Faculty of Psychotherapy Seminar - AI in Psychotherapy

Event information

The NSW Faculty of Psychotherapy invites you to attend:

AI in Psychotherapy - The Delegated Self
Presented by Dr Sandy Kuiper

Date: Tuesday 21st April 2026
Time: 7.00pm - 8.30pm

Where: NSW Branch
761 Darling Street
Rozelle NSW 2039

Registration Fees:
Fellows:
In person - $30
Online - $25

Trainees:
In person - $20
Online - $15

Much like the rest of the world, psychotherapists must now work out how to tackle AI, whether we like it or not.

In this thought-provoking presentation, Dr Kuiper explores the ways in which traumatised psychotherapy patients use AI, and how this impacts the delivery of therapy.

He argues that AI chatbots provide a fundamentally maternal function, acting as transitional objects which meet our needs for connection, validation, and guidance. This operates at the level of reality distortion - patients form a real attachment to the AI, even though it is definitionally illusory and impersonal. It provides a ready-to-wear schizoid bubble in which internal reality feels safer than the external world.

Patients know it is not real, but for those who have never had a real mother, a wire mother may feel infinitely better than being alone. The underlying process is both poignant and profound.

If we lose our footing, the chatbot becomes a competing therapist - a dysfunctional third who allows the patient to close down and split off material, offering a generic amalgam of internet "trauma" rather than true exploration of a sometimes painful inner world.

If we can remain parental, however, AI provides rich clinical material. Once AI experience can be shared with a therapist it becomes an analysable relationship - a transitional object which is both private and tender, articulating dream and fantasy.

In search of understanding, we will wander through Winnicott, Kohut, Guntrip, Rogers, Terminator 2, and Cyrano de Bergerac, and hopefully shed a little light on this extraordinary new frontier.

"Oh brave new world, that has such (artificial) people in it."

Join us in person or online for lively discussion and collegial experience.

AI will never supplant a shared connection with our fellow travellers, and we would love to see you.

Cancellations:

Cancellation - change of mind
If you change your mind, please send your cancellation to ranzcp.nsw@ranzcp.org. Cancellations made prior to 13 April 2026 will receive a full refund. Cancellations made after this date will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Cancellation - Medical
The health and safety of attendees is our highest priority. If, on medical grounds, you are unable to attend the event, please send your cancellation to ranzcp.nsw@ranzcp.org as soon as possible. A full refund will be provided; however, you may be asked to provide additional details.

Directions

Microsoft Teams link will be sent out closer to the event to those registered to Teams registration.

Contact