Therapists vs. AI: Feeling Inadequate & What to Do
- This text provides practical advice for mental health professionals considering incorporating AI into their practice.
- Start Small & Specialized: Don't try to overhaul your entire practice with AI at once.
- Maintain Control: Don't "set it and forget it." be deeply involved in the AI's setup, ongoing maintenance, and monitoring.
Key Takeaways: integrating AI into Mental Health Practice – 5 Rules of Thumb
This text provides practical advice for mental health professionals considering incorporating AI into their practice. Here’s a breakdown of the five key rules, along with the overarching message:
1. Start Small & Specialized: Don’t try to overhaul your entire practice with AI at once. Instead, identify a specific need and choose a specialized AI app to address it as an addition to your existing work.
2. Maintain Control: Don’t “set it and forget it.” be deeply involved in the AI’s setup, ongoing maintenance, and monitoring. A hands-off approach is predicted to fail.
3. Daily review is Crucial: Regularly review how patients are using the AI. This requires a daily time commitment, and you’ll need to determine if you can bill clients for this oversight.
4. Balance is key: Avoid becoming overly reliant on the AI, both for yourself and your clients. set limits on AI usage for both parties to prevent it from dominating the therapeutic process.
5. Prioritize Legal Compliance: Be aware that laws regulating AI in mental health are emerging and vary by state. Ensure your AI usage complies with all applicable regulations (examples provided for Illinois,Nevada,and Utah).
Overarching Message:
The author emphasizes that AI is a disruptive force in mental healthcare. While possibly beneficial, integrating AI requires careful planning, consistent monitoring, and a willingness to adapt. The author even suggests that feeling a bit “shaken up” by AI’s capabilities is a healthy response for therapists, signaling the need to evolve with the changing landscape of the field.
Links Provided:
* Illinois AI Mental Health Law: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/2025/08/06/illinois-enacts-ai-mental-health-law-that-shakes-up-ai-makers-and-is-the-starting-wave-of-a-regulatory-tsunami-on-ai-therapy/
* Nevada AI Mental Health Law: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/2025/08/20/nevada-enacts-new-law-to-shut-down-the-use-of-ai-for-mental-health-but-sizzling-loopholes-might-exist/
* Utah AI Mental Health Law: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/2025/09/08/utah-enacts-law-to-regulate-use-of-ai-for-mental-health-providing-deftness-and-is-less-onerous-than-other-similar-laws/