5 Ways Your Therapist is Using AI
AI is showing up everywhere, including in the therapy room. Even your therapist cannot escape this era of high-tech innovation. A 2025 survey by the National Register of Health Service Psychologists (NRHSP) revealed that 57% of psychologists used AI in their practice over the previous six months, with 51.4% of those users relying on it daily or weekly.
However, despite this growing integration into clinical practice, significant concerns about data security and privacy remain. This apprehension is reflected in the survey, where only 20% of respondents endorsed trusting AI—highlighting why it is increasingly crucial for consumers to understand exactly how AI is being used in their care.
Here are the five ways your therapist might be using AI to support your care:
1. Note-Taking
This is the most common use. Instead of taking written notes while you talk, many therapists now use Ambient AI.
- How it works: An AI tool reviews the session recording (with your consent) and automatically generates a structured clinical note (like a SOAP or DAP note).
- The Benefit: It allows your therapist to maintain attention and presence with you, rather than focusing on a screen or notebook.
2. Clinical Brainstorming
- Case Conceptualization: They might input de-identified themes from your sessions to see if the AI suggests a different therapeutic viewpoint or a specific intervention they hadn’t considered.
- Treatment Planning: AI can help draft measurable goals for insurance companies, ensuring your sessions stay authorized while the therapist focuses on the actual healing work. Setting measurable goals is also beneficial for improving accountability and maintaining motivation for treatment.
3. Digital Content for Between-Session Practice
Standard worksheets ask generic questions and don’t fit every client. AI allows handouts to incorporate your specific metaphors and vocabulary.
- How it works: A therapist can prompt a clinical AI tool: “Create a standard CBT Thought Record handout, but use the client’s specific metaphor of their anxiety feeling like ‘a broken smoke alarm’ and their boss being the main trigger.”
- The Benefit: When you sit down to practice your therapy skills mid-week, the handout feels like a direct continuation of your specific conversation, making you much more likely to actually complete it.
4. Continuous Professional Training
Even when they aren’t with you, AI can help them get better at their jobs:
- Role-Play: Some therapists-in-training now use AI to simulate difficult client interactions, practicing how to handle high-conflict or high-emotion scenarios in a safe environment. These AI programs can generate session summaries with suggestions on how therapists might respond more effectively to their clients.
- Literature Summaries: With thousands of new psychology papers published every year, AI helps therapists stay updated by summarizing the latest evidence-based research relevant to your specific diagnosis.
5. Intake Triage and Matchmaking
When a large clinic or hospital receives dozens of new therapy requests a day, getting patients to the right specialist quickly can be a massive bottleneck.
- Smart Screening: Before a human intake coordinator even calls a client, an AI agent can analyze the initial intake questionnaire and any historical electronic health records.
- Targeted Matching: Rather than just assigning the next available therapist, the AI agent matches the client based on nuanced data—such as pairing a client who uses highly logical, structured language with a therapist who specializes in structured, protocol-driven Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
Because therapy is built on trust, you should expect to review the risks of using AI before you receive care. Specifically, the following should be considered:
- Consent: Your therapist should always ask for your explicit permission before using AI tools that record or process your data. Note that while this is a reasonable expectation in small private practice settings, it may not always hold true in larger health systems
- De-identification: Professional AI tools for therapy are designed to strip out names and identifying details to keep your identity private.
- The Final Word: AI never “diagnoses” or “decides” on its own; your therapist is responsible for reviewing and editing every single word the AI generates.
While AI is great at spotting patterns, it still lacks “true” empathy. Furthermore, AI often tells you what you want to hear, rather than what you need to hear.
Does your therapist use any specific tools that you’re curious about, or are you just weighing the pros and cons of this new tech?
Author bio: Jessica McClintock, PhD, is a member of the National Register of Health Service Psychologists Committee on AI and Emerging Technologies. Her work focuses on digital mental health and clinical quality. Additionally, she has an interest in the ethical use of technology, including artificial intelligence, in clinical practice.
AI Use Disclosure: Artificial intelligence was used to assist with editing and brainstorming for this article. The author reviewed and approved the final version and is responsible for its content.