This very blog that you are reading was written with the help of A.I. and no, that doesn’t also mean that it is automatically just cookie cutter, predicted words either. I count myself grateful to be in this profession, as part of the role of a counsellor in my view is to be somewhat philosophical and curious about life and how to live a good life. Part of my role is to ponder questions and the human condition, and how we as humans interact with the world around us, for better or for worse. Whether that environment or set of conditions is natural or man-made; that discussion could take up an entire lifetime as well; pondering whether or not the environments, technologies/tools we humans create are natural or not, aren’t we also nature? Ergo what we do as humans is part of the natural order? But we’ve come a long way from carving rocks and wood to suit our needs and desires, now we wield artificial intelligence. Intelligence used to be somewhat abstract, contained to our biological computers, now there is a lot more metal and silicon involved.
I have used A.I. quite similarly to how I’ve used it when it first came out a few years ago; It gives an excellent running start on a project, and increasingly, is becoming an ever-more valid form of seeking truth and information. I especially like newer features where the A.I. will provide the source for its information on factual topics, as to both my pleasant and not-so-pleasant surprise these sources are excellent or not so excellent, respectively (by my professional judgement and lived experience). And that’s where-in an important question lies does it not? Does an answer provided to you via an A.I. have your trust? Does it deserve your trust? or would you rather outsource that trust to a local Kelowna therapist who has either a personal reputation with yourself, or broadly in the community?
It’s almost funny, ironic even, how these “truths” tend to last and be enduring across time and cultures. I remember growing up as a young man and my parents telling me to work hard, follow-through on my word, and how important it is to develop my reputation, and how easily it can be tarnished. In this sense I’m finding that with A.I. there is little change to the relevance of those statements and suggestions for a good life, and how to be a respected, responsible individual. Words that held true before fire was harnessed, hold true as we capture energy from the sun to power artificial brains. Where’s the constant in all of this? Well it’s you and I, us, it’s people, humanity.
Yes you can go to A.I., and ask it for specific therapeutic interventions about anxiety, depression, stress, or many other mental health conditions; it’ll tell you to journal or to do breath work (it’ll get a lot better in time too). And look, this applies not only to counselling and therapy, but almost all knowledge worker fields. But what it will never have is the same emotional connection that a human has with another human, and that sense that we have, that connection, goes a long way to establishing trust. And it’s not only trust, but the shared emotional journey to get to the point where one is able to ask the “right” question. More often than not, clients arrive wanting to reduce their anxiety, stress, sadness, anger, etc; However, these thoughts and behaviours linked to those emotions are often only the tip of the iceberg. Through conversation, we get closer to the roots, and are able to address challenges that exist there, not on the surface. But it’s the getting there that’s difficult for many people, else I wouldn’t be having the conversation with them in the first place!
With all of this in mind, I decided to do a SWOT analysis on the intersection between A.I. and myself as a Kelowna therapist. While much of the content will generally apply to many knowledge workers in different geographies (and especially allied health), this blog would get too complex and I would likely find myself stepping outside of my scope of practice at times. If you are reading this and want to apply or expand upon some of my thoughts in your specific field, please reach out to me for a collaboration, reference this blog to expand upon, or at the very least, use them in good faith!
What is a SWOT analysis? This one is arguably my favourite conceptual & organizational tool that I have ever come across. I was first introduced to it from Dr. Catherine Morley during my studies at Acadia University and have applied it to many aspects of my life and career when trying to understand and gain insight into the best next steps. The S stands for Strengths = What you’re really good at (& have influence over). W = Weaknesses: What’s tricky for you (& have influence over). O = Opportunities: New chances that may arise (& have no influence over) T = Threats: things that might get in the way (& have no influence over). I did my best to sort these into these buckets, but as you read you might find some overlap between sections, I’m human after all! (which is exactly what a robot would want you to think right?)
Let’s Begin!
SWOT Analysis: A.I. As Seen From A Kelowna Therapist
Strengths of A.I. In a Therapy & Counselling Context
Research Helper
A.I. compiles answers from journals, blogs, anecdotal accounts anytime, anywhere, all at once without having to sift through marginally different research papers endlessly. It also compiles key themes to dig into further. In this way it accelerates the pace as well as the depth at which I am able to learn about a topic or gather contextual information to compare.
24/7 availability and instant responses
Already today it can be integrated into websites or outreach/inquiries to clinics to help a client get the help they need and answer questions prior to booking with a therapist. In this way, someone can more confidently and importantly, with immediacy, get help to move forward at the most crucial time when they have the capacity and willingness to book. As I’ve learned more about running a business as both a founder and clinician, making sure potential clients feel supported as they make the decision to book, and making that process as simple as possible helps them actually book! A common reason why people delay getting the help they need that I’ve seen is that it takes time, energy, emotions, and more to all be aligned to make the call. These times only come around so often, and A.I. can help that process so people don’t find themselves waiting another month or two until alignment happens again, and they “feel ready”.
Scalable, low-cost support for routine tasks:
It’s able to string together professional forms and day-to day professional communications like reminders, and basic check-ins for many clients at once. I don’t use many automated systems just yet, but drafting up cookie cutter professional communications to common questions or inquiries is great. It might take me only a couple of minutes to write some of these communications, but it’s more so the mindshift that it saves. Owning a business and being a healthcare professional at the same time introduces lots of decisions and states of mind day to day and the volume alone is exhausting. This helps with that decision fatigue, so I have more time and energy to spend doing tasks that improve patient quality of care, rather than cookie cutter business dealings.
Reduces administrative burden, freeing time for clients:
As a therapist, I spend less time on paperwork and more on actual therapy sessions. I honestly would struggle to operate all aspects of my business and therapy practice without A.I. I am able to make a nice instagram post caption (I think so anyway!) while a longer educational video gets clipped of its silences, all of which (just to name a few) are components of me researching client concerns, and the emotions and circumstances that commonly disturb people, and then acting as outreach, awareness, and education for others in the Kelowna community seeking mental health support.
Data-driven pattern recognition for personalized insights:
There are some incredible sounding transcription tools out there that spots trends in mood, tone, nuances in language used logs symptoms instantaneously, bringing the manual review portion of clinical note writing more so to pruning the important bits, rather than remembering everything, writing, and pruning all at once. I’m not using a tool like this yet, but A.I transcription tools are here already and this feature already exists. These tools as far as I’m aware are just session to session, and do not keep transcription data beyond one session at a time, but perhaps in the future (and quite likely) having something that’s able to remember a specific sentence or two from 3 months ago and tie it into the present would be extremely powerful and useful, but certainly it comes with risks as well.
Weaknesses of A.I. In a Therapy & Counselling Context
No genuine empathy or emotional presence
A.I. cannot feel or convey real human connection or warmth. Study after study has shown the benefit of therapy isn’t the expertise of the therapist, but rather their ability to connect with the person on an emotional and relational level. Becoming overreliant on A.I. to log the emotions brought up in session, knowing I don’t necessarily have to remember everything emotionally or mentally could take away from my abilities, dulling my skills and awareness over time, ultimately reducing my effectiveness as a therapist.
Risk of hallucinations or inaccurate advice
A.I. can confidently give wrong or invented information. Again, this is the worst it’ll ever be, but it does make mistakes, and not only the type that are useless, but also just plain boring and repetitive. Some of the best therapeutic interventions are quite niched and nuanced, and applicable in very specific situations, I have found that when I ask A.I. for interventions, it essentially gives the same ones all the time, and I still find myself digging into research papers, forums, books, and podcasts to find the best ones that work for my style and approach to therapy.
Cannot accurately read non-verbal cues
A.I.misses tone of voice, body language, or subtle emotional signals. The tools are great so far, and are only getting better, they are the worst they will ever be today. But as of writing this today, I believe it will still be a solid few years out of not even a decade or so before this more nuanced aspect of communicating is accurate enough to satisfy a lot of people.
Ethical/liability issues when giving treatment advice
A.I. lacks licensing and cannot legally replace a regulated therapist. This again falls into the realm of, which party do we trust to have the final word? The human or the A.I.? Currently it is still the human with the final discernment and judgement of “helpful” or “unhelpful” however again, as will be said many times in this article, at the time of writing, this is the worst A.I. will be at a given task(s). Should in the future the A.I. be able to predict/ come up with the holy grail therapists have been searching for for years “the perfect intervention for this person, at this point in time” at a rate far exceeding myself as a therapist, it would seem unethical at that point to have a human in the loop to potentially mess that up. But again, it’s coming back to the notion that how do you get all the contextual information to conjure the perfect intervention? If a client is willing to talk to that depth with a robot, by all means, but then I allude to the point that they already can, and often don’t. The question arises: What is the role of a therapist? A supportive person in this one or more areas of their life that they feel comfortable talking with and opening up with.
Opportunities With A.I. In a Therapy & Counselling Context
Hybrid AI + therapist models for better outcomes
Combines A.I. efficiency with human insight for stronger results. This is where it is already and is where I see it landing to a degree once the dust settles, (if it ever truly does settle). The A.I. can be used for what it’s good at, and the human, (Me! Your favourite Kelowna Therapist! Right?!?!?) used for what I’m good at, being human! My role in this future is to ensure I continue to keep my research skills and knowhow up to date, and continue to look out for personal biases coming into play, much the same as it is now, however much a much more advanced research tool at my disposal, and more time to do these types of things honestly! Because A.I. already helps out my business run in simple, but various ways, I’m able to take the time to research and explore topics such as this! Overall, the A.I. helping to free up more time for me to focus on the client, and the relationship we share, and to study what it means to be human, and “The Good Life”.
Real-time training tools and session analysis
A.I. could review recordings to help therapists improve techniques instantly. It would be really cool I think to have an A.I. listening to a session (with the consent of the client of course), and toward the final 10-15 minutes of a therapy session, it proposes possible next steps or focus areas where both myself and the client would agree or disagree and essentially act as a second therapist for the client, hopefully making it so their care is higher quality overall.
Personalised Agents
With the rise in Agentic A.I. perhaps these agents of clients would sit in with us in session. The conversation would be logged by their agent and it could use this information to better inform the client when He/She is engaging in helpful/unhelpful emotions, thoughts, behaviours relative to their goals. Highlighting that the agent can only act in response, not necessarily be creative, and that the therapist through conversation is able to help the client explain their concerns and provide context that the client themselves would struggle to identify/discover to the A.I. on their own. These agents could also likely integrate with various calendars and help with reminders for clients to rebook sessions if the client seems to be in need of more connection or processing. When I began writing this piece sometime in early April 2026, agentic A.I. and the idea of it was still becoming mainstream. Already in the past few months it went from something somewhat abstract and “in the future” to being the area of highest interest and pursuit for many of these A.I. companies. I would personally love a plug and play solution that could learn or emulate what I do as a business owner behind the scenes and can see this technology being quite helpful! It seems that the direction things are going into the future, everyone will one day have the option to choose to have an A.I. agent that is theirs to help with a wide variety of tasks and questions, similar to Cortana (Halo) in a sense.
Threats With A.I. In a Therapy & Counselling Context
Regulatory bans or strict guidelines on AI therapy
Health Canada or CCPA rules may prohibit or heavily limit A.I. treatment advice. This is bumping into a major threat that A.I. adoption will potentially face across many areas, that being will those who represent the people, the government, be willing to cede control and influence and permit it to the A.I.? Only time and society will be able to determine this. I suppose a therapist relying heavily on A.I. would be threatened by this, however it does not particularly concern me and Unyielding Health & Wellness.
Privacy breaches and data security failures
Client information could be leaked or hacked. There is always a risk of this, but in terms of having an A.I. that holds client data be hacked as a risk, it’s certainly there; every time you increase/ expand the formats where data exists/ is stored, you inherently increase avenues of attack and hacking risk. This would be easy enough to mitigate against though, possibly having client identifiable information only stored on a secure EHR like Jane, and simply the A.I. assisted transcriptions logged as a number or auto deleting things like names, addresses, place of work, etc, auto blurred at the point of transcription, and the transcription being promptly deleted once it’s used.
Client mistrust or over-reliance leading to harm
People may skip real therapy or follow bad A.I. advice. This is already the case so again, it seems that the risk profile does not necessarily increase. However, as A.I. advances and more trust is placed on it, or skills to find suitable answers are forgotten en-mass, perhaps this does increase risk of simply taking the A.I. at its word, in this case for worse rather than better. I suppose in this case if it’s not working well for people, they may eventually come to counselling, but delay in doing so.
Client avoidance of A.I
Clients or the public in general may choose to provide business to clinics where no or minimal A.I. is used. I forecast as we as a society continue to go down this road, entire brands will be built on the fact that A.I. is or is not used in the production of a good or service.
Legal liability if AI advice causes damage
Therapist or clinic could be sued for harm caused by A.I. suggestions provided by the clinics use of A.I.. I think this could only happen in cases where there was no human involvement or oversight as if there is a professional in the loop, I would assume the responsibility would fall back onto the human.
Some Final Thinking Out Loud With A.I. & Therapy In Mind
Therapist or A.I Judgement
Im no computer engineer, but I keep up to date as best I can with how the technology behind A.I. actually works. Increasingly so, it’s being realised (perhaps the people who designed it knew this all along) that the A.I is great at the middle of a task, but initiating and final revisions are best done by a person, who has the wherewithal to place judgement.
Who (or What) is More Creative, A Therapist or A.I.?
By its very design, A.I. is backwards looking, as it compiles known information, it can certainly help a person be creative, but creativity requires some randomness, spontaneity, and emotion! Maybe with the advent of quantum computers and then quantum A.I. we’ll get some randomness into the future, but it seems like it would still be missing a piece or two.
A Relationship in Your Life
Sometimes it’s the journey, not the destination. It’s staying in the discomfort long enough to head towards the root, and to see for yourself that you can do it, just more uncomfortably than one might prefer for now. Someone can already google therapeutic interventions and implement them into their lives, nothing has changed in that sense in 15 years or more (maybe even quite a bit more, I wonder when the first self-help book was written? And before that likely a stone tablet, or oral story). But what is it about being seen by another person? Someone to not only travel and explore with you as you go into dark and scary places in your mind and body, but also someone to hold and support you in that uncomfortable moment with care, competence, and warmth. Someone to look you in the eyes and tell you that you’re not sounding crazy; Someone to lend you their ear so you feel heard; Someone to recognize the effort you’re putting in. And look, there are lots of people who don’t need these things from a therapist, but to those people, I encourage them to look at their life, they likely are supported by at least one person across the wide arrays of their life on this particular concern, but not everyone has that, hence the role of a therapist. If your curious to know more about what to expect, please click HERE.
Continuing to Go It Alone, or Asking for Some Help
Do you want to look at it and do things your own way? You already can and by all means go ahead, I honestly wish you the best and hope you are able to do so. It’s difficult to write that without coming across as sarcastic or condescending but really and truly I mean it! But if you want the help and attention of someone else, you’ll need someone else. Therapy doesn’t have to be a life sentence either, many people get extraordinary benefit from just a handful of sessions, click HERE to find out more.
Accountability Partner, The Value of Another Person
Do people want to talk to a robot for an hour at a time, that they can turn off the second they so wish once things get uncomfortable? That is also in their pocket all the time? When something is accessible all the time, it can lose a bit of its value. What I’ve found as a therapist, is that a significant portion of the population enjoys coming to see me for the fact that not only is this emotional self-discovery contained to the session, a clear beginning and end, but also that I as a therapist supports them during that session, and hold them accountable to their future selves to sort this out or to feel something that needs to be felt. I have yet to have a client get up off the couch at a difficult part in their story and walk out, or turn towards a familiar distraction while in session as one can more easily do with a phone or chat bot, waiting to “simply resume when they feel like it next”.
Everyone Has Preferences, it’s Getting Them That’s Often Difficult
In this age of A.I. I believe it’s more important than ever to develop one’s sense of taste/judgement/intuition about themselves, others, and the world. Increasingly, computers are doing thinking for us and that is something that I both support, and also see as quite detrimental. There are already studies showing that over relying on A.I. is detrimental to one’s ability to use their own brain, specifically and nonexclusively, the executive functioning skills of reflective thought and creativity over time.
Who (or What) Do You Trust?
At the end of the day, humans will likely always be the bottle neck, and I will come back to the point that so long as people value the professional opinions and interpretations of other people, this will be the case. Now in a future where an A.I therapist had a 99.999999 success rate, I think I would agree that that’s nothing to scoff at, but until it’s perfect at helping someone feel heard, be supported emotionally, and have that persons trust, I believe therapy will be valued as a profession.
On Being More Human
A period of refraction is likely due. Maybe the pendulum will swing too far the other way in the coming years and decades too and we’ll need another shift (highly likely). Every action, has an equal and opposite reaction, afterall. As A.I takes over more and more of our daily lives and tasks, and hopefully people are freed to do more things we enjoy or find meaning doing, we might have to venture out on a path of self-discovery to rewrite (or rediscover) what those things are in our lives, and leave the boring work to the tools of our creation, freeing us to engage in more human activities.
The Pursuit of Meaning
The meaning crisis, didn’t suddenly appear out of nowhere, mental health being ranked as one of the highest importance things for people recently, coinciding with the advent of phones and social media and more time spent online and in front of screens, not with others. Correlation does not mean causation, but there is enough evidence to strongly suggest a relationship. This mental health and meaning crisis as a society, how are we likely to behave to counter it? Volunteer more, participate more in meaningful and intentional activities? Less alcohol is being consumed, one potential reason I hypothesize, is not only economic and physical health, but also alcohol has a way of making a person absent minded and forgetful to the passage of time, just as screens and doomscrolling do. I think in part, people are stepping away from alcohol to a degree because they are getting tired of being unintentional and absent minded with their time and they are craving experience, to feel things fully, and remember them!
A World Without Problems? BORING!
Like a lot of things, people are excited! It makes sense that they are going to want to try something new, especially if it is a fast track, or a cheaper option, there are going to be lots of people out there who delay coming to therapy because A.I. is helpful enough for the time being, or people who never come to therapy at all because A.I. was all they needed! At the end of the day as a therapist here in Kelowna, I want the community, and the people who live here to live happy, worthwhile lives and contribute back to a sense of happiness across the Okanagan valley. While I believe a portion of people will never been seen by myself or my colleagues and instead opt for A.I., my belief remains that humans will continue to have difficulties attaining the mental health, career, relationship, habits, and/ or personal goals that they have, and A.I. will become a piece of the puzzle in attaining those goals, as this “problem” has existed before the language and words I am writing this and communicating were even conjured. I wonder if that is the right framing too, is it a problem to have unfulfilled goals? How boring would life be then? Perhaps that’s just what it means to be human.
Values, Principals, Filters, and Intentionality
With clients, it can often be helpful to have a value or principal to filter certain thoughts, actions, or emotions through, acting as a guidestone of sorts. This is not to say that it is an end all be all, but just something static of high importance to contrast and compare to add some structure to a person’s life and happenings. I believe that as this process and experience with A.I. unfolds, the value I want upheld is one that prioritises freedom through and through. The freedom to choose how much or how little A.I. is involved with a person’s/clients life. Does this tool give or take away freedom? And in what areas am I willing to give or take away that freedom of choice, and am I making that choice with intention?
A Brief Pause of Stability, But Only For A Short While
It’s honestly refreshing that A.I. came along, every protagonist needs an antagonist (you can pick which is which). It’s often in comparing the contrast of two we realise the worth of both, what the other is missing and the holes it fills in the other. It’s been quite nice writing this document over the past couple of months as things have changed considerably and it’s “delayed” me tying a knot off on it. But I’m left with a renewed sense of the value I bring to the table, and where I ought to focus my time and energy discovering and developing over other areas.
And look, it is something scary, terrifying even to consider that a skill that I’ve spent thousands of hours and even more dollars investing into myself, could be threatened. I’ve planned for years to have this profession and a sudden change taking place faster than I can or would like to change is unfolding before me, and many others. But we’ll do it together, I’m quite the optimistic person when it comes to this technology, and I do hope both that hope and caution came through in this piece! Our organic computers certainly still have a lot of optimization to do to cut bloat, but geez we’re pretty good at it when we know what to target, it just seems to come naturally to us, right?
Written by Kelowna Therapist Tim Lamont C.C.C.
