly sensitive people and empaths in Oakland and throughout California online. Contact me today to get started.