A Human Being Meets the Future of Psychotherapy

I recently read a great post by a friend, a digital mental health entrepreneur, who wrote: “There’s no world in which supporting our clients only 50 minutes a week will remain the standard.” He was referring to the growing need to integrate AI to complement in-person therapy.

Will all therapists eventually use AI or digital tools? Shouldn’t we be aiming for more than the traditional weekly 50-minute session?

To answer that, I believe we first need to ask: What is a human being?

A human being walks.

Hears something.

Thinks about it—and wonders.

Sometimes sees something beautiful and stops everything.

Sometimes falls silent.

Sometimes feels things for which there are no words.

A human being is not a machine.

This simple truth deeply relates to the way see the future of psychotherapy at the age of AI.

When Protocols Aren’t Enough

Protocol-based therapies, like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), parent training, work and work VERY well.They can be taught, practiced, and even delivered digitally.We can learn to identify distorted thinking.We can train ourselves to react differently.We can overcome unhealthy patterns with tools and guidance.

Parent training programs, for example, offer clear, structured help. Psychoeducation gives us insight into the link between thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. These interventions save lives.

But not all therapies are that straightforward—and not all people are either.

When a young adult struggles with building romantic relationships and seem to always fail, the issue might not require CBT or DBT. They might carry unconscious expectations, misinterpret a partner’s behavior, or project old wounds into the present. These are echoes that might need to be worked through in a safe and interpersonal space navigated by a professional.

The same applies to many teenagers with depression. As a clinician I found that CBT does not work in many cases, especially due to comorbidity with other aspects that relate to their fragile self, their need in understanding their identity, and different traits. Many of the teens need a professional to sit beside them and help them uncover things they cannot yet say, things they cannot safely feel. That’s not a worksheet kind of process. That’s deep therapeutic work.

A Growing Need for Depth

This is why I don’t believe all psychotherapists will be required to use AI-bots or digital tools to complement car and to deliver an effective intervention. I do believe all protocol-based therapists will. If one trains in order to change their behaviors there is no rationale at receiving support and feedback for only 50 minutes per week.

But that doesn’t mean psychotherapy becomes obsolete. On the contrary. It means the demand will rise for something else: for deeper, relational therapies. For work that goes beyond protocols.

And so, I hope future technologies won’t just focus on delivering treatments—they’ll focus on developing therapists. Training people not just in tools and programs, but in how to be present, how to listen, how to help others make sense of the messiness of being human. Because some problems are far more complex than any protocol.

Be well, Amit