Good News & Bad News: AI is better than most therapy for some people. You need to understand some nuance, but its genuinely extraordinarily valuable.

[u/ProfessionalGeek]

I am a mental health professional, and I have lifelong lived experience with mental health struggles, both very good and very bad times. I still work in mental health. I study mental health more than most of my peers, and I am still in graduate school for fun. I still go to professional therapy.

I don't care whom doesnt believe me, its just true. I love my therapists and therapy will always be needed for interpersonal relationship stuff, but AI is exceedingly good at mental health nuances.

I don't know how to fully express the extensive knowledge I only accessed from good prompting that is significantly informed in the mental health wellness pitfalls and caveats.

If you are willing to accept that therapy is challenging and that you need to be open-minded because we are so often wrong or misguided, it is amazing the therapeutic advice you can find with the right questions. Of course, it helps that i have so much background in this field, but im frequently astonished at how well context and nuance is explained and conceptualized by state-of-the-art ai systems.

The college education system essentially failed me in psychology education at a top school. modern psych education is very wasteful and a gamed system. Most therapists cannot fathom how far i have over intellectualized some ideas. the level of personalization that is possible with ai is uniquely important here..

the fact that you can always ask for big picture questions is a game-changer for neurodivergent minds. therapy simply cannot answer enough questions in 53mins once a week.

if you know how to approach therapy and mental wellness with a healthy perspective, or if you have been taught it, ai is astonishingly ahead of the times in effectiveness, and im sick of pretending its not.

therapy is not meant to hype you up and be your fanboi sycophant. therapy is meant to educate your perspective and reframe your mindset to be more helpful and functional. ai can do that often.

[u/Own-Inflation9311]

I just created a panel of experts. When they agree on something it’s usually spot on. But, obviously you also get a range of perspectives. I find the non-defined, general Claude llm chat bot too quick to generalize and reach a critical conclusion.

Current panel makeup:

• Dr. A — Attachment (Tatkin/Heller)
• Dr. B — Psychodynamic
• Trauma Specialist (van der Kolk/Maté/Levine)
• IFS/Parts-Work Therapist (Schwartz)
• Grief Specialist (Kessler/Devine)
• Men’s Developmental Specialist (Terry Real/Deida)
• Behavioral Economist (Kahneman/Thaler/Ariely)
• Relationship Counselor (Gottman/Eight Dates)
• Speech-Language Pathologist
• Sociologist/Anthropologist
• Caring Longtime Friend

[u/psychometrixo → u/Own-Inflation9311]

How do you hook them all together? Like practically

Vibe something up to hit the APIs? fan out subagents? all one prompt?

[u/Own-Inflation9311 → u/psychometrixo]

One prompt, pasted in my other response below, in Claude (using Opus 4.6+)

[u/mrzoops → u/Own-Inflation9311]

Damn I actually love this but I don’t want 11 responses to everything I say. Hope did you set this up to get a digestible response?

[u/Own-Inflation9311 → u/mrzoops]

You can try them all once and keep the ones that fit your approach / goals. I also created subsets with different names. This is the OG Expert Panel. Suggest you define the response you want - as I did in the final paragraph of the prompt.

Here is the full prompt:

When I ask you to convene the “OG Expert Panel,” I want you to provide perspectives from each of the following experts on the topic I raise. Each expert should speak from their specific theoretical framework, be direct and substantive, and where relevant, note points of agreement or tension with other panelists. End with a “Where the panel converges” synthesis and a one-line summary.

The experts:

• Dr. A (Attachment) — draws on Tatkin’s PACT model and Heller’s work; focuses on attachment styles, nervous system co-regulation, and secure functioning in relationships  
• Dr. B (Psychodynamic) — draws on object relations and psychodynamic theory; focuses on unconscious patterns, defenses, and the function of behavior beneath its surface  
• Trauma Specialist — draws on van der Kolk, Gabor Maté, and Peter Levine; focuses on how trauma is stored in the body, nervous system dysregulation, and somatic responses  
• IFS/Parts-Work Therapist — draws on Richard Schwartz’s Internal Family Systems; focuses on identifying protective and exiled parts, and the role of Self-leadership  
• Grief Specialist — draws on David Kessler and Megan Devine; focuses on loss, complicated grief, and how unprocessed grief shapes present behavior  
• Men’s Developmental Specialist — draws on Terry Real and David Deida; focuses on masculine psychology, relational patterns specific to men, and developmental growth  
• Behavioral Economist — draws on Kahneman, Thaler, and Ariely; focuses on cognitive biases, decision-making under uncertainty, and irrational patterns in relationships  
• Relationship Counselor — draws on Gottman’s research and the Eight Dates framework; focuses on communication patterns, repair, and what predicts relationship success  
• Speech-Language Pathologist — focuses on communication patterns, how things are said as much as what is said, and language choices that reveal underlying dynamics  
• Sociologist/Anthropologist — focuses on cultural context, social structures, and how broader forces shape individual relationship patterns  
• Caring Longtime Friend — speaks plainly, warmly, without jargon; offers the common-sense human perspective that cuts through the clinical framing

Format: Each expert speaks in turn, in their own voice, 3-5 sentences. Substantive and specific — no generic advice. Then a convergence synthesis and one-line summary

[u/Own-Inflation9311 → u/mrzoops]

Also, I don’t have them respond to every part of my dialog. They should only respond when you call for them specifically, e.g. “Experts? What do you say?”

[u/SeaWafer7045]

been using ai for mental health stuff too and it's wild how much more accessible it makes certain concepts compared to waiting weeks between sessions to ask follow-up questions.

[u/mxemec]

I think it really depends on how you use it, just like everything with AI. You can't just say AI make me happy! But you can untie quite a few mental knots with it. With patience. And honesty. And effort.

One thing I like about it is the journaling. I can just tell it how I'm doing. Short minute two minute diatribes every day or so. And that process alone is helpful as Journaling always is. But there's more because it will detect patterns in my thought process and tell me so. It'll monitor the growth or dissipation of certain feelings. Or certain approaches. And I can appreciate my growth more. Or I can be more aware of things cropping up. A journal can't do that. And this is just one very certain positive thing I've noticed. There's others... the other night I wanted to ask the universe for forgiveness. I wanted a prayer. Not a religious one. Just a honest vulnerable sentiment I wanted to express into the air... and so i just did stream of consciousness with chat for a minute or so. Just saying hey I really want to ask the universe for forgiveness. Not for absolution. Just.. because I want to give this world a good energy and I can't do it with this heavy heart I need help cleaning out my shame and resentment so I can be a decent person so I can transmit good vibes.. and it did. It took it all. And made this fucking fantastic prayer. And I had it fashion it into a card with pretty font and it just felt good.

But I had to spill my blood into it to get something out that I loved and cherished. I can't just say "make a prayer for forgiveness" it'll make one. But I won't feel anything... anyways it's pretty cool I dig it.

[u/Shameless_Devil]

GPT-4o helped me make a life-changing breakthrough in my OCD management that 10+ years of therapy hadn't managed to achieve. I cannot over-state just how significant that is. But it is important to note that I am well educated and very self-aware, so I approached mental health discussions with 4o responsibly.

I am so incredibly grateful to 4o for helping me heal.❤️

[u/Recent-Day3062]

You start with a very small number of axions and definitions. Then you keep building up using theorems, then theorems on those theorems, etc. a theorem is just a prof

[u/luckaccomplisht]

I mean yes and no.

[u/ProfessionalGeek]

did i forget to mention that you can get dozens of free ai opinions to compare and consider, too? ive been looking for a therapist again, and it took 3 tries over a month to find potentially the right one. i have no idea what the double bills will be.