89. All You Need to Know Before Getting Started with AI as a Therapist

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All You Need to Know Before Getting Started with AI as a Therapist

If you have been thinking about getting started with AI but keep putting it off because you do not know where to begin, this episode is for you. A lot of therapists are hearing about AI, seeing other clinicians use it, and still feeling stuck at square one.

In this episode of Run Your Private Practice with AI, I’m breaking down all you need to know before getting started with AI as a therapist. We are talking about where to start, what mistakes to avoid, and how to approach AI in a way that actually saves you time instead of creating more stress. If you have been sitting on the sidelines, consider this your starting point.

AI Tips You Don’t Want to Miss:

  • Why doing a simple time study is the smartest first step before trying any AI tool.
  • The biggest mistakes therapists make when getting started with AI.
  • Why you should never copy and paste AI output directly into client records.
  • What you need to understand about HIPAA compliance before using any AI platform.
  • Four beginner-friendly AI prompts you can use immediately in your practice.

Connect with me:

Sponsored by Alma: www.helloalma.com/kym
Sponsored by Berries: www.heyberries.com/therapists

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Run Your Private Practice with ai. So this has been an interesting week. In the private free Facebook group for therapists. Run your private practice with ai. I did a poll last week to figure out like, why aren’t you using AI if you are not using it?

[00:00:18] I mean, I think a lot of us are in some ways, but there are still a lot of people that aren’t using ai. And the number one answer was, I don’t know where to start using ai, which really surprised me. I think maybe I’m just so like, inundated in it that I just like can’t comprehend that some people haven’t even started with it.

[00:00:36] So I thought today I would just back up, talk about that a little bit and maybe help some of you that are in that place where it’s just like, I don’t know where to start. so there’s a couple things. I’m gonna put some links down in the show notes. Berries you guys know, I’m the clinical consultant for product development for Berries.

[00:00:52] We took on a pretty ambitious project called Berries Academy, and I think we’re gonna have more trainings or whatever. But the first four trainings are ones that I did for Berries that are basically AI 101, AI ethics, HIPAA compliance, all of that is the second webinar. The next one is all the other ways you can use it besides using like a note taker, like berries to do your notes and your treatment plans and all of that. And then the last one is a practical walkthrough using berries to show you like exactly what a workflow would look like for somebody that maybe is brand new and just starting out and doesn’t know anything about that.

[00:01:28] That’s what the fourth one walks you through. So it’s a four part series. I think each of ’em are around like anywhere from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. So I would definitely say if you’re brand new and just starting out, go check out Berries Academy. It’s totally free. It’s on Berries website, so you can just go check it out.

[00:01:43] We’ll put the link down below so you can do that. The next thing I would always suggest is doing a time study. And I’m gonna talk in a minute about like the mistakes that I see a lot of therapists making when they’re first starting out. But doing a time study is what’s gonna help you figure out how to use AI and like, which ais to use.

[00:02:03] So I’m gonna put down in the show notes also a link to my free time study tool that I created for therapists. So it basically is a tool. It knows about clinical work and all that. So you log into it for a week. I recommend however long you wanna do it for, people might wanna use it longer than that, which is totally fine.

[00:02:22] You log in and every 15, 20 minutes or so throughout your work week, you’re gonna log exactly how you’re spending your time. The whole goal of using the time study tool is to figure out like. What is my biggest time suck? Where am I wasting all my time? And then once we figure that out, then we can figure out which AI tool would be best for you to use.

[00:02:41] Instead of just like going out and willy-nilly trying all these different AI tools, figure out which ones you actually need, and then figure out the best one to implement to solve the problem that you are having. So based on that time study tool, you’re gonna get a lot of really good information.

[00:02:56] Now, that’s where to start. But I do wanna say there are some mistakes I see people saying, so go watch Berries Academy do that. Definitely. And then also use the time study tool or some, there’s tons of time study tools out there you can find to get a better idea of where you’re wasting a lot of your time.

[00:03:13] Most therapist simple practice did a. Study and they found that most therapists, most therapists are spending 10 hours or more a week on admin activities. So that’s not direct client care. If we can automate that, a lot of that, think how much time you’ll have back in your life. You could see more clients or just like, go live your life and not have to worry about, you know, all that admin stuff.

[00:03:36] So, this is where I see the biggest mistakes right now, and I’m gonna go through these for you. With ai, the five mistakes I see almost every week working with therapists, thousands of therapists at this point to teach them how to use ai, copying and pasting the AI output straight into your client records. Okay. AI is awesome, but it also hallucinates, like it makes tons of stuff up. So you never want to just like copy and paste and not look at what it’s saying.

[00:04:05] Even with berries, berries is amazing. It still will interject a little something here and there, like maybe it’ll say see the client next week when I’m seeing the client monthly. You know, it can’t always know everything, so you. Definitely need to double check even with social media, if you’re using it for that double check every word because it will make stuff up.

[00:04:25] It just will. So make sure you’re doing that because you know, I get into this in the Berries Academy, if you really go down the rabbit hole with it, and let’s say that you had AI write a note. You didn’t check it, you put it into the client record, you get called to court, they pull your note and they ask you why you said something if it’s not right.

[00:04:45] You’re in trouble. The client could be in trouble. It could be a huge problem for everybody. So that’s why we wanna double check everything. And then using ai, any AI without double checking if it’s HIPAA compliance, so ChatGPT is awesome. You can write progress notes with ChatGPT. But if you give enough detail for that person that they read what you put in the input, and they read that and they were like, you’re talking about me, that’s too much information.

[00:05:11] So you have to be super general with it. So the mistake I see people making is they don’t think about that. They just dump it into any old ai. And there’s so much now, like, these AI browsers the agents that you can chat with, AI chatbots. There’s so many places where you can make that mistake. So double check.

[00:05:29] If a company is not giving you a BAA and saying that they’re HIPAA compliant. don’t even put remote client information in there. Now you could do a progress note. Write me a progress note about a client that has generalized anxiety and public speaking anxiety. It’ll do a great no for that, but it’s not gonna be specific to the client, and you don’t want it to be inside of these free ais that don’t have HIPAA compliance.

[00:05:51] The other mistake I see writing prompts that are way too vague. So I’ll go into a coaching session with a new therapist and they’ll be like, I’ve, tried using ai. It sucks. Like it doesn’t work. I don’t know what the hype is. The problem is you don’t know how to write good prompts. You don’t know what to ask it.

[00:06:08] So, you know, you can start with, and I’ll put this link down too. I’ve got a hundred AI prompts for therapists to get you started. So if you’re brand new and you have no idea what you’re doing. Download that free guide because it’s gonna walk you through like what a good prompt looks like. If you don’t know what to do and you’re just starting out, ask the ai, like, tell me a good prompt for this.

[00:06:27] Like, you can ask the AI to give you good prompts. If it’s giving you bad output, it’s probably you, not the ai. Just a little, you know, I don’t know, rattle your feathers a little bit, but it probably is you, it’s probably not the ai.

[00:06:39] let’s see, what else do I see? Oh, Just assuming that if you use ai, it’s gonna replace us as therapists. Here’s a huge newsflash. AI’s already here, a million users a week, a reporting using AI to help ’em with their mental health. Okay. So it’s already replacing us. The real thing I would encourage you to think about is not, I’m not gonna use it because basically you’re gonna be living in the dark ages after a while.

[00:07:07] Therapists in business are gonna be using AI to move faster, get more clients, have better marketing, all of that, and they’re gonna leave you in the dust. So that’s, you know, my hot take or whatever. People might not like it, but it’s true in my opinion. So I would say don’t not use it because you think that it’s gonna take your job, it’s already taken your job.

[00:07:27] I just wanna put that out there. And really the truth is, therapists that aren’t using AI are gonna get put out of a job with therapists that are using ai. They’re just gonna be able to do it better faster. They’re gonna have tools like Berries running in the background to write their notes. They’re not gonna burn out as quickly as you’re going to.

[00:07:43] And that’s my little soapbox about that. so basically that’s it. I mean, that’s my little kind of idea on where you can go right now. If you’re just starting out using ai. I do have some prompts in the free Facebook group, because again, it really shocked me a little bit the people therapists today just haven’t tried AI or they don’t know where to start, that sort of thing.

[00:08:04] So I put four really simple prompts that you can use right now, and I’m gonna read them to you. You can go over to the Facebook group and also download them there if you want to, or you can download my a hundred free therapist prompts. That’s gonna be under this in the show notes and check that out too.

[00:08:21] Okay. Prompts number one, the new client welcome. These are easy, easy prompts. These are just to get your ideas flowing for the brand new. You know, AI user. Write a warm welcome email for a new therapy client who just scheduled their first appointment. Include what to expect, how to prepare, and use a reassuring tone. Number two, the no show email. Write a warm professional email to a client who no-show today. Include a gentle reminder of my cancellation policy and invite them to reschedule.

[00:08:50] Tone should be caring, not punitive. Prompt number three, the out of office reply. Write an out of office email for a therapist in private practice who will be away for one week. Include who to contact in a crisis and when they’ll return. Number four, the referral. Thank you. Write a short, genuine thank you.

[00:09:07] Note to a physician who referred a patient to my therapy practice. Keep it professional and warm. Those are super easy, but they’re gonna save you a ton of time. Once you do all those, save them as a template, put ’em into your email system, and then you can just pull ’em up whenever you need them. Okay? So I hope that helps.

[00:09:23] Reach out if you have any questions and I’ll talk to you later. Bye.