Living in isolation increases the risk for premature mortality by nearly a third, while strong, close social relationships are one of the most reliable long-term predictors of mental and physical health. But today, when there are more resources available than ever before—friends, family, partners, and even AI chatbots—why would someone bother seeking out counseling at all? 

Whether you find yourself fearful of AI, excited to automate everything, or somewhere in the middle, AI is pervasive, and it is likely to stay. How then should it be implemented in society, and more personally, into our individual lives?

“Seriously? I just go blah, blah, blah, and my problems go away?” Over the past decade in practice, I have heard questions like this often when starting therapy with someone new, so I thought it would be useful to compile these simple–but admittedly sophisticated–questions in one place.

I have an elderly friend that I do typing for on occasion, and one day we were visiting and he asked me (with a twinkle in his eye as though telling a joke), “where does a pastor’s wife go if she needs to get advice about her marriage?”