On Client Agency, Technological Integration, and the Primacy of Relationships for Humanistic Counseling in an AI‐Integrated World

ABSTRACT In this article, the author examines how humanistic counseling might adapt to artificial intelligence while preserving essential therapeutic values. I argue that humans have always been inseparable from the technologies that shape consciousness and relationships, yet we remain co‐determining agents capable of guiding technological development toward human flourishing rather than passively accepting whatever innovations emerge. Drawing from dialogical humanism, I propose that counselors develop an understanding of how AI mediates therapeutic relationships while maintaining relational primacy and client self‐determination. Effective humanistic practice demands neither categorical rejection nor uncritical embrace of AI, but contextual judgment about when and how integration serves healing, growth, and authentic encounter.