When a client tells me they've been talking about our sessions with an AI chatbot, my first reaction is a bit of apprehension. Here's where AI can help between sessions, where it gets risky, and what a trained clinician notices that a chatbot can't.

Nobody drives a mountain road in a straight line. You climb, double back, and lose sight of the summit for a stretch, and you still arrive. Change works the same way. Here is what the research says about slips, plateaus, and the sudden jumps that make progress look messier than it really is.