Innovative horizons: integrating artificial intelligence (AI) in counseling and psychotherapy

Course overview

Early in the COVID 19 pandemic, counselors scrambled to embrace a technology that only 5 to 10 percent 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? Whats up with the creation of AI bots that offer mental health advice to our clients. Does AI perpetuate ethnocracies stereotypes. Is it true that some clients are recording their therapy sessions without the therapists 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 ones a little over the top or is it. This presentation 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.