This is an interesting issue. People are using AI for therapy and they experience feeling seen and heard. It strikes me that they are responding to feeling heard and seen, through a repeating back (aka reflective listening response) from the AI. I think what can be gleamed from this is that saying back to the person what they heard them say, mean and intend is an essential counselling skill. It seems to me that all to often these connection and engagement skills are put on the back burner; replaced with administrative/task driven activities (assessments/diagnosis, goal setting, treatment planning) and other stuff that gets in the way of forming a solid connection with an individual and meeting them where they are at.