Mental Health Counselors

0.0% (Minimal Risk)

Minimal Risk (0-20%): Occupations in this category have a low probability of being automated, as they typically demand complex problem-solving, creativity, strong interpersonal skills, and a high degree of manual dexterity. These jobs often involve intricate hand movements and precise coordination, making it difficult for machines to replicate the required tasks.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

User poll

Sentiment

The following graph is included wherever there is a substantial amount of votes to render meaningful data. These visual representations display user poll results over time, providing a significant indication of sentiment trends.

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors' was $53,710, or $25 per hour

'Substance Abuse, Behavioral Disorder, and Mental Health Counselors' were paid 11.8% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $48,060

Comments

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Pitha gorus (Highly likely) 7 months ago

Robots will understand more human mind in the future than such evil therapist who do business only for many and always ask for high costs, AI would have more evidence based answers and solutions to human problems with human like empathy they will understand humans like centuries before internet was just an imagination in 1700.

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anonymous 1 year ago

In the United States therapists are licensed through the board of behavioral sciences in their state. Humans have to jump through several hoops, education and training, in order to get licensed. I can’t imagine that these requirements will go away for artificial intelligence. Someone has to own the technology being used, they will be liable if something goes wrong. Legal and ethical issues will arise.

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Zac (Moderate) 1 year ago

If therapy is primarily a reflective task, it's easy to see how a user could enter prompt text and an LLM could respond to key words to generate open-ended questions for deeper consideration. I think the optimistic view of this is that mental health treatment need not look like it does now with only periodic visits of defined length.

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Hadit (Highly likely) 1 year ago

Chatgpt has already been better and more empathetic then most therapists. Given how many can botch even simple assessments because they are too lazy to actually work, I cannot wait

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Keeks (Low) 1 year ago

Human witnessing with each of our senses... eyes, ears, embodied felt sense, plus empathetic responsiveness, have direct impacts on another's nervous system. Maybe one day robots will be able to emulate this (I hope not), but for now I can't see how these integral pieces to therapeutic effectiveness could be replaced by an AI bot.

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Max 1 year ago

Therapy and counselling is a medical treatment of an illness, just like any other. If you're looking for human connection in your health care, you are looking in the wrong place. That needs to come from your relationships. Therapy is expensive and there are massive wait lists. Not to mention when I finally get in with a counsellor it's like rolling the dice if it will be a good fit. If an AI could provide me with free, unbiased, scientifically backed, cutting edge advice specific to my mental health situation at any time I need it, sign me the heck up.

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Chris (Highly likely) 2 years ago

The robot's memory could be erased after the session. This makes the client more comfortable telling their "darkest secrets" right away.

The client also has unlimited access to a therapist that never gets fatigued or distracted. Plus, the client can have on-demand access 24/7/365, for 5 minutes or 5 hours.

Sadly, therapists will be rare, but fortunately, society will achieve greater mental health.

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Sarah (No chance) 3 years ago

Therapy requires a personal, empathetic touch that machines may never be able to provide.

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Stephen Lim (Low) 4 years ago

Nothing can ever replace human empathy and face-to-face interactions. Bots may give the most politically correct or evidence-based answers, but it can't provide the human touch, or when counsellors say to clients "I'm sorry about what you've gone through. I share your grief and am at a loss of words now."

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Friend 3 years ago

Why would I pick a human counselor who knows a limited amount little to an AI who has instant access to the breadth of human knowledge. Its hubris for us to think that AI will not pass human intelligence at some point, and then we won't even be able to tell the difference. So yes at some point all jobs are in danger.

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Carl 12 months ago

I don't want a counselor who knows everything, I want a counselor who knows me and cares for me and my wellbeing. A robot won't do that.

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Jo 1 year ago

You are correct that it is possible that AI will eventually come for everything. However, the most powerful aspect of therapy is not "how much I know and can tell you." It is the relational connection that is healing core attachment wounds.

Eventually, when the philosophical debate about what it means to be "conscious" and "alive" starts to include AI, then it will be very interesting. However, that is likely far away.

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Human 2 years ago

Therapy isn't about knowledge; it's about emotional connection. When AI sheds tears, let me know.

For people who want quick fixes, they may turn to AI for a while. But as symptoms return, they'll wise up.

What's worrisome is the monetization of AI for these purposes. Research into AI therapy is almost entirely unethical, largely because it will be used for profit, not for people - and we all know it.

By the time people realize AI therapists are a sham, insurance companies may have long abandoned reimbursement for human therapy. We'll be too busy doomscrolling or consuming YouTube videos of kittens to do anything about it.

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Lindsey (No chance) 5 years ago

Mental Health Counselling is a job that is about face to face interaction and understanding verbal and nonverbal communication. a robot cannot understand and pick up on these forms of communication the way humans were programmed to do. People have to go through multiple sessions before being able to help the person. You cannot give a robot emotions that humans are born with that are required with this job. Humans have personal experiences hearing, seeing or experiencing that can be used to help people. Robots cannot do any of this and that is why I am so confident that this profession will never be controlled by robots.

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Russell Johnson (No chance) 5 years ago

counseling is a human experience.

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Sarah (No chance) 5 years ago

I think expanding mental health counseling would be a good idea. This job shouldn't be leaving anywhere.

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Collyn Wang (No chance) 5 years ago

Mental Health Councilling requires face to face communication, and robots can not detect emotions and feelings as well as humans can. Psychology is a very difficult major for a robot to be able to understand as we have not been able to properly program sympathy or emotions and creativity in robots. Even if we do, humans would probably rather communicate with other humans or even people who share the same problems as them, not robots.

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Makenna (Low) 5 years ago

Counselling alone is about communicating to others and i think that if robots replace that job the work wont be done right.

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