The other partner
The name I use once someone’s nervous system has already decided this counts. Chatbot, doll, robot - it matters that you are attached and getting attention from the other partner now.
November 3, 2026 · Kindle $9.99
Who else are you already in a relationship with?
A Therapist’s Guide to AI Companions, Dolls + Robots, and Love
Amanda Pasciucco, PhD, LMFT, CST
I wrote this for the week a chatbot, a doll, or a robot is already in the relationship. There are no assembly instructions in it. I got tired of the speeches about love dying, so that is not in it either.
The intimacy gap
You can get presence on demand, while a person still has to be practiced with. Individuals and couples get lost when they pretend that humans and AI are the same.
Questions
Sit with these first
I use versions of these when someone is circling the topic. No score. The book will not tell you whether to stay.
- 01
Who else are you already in a relationship with?
- 02
What is that significance helping you with?
- 03
What do you still want with a person?
- 04
Who needs to hear it, and can you say the sentence out loud?
- 05
Is this practice you can bring back to a person, or has it replaced one?
- 06
If it stays, what has to be different in your everyday life as well?
- 07
When do you stop?
Who ends up here
Someone who already has a chatbot, a doll, or a robot in the picture, and is tired of being told they are ridiculous. Sometimes it is the partner who found the thread and does not want a courtroom. Sometimes it is another clinician who has heard this twice this month.
What I won’t do
I will not teach you how to build a better girlfriend. If your body responds, that response is real. Calling it fake does not help anybody in the room. I also will not tell you to stay or to leave.
Sometimes the comfort replaces a person. Sometimes you can take what you practiced back into the relationship. The book is about telling those apart.
Before the book shows up
An ethics contract
Write the four lines, then email them to yourself. I never receive them. What stays on this phone is only a backup if you come back in the same browser.
The author
I am Amanda Pasciucco, PhD, LMFT, CST. I have been hearing versions of this in the therapy room since 2023. It usually shows up as shame, and then as a fight after someone finds the chat.
Life Coaching and Therapy- Release
- November 3, 2026
- Kindle
- $9.99
- ASIN
- B0HKPZ4FKY
Kindle pre-order
The Other Partner
November 3, 2026 · $9.99 · delivered to your Kindle on release day