Inclusivity and Innovation: A Pilot Study on Free AI Models for Clinical Supervision in Gestalt Therapy (GT)

Clinical supervision is crucial for the practice of psychotherapy and for training in it: it is a cornerstone of professional support, stimulating clinical reflection and the continuous development of skills. Recent studies explore the use of ChatGPT as a tool to support supervision: the crucial role of prompts in optimizing the effectiveness of Artificial Intelligence in this area emerges. This study has two main objectives: one is to develop a prompt framework by leveraging the evidence gathered in the two previous studies and testing its effectiveness. The other objective is to compare the performance of a free Large Language Model with that of other accessible paid models, with a view to inclusivity. The results show the surprising competitiveness of the free model and a significant improvement in the supervision feedback obtained, compared to that of previous studies, attributable to the characteristics of the new prompt, which includes precise instructions on the fundamental characteristics of good supervision. Artificial Intelligence can reduce professional hierarchies by democratizing expertise and represents a form of cognitive augmentation, as it extends the therapist's reflective abilities and promotes new forms of conversational supervision. The future ethical challenge will be to effectively combine technological innovation with the fundamental values of the caring professions.