Recently, many people have appeared on the Internet to share their experience of psychological counseling with ChatGPT: "Who knows, ChatGPT is really good at communication." ”
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ChatGPT has been popular for 2 months, and while the tech giants are "fighting fairies", private users have brought this technology into all areas of ordinary life.
Some people began to use it to write weekly work reports, make PPTs, and even use it to write speeches for leaders, using technology to improve productivity in the office.
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Because the answers it outputs are too much like human language, other people on social media are trying to use ChatGPT as a free counselor, pouring out their frustrations to ChatGPT.
Recently, many people have shared their experience of psychological counseling to ChatGPT on the Internet:
"Who knows, ChatGPT is really good at communicating."
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A lot of pain in adult life can only be digested silently, and the emergence of ChatGPT seems to give everyone suddenly one more choice.
A "friend" who is on call 24 hours a day, chatting with you from late at night until dawn, and never gets tired.
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More importantly, psychological counseling with ChatGPT costs almost nothing, compared to hundreds of dollars an hour of counseling costs, it is almost equivalent to a free "emotional outlet".
With more and more users, we can't help but wonder, is psychological counseling the right way to open ChatGPT? Can ChatGPT really be used as a free counselor?
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Who is using ChatGPT for counseling?
Xiao Ran, who started trying to use ChatGPT for "psychological counseling" a month ago, told us: "A month ago, I sent a message to ChatGPT with the idea of trying it out, 'I feel sad', and after about five seconds, I received a reply, and its response made me feel heard and understood."
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"Before trying to use ChatGPT, I also searched for psychological counseling services on the Internet, and the information that popped up was varied, and after the state canceled the professional qualification certification related to psychological counselors, it became even more difficult to find the right counselor."
"I've also met offline counselors who claim to be experienced, but can't wait to charge me a high consulting fee as soon as they meet, and it's hard to build trust."
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"Even if I find a counselor, there are still a series of problems, such as it is difficult for me to be honest with the counselor in the short term, sometimes I encounter difficulties at work, and the hardest time is late at night, and the counselor will not support you 24 hours a day."
"When I used to asking ChatGPT for help, I often opened the chat page in my life, and when I was in a bad mood, I would hide in an empty conference room where no one was and quietly ask ChatGPT for help."
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It looks tempting, but it's hard to do
When people are excited to discuss online, "How convenient is ChatGPT for counseling?" At the same time, some psychological researchers have given a different view.
Liu Chang, a doctoral candidate in psychology at Leiden University in the Netherlands, told Hard Shell INK: "The premise of this discussion is to assume that ChatGPT can be used for psychological counseling, and the problem itself is not valid, and in her opinion, what ChatGPT does cannot be defined as psychological counseling." ”
"Many people misunderstand the meaning of psychological counseling, which refers to the process of using psychological methods to provide psychological assistance to seekers who have problems in psychological adaptation and seek to solve them."
Liu Chang added to us: "I think the current service provided by ChatGPT can only be called emotional healing, not psychological counseling. ”
"The definition of counseling is that one person communicates with each other, usually it has to happen face-to-face, whereas currently ChatGPT only provides communication in written form."
"Different schools of counselors have different working methods, but no genre can complete counseling only through text messages."
"Because you can't see the person on the other side, ChatGPT only receives text messages, and 70% of the amount of information may be lost in the process of information transmission, and the remaining part that can be conveyed is very limited."
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"When counseling is carried out, psychological counselors are more likely to assist clients in internal exploration, pay more attention to listening, ask fewer questions, and do not forcibly analyze and instill concepts."
"In some special cases, the counselor may not speak the whole time, only listening and observing, receiving and conveying information through eyes and body movements."
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"Just imagine, when doing psychological counseling, someone looks at you with full attention, gives you timely feedback with gestures and expressions, including the decoration settings in the consultation room are for you to make you feel relaxed, the sofa is to make you relax and sit down, and the water cup is placed within reach."
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"Even on the way to counseling and on the way home, there are thoughts and reactions, what do you need to think about today on the way to counseling? On the way home, you have to reflect on how today's consultation made you feel? ”
"What really works in the end of counseling is not what the counselor says to you, but what you do yourself, but the consultant is a feeling that seems to be supporting you and supporting you."
In addition, many people who use ChatGPT for "counseling" have not been exposed to real counseling, and it is easy to confuse the concept of being able to listen to me and give me advice with 'counseling'. ”
"Although he has not had in-depth communication with ChatGPT, according to my observation of some chat records on social platforms, rationality and logic are his strengths."
"Maintaining an objective position is a basic requirement for counselors, but if you only pursue extreme rationality and excessive objectivity, it may become a source of empathy."
"There is no lack of rational advice in our lives, what is more difficult is how to apply the truth after understanding, and the companionship and support after repeated setbacks in the process."
In fact, ChatGPT itself said that it cannot completely replace the work of psychological counselors at this stage.
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For ChatGPT, it may be used for psychological education, information collection or auxiliary screening before psychological counseling in the future, but empathy and trust in the counseling process cannot be achieved by ChatGPT at this stage.
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It is people who make people sick, and it is people who make people better
Although ChatGPT is already the closest AI product to human language expression, imitating human thinking is not human thinking after all.
Shen Xiaoqian, a member of the China Mental Health Association and a psychological counselor with 16 years of practice experience, told Hard Shell INK: "The biggest reason why ChatGPT cannot be used as psychological counseling is that the connection between people can never be replaced. ”
In her opinion, the biggest advantage of ChatGPT is that it can provide services quickly and in a timely manner.
"Some tricky psychological problems in life, it only takes a few seconds to give a response, get timely comfort, this is that most people's friends and parents around them can't do."
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"I learned about some cases on social media and found that the suggestions given by ChatGPT did have some constructive and reference value, and the listed answers were logical, but no matter how detailed they were, they still could not do the "sense of presence" of real psychological counselors, and presence and empathy must be done by people. ”
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"People themselves are complex emotional animals, and to touch vulnerable places is to have a deep understanding of people's emotions, which is what people can do as counselors."
"Its answer may make people temporarily not fall into negative emotions, which is of certain positive significance for alleviating emotions, but it still cannot replace the dynamic collision between people in traditional counseling."
"People can't go forward with unlimited energy, like a car, they need to be refueled, they need regular maintenance, and our work is a kind of regular mental maintenance"
"A lot of people are troubled by the fact that they can't live their lives after reading a lot of truth, ChatGPT can list several suggestions in seconds, and if everyone can follow the advice, then there may be no problem." But the real problem is that we can't do it, and the process of not doing it is accompanied by discouragement, despair, self-denial, and this pressure hangs over you all the time, and even if you have advice, you can't solve these problems. ”
Psychologist Owen. Yaalon famously said, "It is man who makes man sick, and man who makes man better." ”
The core ability of psychological counselors lies in empathy, and the power of the presence accompanied by human counselors is immeasurable and irreplaceable.
"What's more, the advice given by ChatGPT is itself a requirement, and the request from the outside cannot be transformed into a motivation to change in time, thus falling into the dilemma that I understand a lot of truth but still don't know how to change."
"In the long run, it may cause negative feedback in the loop, which may be more frustrating when it is hit back to the original form, but may deepen the problem."
So why is ChatGPT consulting so popular among young people?
Adolescents face many hidden problems in their own growth stages;
Young people who grow up in the Internet era are better at using the Internet to obtain information and are more willing to try new things;
Compared with adults, adolescents have fewer social resources available and lack emotional outlets.
According to the World Health Organization's recommendation that "one counselor per 1,000 people is the balance point of a healthy society", China needs at least 1.3 million counselors.
But in fact, there are only 350,000 professional psychological counselors on the mainland.
Behind the psychological counseling of young people using ChatGPT is the revelation of their long-standing psychological problems, coupled with the lack of psychological education in education and the huge gap of psychological counselors, which has also caused many people to regard ChatGPT as "psychological counselors".
More importantly, in the future, we should pay attention to the real counseling needs behind young people and provide them with as professional help as possible.
Duty Editor Gu Li plus minus
Part of this article was first published by the Beijing News official number "Hard Shell INK"
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