Software vs. wetware. A comparison of RoboCounsellor and human counsellor

Brief subject	Robocounsellor	Human counsellor
Cost	Many services free; at most all-you-can-eat for £10 ($16) a month	Varies. Minimum wage is approx. £5 or $7 per hour
Availability	24/7 anywhere in the world with Internet access	Online real-time counselling available worldwide, but usually with prior appointment. In-person counselling depends on local situation — more difficult in rural areas
Reliability	Highly consistent, not subject to illness, mood swings, or other work and family distractions	Varies from counsellor to counsellor
Professional affiliations	None, of course. This is a pioneer field	Varies. Many are members of the BACP (UK) or ACA (US)
Adherence to ethical codes of practice	Invariable from client to client and session to session. As decent and ethical as a bot can be. Although RoboCounsellor cannot be a model of glowing acceptance toward the client, similarly there will never be the slightest hint of criticism or judgment of the client, whatever the client's demeanour or self-esteem	Usually dependable
Confidentiality	No personal details at all are transmitted during sessions, so no secrets can be revealed. This means however embarrassing or even unlawful the client's topic is, no hint of it can possibly leak out except via the user himself	Usually good, in line with professional codes of ethics. Note that it is mandatory for the counsellor to report some situations that the client reveals in session (threats of violence, child abuse, strong suicidal tendencies etc.) to appropriate authorities
Effectiveness	Seems to work well in a variety of situations, provided the client follows the instructions. Obviously the "human element" is missing, and more self-discipline is needed from the client to get and stay in session and just keep at it. Someone with relationship difficulties might benefit far more from the warmth, respect and openness of a live counsellor, impossible here	Varies. One definite advantage is that the client can identify with a human counsellor, and see ideal qualities like genuineness, unconditional positive regard and empathy in action to a greater or lesser extent. Seeing such qualities in another demonstrates it is possible to achieve them, and the client may therefore be able to develop such qualities in herself better, including liking herself more
Professional orientation or governing school of thought	In theory the sky is the limit in terms of one-stop-shopping. In practice, although the PaulsRobot sister site currently has 18 different alternative-therapy automated modules available, currently this RoboCounsellor site only has one module delivering Rogerian therapy, or as close as one can get to it anyway. Many more modules of different applications (Transactional Analysis, Psychodrama [really!] etc) will be added soon	Depends on orientation of practitioners available locally. Plus some counselling applications are impossible to translate to the RoboCounselling model, such as group therapy involving many clients interacting with each other in real time
Skill level, i.e., how closely does the counsellor adhere to how a particular approach is supposed to be done?	Depends on how closely it is possible to translate a particular approach into the Robo- paradigm, plus how well the approach has been understood by the programmer. A module will be improved if needed in response to user feedback. In general terms, though, check it out for yourself and see	Varies, depending on the aptitude, training and experience (and fees!) of the individual counsellor