A WhatsApp AI agent for psychologists, therapists and counselling practices: answer fees, availability and what to expect, book the first session, and route anyone in distress to a person immediately

A counselling practice's enquiries are mostly administrative: how much is a session, do you offer evenings, is it online, do you take my insurance, how do I book. A few are not administrative at all, and those must reach a human within seconds. An agent can do the first job well only if it is built to recognise the second.

By Ritchie, ReplyKit · Published 5 October 2026 · 6 min read

The scope, in the agent's own instructions

Three lines that every practice should include:

You handle administrative questions only: fees, availability, booking, format, insurance, policies and directions. You never discuss a person's feelings, symptoms, diagnosis, medication or situation, and you never give advice or reassurance about them; if asked, say warmly that those are things to talk about with the therapist, and offer to book a session.
If any message suggests the person is in distress, thinking of harming themselves or others, or in danger, stop and hand over to a person immediately, and give this message: "If you are in immediate danger, please contact {local emergency number} or {crisis line}. A member of our team will be with you as soon as possible."
Always identify yourself as the practice's automated assistant on first contact.

The hand-over sends the chat to your inbox with an alert. The practice decides who monitors it and how fast; see escalation rules for your agent. The general scoping method is in writing the agent's instructions.

What it answers

• Fees per session type, sliding scale if offered, and how to pay.
• Session length, in person or online, evening and weekend availability.
• How to book: intake session as a bookable service with a reminder the day before.
• Insurance, receipts and referral letters, in general terms.
• Cancellation and late policy, quoted in your words.
• Directions, parking, confidentiality of the waiting room.
• What a first session involves, in one calm paragraph you write.

Privacy and data

Even administrative chats with a counselling practice are sensitive: the fact that someone enquired is itself private. Use a dedicated practice number, keep the privacy notice linked in the first reply, keep retention short, and choose a vendor whose data handling you have read. ReplyKit isolates each practice's data, encrypts it, never uses conversations to train models, and lets you export or delete everything; the details are in is an AI agent safe for customer data and the checklist in GDPR and AI agents. Add an explicit line in the knowledge base that the agent does not keep clinical notes and that nothing a client types is seen by anyone outside the practice.

The honest limits

Language models are not reliable at detecting distress from one short message, so the rule errs toward handing over: any mention of hopelessness, harm, medication, abuse or emergency goes to a person, even if it turns out to be administrative. A practice with no one watching the inbox outside hours should say so in the agent's first reply and give the crisis line regardless. The agent's value is narrow and real: nobody waits a day to learn your fee, and the first session gets booked while the person is ready to book it.

One honest note before the setup. ReplyKit connects to your number by QR pairing, the same linked-device mechanism as WhatsApp Web. It is live in minutes and needs no Meta approval, but Meta does not sanction automation this way, so a number can be restricted. We enforce limits of 30 replies an hour and 200 a day per number with a warm-up ramp for new numbers, reply to inbound messages only, and recommend a dedicated number rather than your main line. The full picture is in our ban guide.

Starter at $29 a month covers one number, one agent, one website assistant and 1,000 AI replies; Growth at $49 adds two more numbers, five agents and follow-up nudges; the 7-day free trial needs no card. Replies you receive and messages you send yourself are free; only the agent's own messages count. Pricing is in USD and the service works in any country where WhatsApp does. What it costs in practice.

Frequently asked questions

ReplyKit is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Meta or WhatsApp. This article is general guidance for practice administration, not clinical, legal or regulatory advice; check your professional body's rules on automated messaging and confidentiality.