The Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Counseling and Psychotherapy

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, counselors scrambled to embrace a technology that only 5 to 10% of them had previously dabbled in—telehealth. Just as many of us felt like we’d achieved at least a moderate level of competency in telehealth, artificial intelligence (AI) emerged as yet another mysterious, exciting, and—perhaps—terrifying technology to have to contend with, creating a slew of relevant questions: Can AI help me write my progress notes and treatment plans? How do I handle the fact that my counseling students are using AI to write their papers for them? What’s up with the creation of AI bots that offer mental health advice to our clients? Does AI perpetuate ethnoracial stereotypes? Is it true that some clients are recording their therapy sessions (without the therapist’s consent) and then selling those recordings to tech developers who are working on developing AI-powered therapy bots? Will AI make therapists obsolete? Is Cyberdyne finally coming to destroy us all? (Okay, that last one’s a little over the top…or is it?). This presentation, which is an edited video from a live webinar presented to the Suncoast Mental Health Counselors Association on 9/15/24, was designed to offer an overview of how AI can (and already has) impacted the counseling field, as well as strategies for ethical and impactful use of AI in counseling. UPDATE (4/10/25): Since the recording of this video, Plaud AI (the company manufacturing the Plaud Note and Plaud Pin devices referenced at TS 1:19:00 through 1:21:22) has annonced that it now offers HIPAA-compliant accounts with a signed business associate agreement (BAA; https://www.plaud.ai/blogs/news/the-r.... Also, the new Plaud Note Pro has improved audio recording quality compared to the original Plaud Note. Link for handouts: https://nortonconsulting.box.com/s/pl... Health professionals who wish to obtain a continuing education (CE) certificate for this training may register at https://www.anorton.com/shop-our-prod.... Learning Objectives: 1. Define and describe artificial intelligence (AI) and some of the ways AI has been used as an adjunct to counseling and psychotherapy. 2. Identify and describe emerging issues (including benefits and drawbacks) related to the use of AI in counseling. 3. Implement a list of guidelines and strategies for ethical and effective use of AI in mental health counseling. Credits: • Instrumental track at beginning and end of video entitled "Sky Skating" by Geographer and obtained from YouTube Creator Studio. • "Wah Wah Wah Sound Effect" audio file obtained from Oreyn at    • Wah Wah Wah Sound Effect for Youtubers | N...  . • "Breaking News Intro" audio file obtained from Ivan Luzan via Pixabay at https://pixabay.com/music//?utm_sourc...