← Abundant Practice Podcast
Loading summary
Transcript8 lines
- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:09]
B
Welcome to Ask Abundance. Y' all ask the questions about having a fun and thriving practice. We answer them. We have a worksheet for you today so you can bring this answer into your life. If you want support in your practice, we have you covered with on demand or one on one support. Links for the worksheet and support are in the Show Notes. Can't get enough Ask Abundance. Check out our YouTube channel for the entire library. Welcome back to Ask Allison. Today I'm joined by Kim Wheeler and Kim's been doing one on ones with us for years. If you want to hop into a one on one with her, then hit the link in the Show Notes if you're listening on the pod. Or you can get in touch with me on social and I will send you a link. Here is today's question. I'm trying to be more efficient in my practice, but I keep hearing mixed messages about using AI for things like notes, summaries or admin tasks. Part of me sees how much time it could save and another part of me worries I'm crossing an ethical line or risking client trust without realizing it. I don't want to cut corners or do anything that could jeopardize confidentiality or my license. Is it ethical to use AI for notes or admin? And how do I think about this responsibly? I love that they're asking instead of just going for it or not going for it. Like let's explore y' all before we answer. Then I'd love to thank our sponsor, TherapyNotes. I've talked about them for years, know their features by heart, but what truly sets them apart is that they genuinely care about your experience. It's not just about troubleshooting. They actively implement user suggested features like Therapy Search, secure messaging, and their AI Notes feature Therapy Fuel, which will not impact our discussion of this either way. Everybody at TherapyNotes believes in the product and they want you to love it too. Believe. Plus they're independently owned, which means no venture capital and no pressure to prioritize investors over customers. And this independence allows them to keep their prices fair, to focus on innovation, and to prioritize customer experience. With over 100,000 therapists already on board, they've proven that you don't have to compromise success for quality. If you're ready to see for yourself, try TherapyNotes free for two months with the code abundantherapynotes.com all right, what are your thoughts? Kim?
- [02:17]
A
Oh my goodness, I'm kind of 5050 on it. I have to do full disclosure that I do use AI to draft up my canned responses to stuff, so I definitely use that for admin tasks here and there. But I'm also really, I feel really guilty about the water usage, so I kind of think about that, but I look at that. But I also have researched a lot of the AI note takers or the ones that you can use in session and I look at like a lot of, in, you know, a couple of Facebook groups and you know, with therapists and everyone has like their discussions about them and how comfortable they feel. I think that it's one of those where I'm not really sure about where it's going to go. I know that, you know, for some therapists, especially when you get behind, it can be extremely helpful because it's like helping you to kind of get through and to get all your notes done. The other thing would be that the concern for actually the note taking and actually listening during the session, for me, I don't necessarily feel comfortable with that, so I don't do that particular thing, but I definitely see the benefit. And if you are writing a particular note that doesn't have a lot of identifying information and you're writing a kind of basic note that you can, you know, kind of write that out. And I think that it's really helpful for neurodivergent therapists who really kind of need that template each time and it really helps you to keep you on task and to keep you from kind of getting backed up. So it definitely has been helpful. You can kind of see that it's like, wow, this is life changing. But on the other hand, I do kind of have that thing of like how much information is kind of being heard when you're in a session and at some times will a client actually understand if they're being recorded, that this isn't just your personal reporting, this is that it's the AI and that where is that actually going to and do you actually own that and where is that going? Think that's a, a little bit difference between you actually recording the session yourself and then playing it back so that you can write it. So that would be my only hesitation about the actual systems that you use. Like that you're actually listening to, they're listening in on the session and then they're dictating and creating the know after. That's probably where I kind of get a little dicey with it, but those are my thoughts.
- [05:01]
B
Yeah. Yeah. I took a really good AI ethics course through Person Centered Tech that I would recommend to anybody. I Cannot summarize it because it was like four hours long. But I will say they did not touch on the environmental impact. And that is a real thing that I want to acknowledge. That's not what this person is asking about. So I want to hit the parts that they talked about, which is like crossing an ethical line and client trust. And I think one of the things from the ethics course is like, you absolutely need to make sure your clients know that you're using AI if you're using AI, and so making sure that it's an in your informed consent. Some of the AI companies for notes have like, their own informed consent. So it's a whole separate thing that they have to acknowledge. And I think that that's the way to go about it and to verbally communicate it as well. Yeah, just like I always tell you all to talk about your cancellation and no show policy out loud, even though they sign, but nobody reads that stuff. So let's be good stewards of ethics and say the stuff out loud and give them the option to back out. There are a couple different ways to do notes. One where you type in or dictate kind of what happened, and then the AI will make it into a nice concise note or for it to listen like you were talking about. And the major AI note takers do like, they're HIPAA compliant. They keep that information safe and secure. But I think a lot of the concern that therapists have is like, are we then training AI on how to do therapy? I'm not afraid of AI taking our jobs. Like we all learned in grad school, it's the relationship. And I know anytime I've used Chat GPT for anything, it's basically like, you're the most brilliant thing in the world. It never pushes back in the way that in therapy we help people grow.
- [06:52]
A
Yeah, I mean, I think that's. Yeah, I do agree with you in that people do have this concern about if they're going to. If they're farming for information to. To learn. And I think you're absolutely right about the fact that, like, even. And I do have clients that like, kind of then end up using, like, AI, you know, for something like. Yeah, you're right. They don't. It doesn't come back to you and it doesn't hold you accountable. It doesn't do any of those particular things. But I think that if they do take up the course on it, I think that it may make them feel like a little bit more comfortable. But I think the other thing would be Actually, you know, getting the consent. But I think that that's the bigger thing is whether or not the clients are actually going to consent to it and then really, really being comfortable with it. Yeah, it's like really the bigger thing.
- [07:44]
B
Mm, absolutely. And. And they talk about like jeopardizing their license. Don't use Chat GPT for anything at all that's client related. Like a canned response to an email. Sure. As long as there's. As long as it's like the same thing you send to multiple people. But one of the things in that continuing ed that I did was basically like there is no, like everything's phi. Right. So when you're putting in AI, none of that is secure. None of it is protected. So don't try to write your notes with ChatGPT because it's not secure, whereas the notes platforms from AI are. So. Yeah. And I think we have a podcast that aired a couple months ago where somebody like Melissa hall went way in depth about what she has learned through these companies because she's somebody who loves this techie stuff.
- [08:35]
A
Yeah.
- [08:36]
B
So I think it's good to educate yourself and to consider, especially for our neurodivergent students, like, it's so helpful for them because Notes is, I think most of us would say staying on top of our notes is the least pleasurable part of our jobs. So. Yeah, amazing. Well, thank you, Kim and I will see you guys next week. If you're ready for a much easier practice therapy Notes is the way to go. Go to therapynotes.com and use the promo code abundant. Two months free. I hope that helped. Please get in touch with any of your questions for Ask Abundance. If you're listening, you probably need some support building your practice. If you're a super newbie, grab our free checklist using the link in the show Notes. I'd love for you to follow rate and review, but I really want you to share this episode with a therapist friend. Let's help all our colleagues build what they want.