# ChatCounselor: A Large Language Models for Mental Health Support

**Authors:** June M. Liu, Donghao Li, He Cao, Tianhe Ren, Zeyi Liao, Jiamin Wu  
**arXiv:** [2309.15461](https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.15461)  
**Date:** 2023-09-27  
**Summary page:** https://www.summarizepaper.com/en/paper/2309.15461v1/

## Key points

- ChatCounselor is a large language model (LLM) designed for mental health support
- It is built upon real conversations between consulting clients and professional psychologists
- The training dataset used, called Psych8k, consists of 260 in-depth interviews
- The authors developed a benchmark called the Counseling Bench to evaluate the quality of counseling responses generated by ChatCounselor
- ChatCounselor outperforms existing open-source models in the Counseling Bench and approaches the performance level of ChatGPT
- Its foundation in real conversations with professional psychologists gives it an advantage over generic chatbots for mental health support
- By leveraging its specialized knowledge and counseling skills, ChatCounselor can provide valuable assistance to individuals seeking mental health guidance online.

## Summary

This paper introduces ChatCounselor, a large language model (LLM) specifically designed to provide mental health support. Unlike generic chatbots, ChatCounselor is unique in that it is built upon real conversations between consulting clients and professional psychologists, allowing it to possess specialized knowledge and counseling skills in the field of psychology. The training dataset used for ChatCounselor, called Psych8k, consists of 260 in-depth interviews, each lasting an hour. To evaluate the quality of counseling responses generated by ChatCounselor, the authors developed a benchmark called the Counseling Bench. This benchmark utilizes GPT-4 and carefully crafted prompts based on seven metrics of psychological counseling assessment. The model was then evaluated using a set of real-world counseling questions. Impressively, ChatCounselor outperforms existing open-source models in the Counseling Bench and approaches the performance level of ChatGPT. This showcases the significant improvement in model capability achieved through the use of high-quality domain-specific data. The authors highlight that ChatCounselor's foundation in real conversations with professional psychologists gives it a distinct advantage over generic chatbots when it comes to providing mental health support. By leveraging its specialized knowledge and counseling skills, ChatCounselor has the potential to offer valuable assistance to individuals seeking mental health guidance online.