Trust isn’t just about “I can tell this person anything”, but also trust that the therapist understands me well enough to ask me the right questions, contextual to my experience in life, and in therapy. Trust that they are looking at my facial expressions and are noticing when I’m in distress even if I don’t realize I am in that moment. Trust that the person I’m speaking to has dedicated their life to help/support others, and that the things I say aren’t all being fed to some system that is analyzing every word.
Obviously YMMV, and this depends on why you’re in therapy, but one of the things that I’m deeply grateful for in therapy is that I know the person I’m speaking to deeply cares.
Maybe a bot can someday fill in for those times when you just need to have a conversation with someone other than yourself, or want someone to identify and help you see the thinking traps you’re falling into.
But I can’t help but feel such a bot should not be thought of as a therapist, any more than Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” feature should be considered fully autonomous. I think it’s a misnomer.