Enhancing Emotions in Positive Way: LLM-Based AI Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Emotional Support

Enhancing Emotions in Positive Way: LLM-Based AI Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Emotional Support

Despite advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLMs), developing a CBT chatbot that provides emotional support and fosters continuous engagement remains a challenging task. To address this, we proposed SupportlyChat, which is a fine-tuned LLaMA with a custom dataset and provides emotion analysis visualization. We curated the custom dataset by integrating mental health conversation dataset and HappyDB dataset which collects people's happy moments. We conducted a user study with 10 participants using conditions including standard chatbot responses, emotion analysis reports with standard responses, and emotion analysis reports with empathetic responses. The findings indicate that participants found empathetic responses helpful in shifting towards positive thinking with our proposed method. Additionally, they preferred emotional visualization for its ability to enhance professionalism and recognize inherent emotions. Based on these findings, we suggest utilizing empathetic responses in psychological counseling to emotionally support clients and using emotion analysis reports to promote continuous engagement.