  This paper proposes using ChatGPT, an innovative technology with various
applications, as an assistant for psychotherapy. ChatGPT can serve as a patient
information collector, a companion for patients in between therapy sessions,
and an organizer of gathered information for therapists to facilitate treatment
processes. The research identifies five research questions and discovers useful
prompts for fine-tuning the assistant, which shows that ChatGPT can participate
in positive conversations, listen attentively, offer validation and potential
coping strategies without providing explicit medical advice, and help
therapists discover new insights from multiple conversations with the same
patient. Using ChatGPT as an assistant for psychotherapy poses several
challenges that need to be addressed, including technical as well as
human-centric challenges which are discussed.
