Let’s Talk it through, anew: Promises and Pitfalls of Customisable Conversational Reflection Support

As modern lifestyles are becoming increasingly stressful and ever more hectic with multiple stimuli constantly competing for our attention, Affective Disorders (ADs) such as anxiety and depression are on the rise. Consequently, due to the burgeoning demand for counseling and therapeutic services, many people who suffer from ADs are struggling to timely access the professional support that they require. To address this problem, voice-enabled Conversational Agents (CAs) have been recently proposed as tools for supporting self-reflection and providing assistance in managing a range of ADs through synthetic voices. However, despite their therapeutic potential, CAs offer a very limited choice when it comes to selection and personalisation of synthetic voices used. The goal of this paper is two-fold: (1) it discusses the potential benefits that a CA’s voice customisation can bring to enhance user engagement and promote long term self-reflection, and (2) it offers reflection on the corresponding challenges associated to this approach.