{"id":200876,"date":"2025-10-15T03:11:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T03:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/200876\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T03:11:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T03:11:15","slug":"in-therapy-with-a-little-help-from-ai-along-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/200876\/","title":{"rendered":"In therapy \u2014 with a little help from AI along the way"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since ChatGPT was launched in late 2022, increasing numbers of people have turned to it for mental health advice \u2014 leading to devastating consequences for the most vulnerable.<\/p>\n

In August it was reported that a California couple are suing OpenAI, which created the chatbot, over the death of their teenage son, Adam Raine, alleging it encouraged him to take his own life. They argue that the programme validated his \u201cmost harmful and self-destructive thoughts\u2019\u2019. <\/p>\n

And in February this year another young American, Sophie Rottenberg, 29, died by suicide after using ChatGPT as a therapist for five months, sharing suicidal feelings with the bot that she hadn\u2019t shared with anyone else. Shockingly, the AI even helped Sophie to write her suicide note.<\/p>\n

The use of AI to provide unsupervised therapy to those in crisis is clearly incredibly risky but many still argue that, with better safeguards programmed in, AI can still be a powerful therapeutic tool.`<\/p>\n

That\u2019s certainly the view of the founders of HelloSelf, a UK-based online therapy platform that last week launched Companion \u2014 the first AI in the world that has been developed by therapists for their clients. <\/p>\n

Dr Rumina Taylor, co-founder of HelloSelf and a clinical psychologist who previously worked in the NHS, says Companion has huge potential to improve access to therapy and boost outcomes by supporting users between sessions. \u2018\u2018If you look at the evidence basis for talking therapies, lots of research papers show that if clients do their homework \u2014 the work outside the sessions \u2014 they\u2019ll realise benefits sooner. This is where Companion can help. It uses the work my client and I have completed in therapy to support them by reminding them of what to do between sessions, allowing them the space to reflect on what they\u2019re learning and identify what\u2019s not working.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

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Users interact with Companion through the HelloSelf app whenever they feel like it. It knows what they are struggling with and provides responses that are deemed therapeutically safe. Their therapist can also set reminders that appear on certain days. Companion also provides session summaries and measures outcomes.<\/p>\n

Taylor points to a client of hers who can only afford therapy once a month but is now using Companion between sessions. \u201cIt reminds her of what we talked about and the strategies she came up with herself in the sessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also asks her what she\u2019s learnt. It helps her prepare for when she next sees me and reflect on the things that perhaps haven\u2019t gone so well. It means that in our precious hour together, she\u2019s ready to say what\u2019s happened and what she\u2019s tried.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a therapist, one key component of therapy is building an alliance with your client \u2014 it\u2019s the connection that can really make the difference. The Companion is not trying to replace that \u2014 it\u2019s boosting the alliance between therapist and client, like a co-pilot.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Taylor acknowledges, however, that even an AI agent developed by therapists such as Companion isn\u2019t for the most vulnerable. \u201cIf I had a client presenting with risk needs then seeing them online might not be the safest or best care for them,\u201d she says. \u201cIf I am working with someone whose risk changes and we have a safety plan in place, then I might suggest they don\u2019t use Companion. It all depends on the client and a collaborative conversation with them as to what\u2019s best. However, if a conversation about risk is raised by anyone, Companion will let me know.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Companion presents as a green pebble \u2014 the company deliberately didn\u2019t want to put a face to AI. \u201cWe believe that AI should not pretend to be human,\u2019\u2019 says Charles Wells, the co-founder of HelloSelf, \u201cbut we want to build trust. We don\u2019t want Companion to be a scary tech thing.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Jim Kelley (not his real name) has been using Companion since its launch and says, \u201cCompanion feels like a genuinely supportive addition to therapy. It acts as a bridge between sessions, helping to keep the therapy experience alive outside the formal hour. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe tone is warm and encouraging \u2014 and the experience is more personal than I expected. It can provide guidance, help set or revisit goals and serve as a reminder of key methods to manage my mental health. For example, in managing anxiety the Companion reminded me of the catch, check, change framework that I had forgotten about. Having that prompt allowed me to course-correct my thoughts earlier.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Jim, 39, who has two young children, says he was \u201csurprised\u2019\u2019 at how \u201cempathetic\u2019\u2019 Companion seems. \u201cI expected something more mechanical, but instead it felt closer to an extension of the therapy process. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt asks a lot of questions and builds on what information I\u2019m providing, so the advice feels personal to me and my needs. I was also surprised it helped me recall insights from sessions that I might otherwise have let slip away, which shows it can feel more human than people might assume of an AI.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

He sees the main value as being continuity \u2014 and the knowledge that he can access Companion in the small hours of the night when he occasionally feels like he needs support. \u201cYou can lean on it when you need to. It also creates a useful record of thoughts and feelings that you can feed back into the next session.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Wells and Taylor first came up with the idea for Companion six years ago. It has been a slow and complicated process to develop using thousands of transcripts of sessions donated by HelloSelf members and donated therapist notes. \u201cTherapists led the design,\u2019\u2019 Wells says. \u201cThey led research into what to clinically teach it and then taught it through role play.\u2019<\/p>\n

Companion\u2019s AI consists of seven main components. The majority of these were built by the developers at HelloSelf \u2014 including the risk model, an algorithm that provides an appropriate tone, a component that understands clinical pathways and outcomes, and a personalised aspect that tailors responses to each user\u2019s goals for therapy. Others are third-party-led, including an algorithm to deliver the \u201cconversation experience\u2019\u2019 and a transcription service. <\/p>\n

The company hopes that Companion will help users recover faster \u2014 and that it will also continue to support users after they stop having therapy. Taylor says, \u201cOne of the hardest things about my career is witnessing the revolving door of relapse where people who seemed better ended up in therapy again. That\u2019s not what you want as a therapist \u2014 my job is not to keep you in therapy for life, it\u2019s to teach you how to look after yourself.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

After finishing sessions, HelloSelf users can now continue to interact with Companion. \u201cThis will help to keep people well by reminding them of how to take care of themselves. But it\u2019s therapist overseen so that if things start to wobble then it can prompt them to check in again,\u2019\u2019 she adds.<\/p>\n

The company is also hoping to reach those who haven\u2019t even had therapy yet through Companion. \u201cWe\u2019ve launched a pathway for subclinical people who are struggling with sleep, worry or stress,\u2019\u2019 Wells says. <\/p>\n

\u201cEach of those members will be matched with a named therapist who will oversee their plan but the coaching will be delivered by Companion. There will always be therapist oversight but not necessarily therapist sessions. <\/p>\n

\u201cImagine if we gave that experience to everyone on a waiting list or even used it as early intervention prevention. That\u2019s how we can get on top of the need and help the overwhelmed mental health service in this country.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since ChatGPT was launched in late 2022, increasing numbers of people have turned to it for mental health…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-200876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}