Andreea Abe Adebowale-Integrative Relational Child Psychotherapy

Andreea Abe Adebowale-Integrative Relational Child Psychotherapy Training & professional resources for therapists
Child & Adolescent Mental Health
Relationship-centered practice in the age of AI

Training, supervision & professional resources for therapists
Child & Adolescent Mental Health
Relationship-centered practice in the age of AI
owner .joclapsiholog.ro

For me, it didn’t start from enthusiasm or fascination, but from a very human place of discomfort and a fear that I did...
29/01/2026

For me, it didn’t start from enthusiasm or fascination, but from a very human place of discomfort and a fear that I didn’t wanna admit at first. The fear wasn’t only about technology itself, but about what it might do to a profession that is built on presence, relationship, and the slow, often ugly unfolding of human connection.

Instead of pushing that fear away or trying to appear confident too quickly, I did something very familiar from my clinical work: I stayed with it. I let it exist. And I became curious about it.

After I learned it main tools, I use AI mostly as a secretary:
- it does the time consuming administrative work of correcting texts or editing or giving me shortcuts for different tech issues, since I work a lot online, with different platforms and apps.
- Sometimes is making summaries of literature of help me find relevant references for my teaching work
- I give it some ideas of my own and ask it to offer other perspectives

When it comes to the creative aspect of using AI, if I ask it to create content of any kind, I usually end up dissapointed because I always have to add of correct or change the whole result all together. I think it’s also a challenge I gave myself, to keep my original thinking and ideas at the base of any content I put in any format, online or offline.

Interestingly, the more I explore what AI can do, the more clearly I understand what it cannot do — and that clarity has been deeply regulating for me. It reminds me that therapy is not about speed, optimization, or perfect responses, but about being with another human being in moments of vulnerability, uncertainty, and emotional risk.

In this way, AI has become an enhancer of my work, rather than a source of threat and fear. I accept it exists, I learn about it and I use it with a clear porpuse in mind: to be a secretary, not a therapist of reflexive thinker.

How do you use AI in your own work?

Child aggression, withdrawal, and regression are often treated as "problems to be fixed".But in child and family therapy...
28/01/2026

Child aggression, withdrawal, and regression are often treated as "problems to be fixed".
But in child and family therapy, they are something else entirely: relational signals.

A child who hits, screams, shuts down, or suddenly “acts younger” is not malfunctioning. They are communicating—through their body, behavior, and nervous system—something that words cannot yet carry.
And this is where an essential truth gets missed: only humans can truly observe and understand these signals.
Why? Because these behaviors don’t exist in isolation. They emerge in relationship.
A child becomes aggressive "with someone".
Withdraws "from someone".
Regresses "when safety feels uncertain in connection" to a person who he/she is attached to.
These moments are not just about what the child does, but when, with whom, and in response to what emotional climate. A human therapist—or parent—doesn’t just see the behavior.

They notice:
- the shift in tone in the room
- the tightening or softening of the child’s body
-the timing of the behavior in the relationship
- their own internal reaction as an adult in the interaction
This is information. Relational information.

Aggression often says: I feel overwhelmed and don’t trust that my needs will be met.
Withdrawal can mean: Connection feels too risky right now.
Regression often means: I need safety at an earlier developmental level.

These signals require attunement, not correction. They need a nervous system that can feel the child, not just respond to words or patterns. Children do not show their most vulnerable states to tools. They show them where there is emotional containment, real presence, and the possibility of repair.

This is why child and family therapy is fundamentally relational. And why no technology—no matter how advanced—can replace the human capacity to observe, feel, interpret, and respond to a child’s inner world in real time.

Children don’t need to be decoded. They need to be met.

I am curious how you identiy these relational signals with your child or with the child you work with?

What makes a therapist human is the power to mirror and show your dark part, the parts that you reject, that you don’t l...
27/01/2026

What makes a therapist human is the power to mirror and show your dark part, the parts that you reject, that you don’t like, the aspects of you that don’t work that well, but still helped you in the past.
But, most importantly, next to a human therapist, you can reach deep vulnerability. That place that many of us are so scared of.
Being vulnerable in front of another human being is one of the deep growing point in a therapeutic process, especially for those of us who learned early on in their growing up experiences, that having negative emotions like fear or sadness or rage is too much for your parent. So they ignored those feelings or they punished or beat you for having them. Or they amplified those feelings, by bringing their own intense negative feelings in front and not leaving space for yours.

So, daring to re-experience these patterns with a therapist can be very hard, but if you manage to stay for long enough in a therapeutical relationship, where you can really cry, feel angry or completely and utterly powerless and not have all the answers, and still feel accepted and held by your therapist with these big feelings, this experience of togetherness can repair those emotional co-regulation unmeet needs from the past.

Where as with AI, this will not happen. Having therapy moments or entire sessions with AI is becoming more and more popular these days, but AI is programmed to tell you what you want, to pamper your ego, to offer you information that could help you therapeutically on the short or long run. But information only or strategies only will not really help you, because part of profound reparation of relational suffering will always involve another human, with another body and emotional system, that can sense and regulate your own body and emotional system. The information AI synthesise or creates for you is just another quick fix.
And quick fixes are being forced down out throats every day, every hour, every minute in the online world. And they rarely work or they work for short periods of time.

So no, don’t choose quick fixes. Don’t choose AI and the cognitive, information-based therapy it offers you. Choose another human being, who will be human like you in the therapy process. And uncomfortable sometimes. And challenging. But real and tangible and reparatory.

A beautiful simple aforism that is stuck with me from my therapy experience (of offering it and doing it) is this: in relationships we are hurt, but in relationships we heal.
Find in the comment section one resource on this topic.

But also feel free to share your reflections on this question: what is the relational aspect of your therapy process that you like (if you are offering it or receiving it)? .

Cu spor şi mult entuziasm, pregătesc un nou super curs pentru colegii mei de breaslă, acreditat de Colegiul Psihologilor...
11/01/2026

Cu spor şi mult entuziasm, pregătesc un nou super curs pentru colegii mei de breaslă, acreditat de Colegiul Psihologilor din România, în format de scurtă durată, cu 21 credite!

Dacă vrei să afli detalii despre curs, scrie CURIOZITATE în comentarii şi trimit info:)

I started writing about AI and integrative relational psychotherapy from a place of fear—and deep curiosity.Fear of the ...
09/01/2026

I started writing about AI and integrative relational psychotherapy from a place of fear—and deep curiosity.

Fear of the unknown world we are rapidly moving toward, with AI emerging and advancing at an unprecedented speed.
And curiosity about how this new tool will shape us—as humans.

I write from multiple places:
• From the role of president of a training school for future child, adolescent, and family psychotherapists, feeling the urgent responsibility to guide them ethically and realistically in a world that is already changing. A world where therapeutic approaches that once worked may no longer be enough—or may need serious adaptation and transformation.

• From the place of a psychotherapist who is both curious and anxious about how human psychotherapy will evolve:
Will people still come into the therapy room for real, relational work?
Or will AI be granted an undeserved place as “the therapist”?

• From the place of a parent, raising my child in a traditional way—through play, freedom, exploration, and connection—while also needing to help them understand and adapt to a world shaped by AI.

• And from the place of a human being in awe, living in times I once read about only in science-fiction novels—amazed by the human mind and its creative power.

From this space of felt and conscious emotions in relation to AI and its role in my life, I choose the self-regulation strategy that has supported me my entire life: information and knowledge.

And in this journey of learning and understanding, I will share my discoveries with you.

From now on, the information will be shared in English only on this account, so it can reach a wider international audience.
I will also create materials for my peers, based on my discoveries.
If you want access to a first psychoeducational resource on
The Role of AI in the Psychotherapeutic Process: Pros & Cons,
👉 write AI in the comments and I’ll send you the link.

Regulation happens between nervous systems.No machine can do it.In your clinical work, where do you see human co-regulat...
05/01/2026

Regulation happens between nervous systems.
No machine can do it.

In your clinical work, where do you see human co-regulation doing what no tool can?
I’d love to read your thoughts below.

No algorithm can hold a child.Human co-regulation can do it.AI tools can suggest techniques, prompts, or interventions —...
04/01/2026

No algorithm can hold a child.
Human co-regulation can do it.

AI tools can suggest techniques, prompts, or interventions — but they cannot become a relational presence in moments of emotional overwhelm. What actually helps a child move out of dysregulation and into safety is coregulation — a reciprocal process in which a trusted adult (therapist or caregiver) attunes to the child’s nervous system, responds with warmth and responsiveness, and scaffolds the child’s emotional experience in real time.

Co-regulation is not a something that ChatGPT can offer because is a biological and relational acomplished between two or more humans. It helps a child learn how to manage emotions, organize attention, and feel safe enough to explore, think, and connect. It lays the foundation for self-regulation later in life.

In therapy, this looks like:
✔ noticing bodily cues of distress
✔ matching emotional tone gently
✔ responding with attuned presence
✔ pacing interventions to the child’s capacity
✔ using relational safety to expand regulation capacity

It is this embodied, moment-to-moment collaboration that shapes a child’s nervous system, not algorithms.

See in the comment section some additional resources that can help you understand this process of coregulation.

04/01/2026

AI can suggest techniques, but only you — the therapist — can decide how/when to use them in child & family therapy process.Why?👇

03/01/2026

AI will replace jobs.Tasks based on speed, data, and repetition are disappearing. But not therapy for children and families.Why?👇

03/01/2026

Welcome to my brand new resources page on the topic of AI vs Relational Psychotherapy of child&family system!👇

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Bucharest

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Pe acesta pagina impartasesc experiente din activitatea mea profesionala, dar si informatii legate de domeniul vast al psihologiei si psihoterapiei, indeosebi al psihoterapiei cu copii, adolescenti si familiile lor.

De asemenea, promovez parerile si informatiile oferite de alti profesionisti in domenii adiacente, cm ar fi educatia, dezvoltarea personala, cresterea profesionala, neurostiinta, mindfulness, parentajul, care pot deveni resurse pentru experientele voastre din viata de zi cu zi!