Eh, no. A client’s sharing the events of their week with a human therapist is not wasted time. It’s a warmup and reconnection, letting the therapist into their lived experience through their narrative of it. The client’s retelling and the experienced emotions of both participants are in the moment and can be addressed.
Dr. Grohol, I think you’re mistaken by encouraging more depersonalization to ease the client load on therapists. One solution is to train more therapists. Another is to revise the licensing laws to be less restrictive on therapists whose training is accepted in one state through regional rather than APA accreditation. Ideally, therapists would have a national license. I like the idea of offering peer support, which is another human-to-human connection. Also, group therapy and/or skills training accompanied by less than weekly individual sessions can provide access while easing clinician schedules.
Where AI can help is in facilitating dictated record keeping and interactions with insurers. Both of those parties would still be responsible for the results, which would need human review to ensure accuracy and relevance. An AI assistant could also scour a therapist’s process notes to bring forward items that need addressing or may be relevant to the client’s current issues or a possibly missed diagnosis.
You and I interacted long ago when you were the owner of the Psych Central website, where I wrote a few popular articles. I’m glad to see you blogging on SubStack.
So AI, a plagiarism tool that regurgitates statistically likely outputs in response to stimulus and frequently feeds users factually incorrect information, is going to replace rapport building and the ability of our clients to process their own life events with increasing agency? This article drastically undervalues vital aspects of therapy. It also fails to state that AI does not “learn information,” it only enhances its statistical ability. AI is not a form of intelligence at all. Even if such tools were available, they would be unethical to use until such a time as AI no longer works by stealing language without credit and offering information that is provably false. I will be unsubscribing from this author.
Eh, no. A client’s sharing the events of their week with a human therapist is not wasted time. It’s a warmup and reconnection, letting the therapist into their lived experience through their narrative of it. The client’s retelling and the experienced emotions of both participants are in the moment and can be addressed.
Dr. Grohol, I think you’re mistaken by encouraging more depersonalization to ease the client load on therapists. One solution is to train more therapists. Another is to revise the licensing laws to be less restrictive on therapists whose training is accepted in one state through regional rather than APA accreditation. Ideally, therapists would have a national license. I like the idea of offering peer support, which is another human-to-human connection. Also, group therapy and/or skills training accompanied by less than weekly individual sessions can provide access while easing clinician schedules.
Where AI can help is in facilitating dictated record keeping and interactions with insurers. Both of those parties would still be responsible for the results, which would need human review to ensure accuracy and relevance. An AI assistant could also scour a therapist’s process notes to bring forward items that need addressing or may be relevant to the client’s current issues or a possibly missed diagnosis.
You and I interacted long ago when you were the owner of the Psych Central website, where I wrote a few popular articles. I’m glad to see you blogging on SubStack.
Gary Seeman, Ph.D.
Retired psychologist
So AI, a plagiarism tool that regurgitates statistically likely outputs in response to stimulus and frequently feeds users factually incorrect information, is going to replace rapport building and the ability of our clients to process their own life events with increasing agency? This article drastically undervalues vital aspects of therapy. It also fails to state that AI does not “learn information,” it only enhances its statistical ability. AI is not a form of intelligence at all. Even if such tools were available, they would be unethical to use until such a time as AI no longer works by stealing language without credit and offering information that is provably false. I will be unsubscribing from this author.