92. AI-Delivered CBT Is Here, and It Might Be Good News

By /

AI-Delivered CBT Is Here, and It Might Be Good News

A new study in Nature Medicine found that AI-delivered CBT outperformed human therapists, and before you panic or dismiss it entirely, there’s a more interesting conversation to have here.

In this episode of Run Your Private Practice with AI, I’m breaking down what the study actually looked at, why it’s not the threat it sounds like, and how you can use this same idea right now to work smarter in your practice. There’s also some important news about AI chatbot legislation rolling out across the country that every therapist needs to know about.

AI Tips You Don’t Want to Miss:

  • Using Auralink Pro’s Ava for between-session check-ins and pre-session client summaries.
  • How AI handling structured CBT frees you up for deeper clinical work.
  • Generating custom CBT exercises and worksheets with ChatGPT or Berries, no PHI needed.
  • A simple upsell model using AI tools to add a VIP tier to your practice.
  • What the new state-level AI chatbot legislation means for your practice.

Mentioned in this episode:
Auralink Pro https://www.auralink.com/pro?via=kym  coupon code for 20% off KYMTOLSON
The Nature Medicine study https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-026-04278-w
Run Your Private Practice with AI Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/aiprivatepractice

Connect with me:

Sponsored by Alma: www.helloalma.com/kym
Sponsored by Berries:www.heyberries.com/therapists
Sponsored by Auralink Pro: Start your free trial and use code KYMTOLSON for 20% off www.auralink.com/pro

Transcript:

[00:00:00] So a new study just dropped in Nature Medicine, one of the most prestigious scientific journals on the planet, and it says that AI delivered CBT more effectively than human therapists can. And I know what you’re probably thinking right now. You’re either panicking a little or you’re completely dismissing the idea.

[00:00:17] And what I wanna say today is I want you to actually do neither things. I want you to think about this because the real story here is way more interesting in my opinion. So before we dig into it, welcome back to another episode of Run Your Private Practice with ai. I’m Kym Tolson. I’m here to help guide you through using AI in your private practice in the mental health world.

[00:00:38] The study is about structured protocol driven CBT delivery, not therapy. So some of you might be exhaling now saying, okay, okay, that makes more sense. CBT, it’s evidence-based. It’s got like a strict protocol that you use that makes a lot of sense. So it wasn’t focused at all on the therapeutic relationship, not the crisis work we do, not the trauma that we listen to day in and day out, and try to help our clients with not that messy middle, that beautiful complicated place that we can’t even really articulate how it happens with our clients.

[00:01:12] So this is like the evidence-based protocol piece that a lot of our modalities have already. So before we dig into it, more, think of it like a word processor, right? A word processor is always gonna do better with spell check and grammar check than you because you’re gonna miss something. You’re not gonna pay attention fully.

[00:01:28] Or maybe you just really suck at spelling, but that doesn’t like make you not a writer, right? If you like to write, just ’cause your grammar and spelling maybe is being checked by a bot, that doesn’t mean you’re not a writer. Same goes for this. So if a bot is gonna be providing like CBT evidence-based like protocols for you, that doesn’t make you less of a therapist and here’s like my hot take on it, right?

[00:01:49] If AI can handle that structured psychoeducational piece and the CBT homework modules that we need to create for our clients, what does that actually free you up for as the clinician? Perhaps expansion into group programs, scaling out of the one-to-one model. Coming up with coaching cohorts where you can see less clients that have more time to spend on your life and not burn out.

[00:02:13] So how could you actually use this idea right now? If you’re listening to this and you’re a therapist and you’re like, okay, the studies are great, whatever, but how am I gonna use this? How’s this helpful? You can use AI for between session check-ins. That’s something you can definitely do, and I’m actually partnered with a company called Auralink Pro.

[00:02:31] There’s a link down under these show notes that you can go and check out, but Auralink Pro is. It’s not CBT evidence-based, but it is a step in the right direction with this stuff and kind of what I’m talking about. So with Auralink Pro, her name’s Ava. She’s a therapy bot. You send Ava out to the client between sessions and Ava is basically backed by the therapist.

[00:02:52] So the therapist gives a protocol and even if you were a CBT therapist, you could do this with Ava, but you get this protocol. Send Ava out to the client between sessions and you say like, Hey, I want you to explore how the client’s doing this week with her journaling and her assertiveness skills. You give it to Ava.

[00:03:08] Ava goes to the client. The client talks to Ava between sessions. Ava generates it in therapeutic talk for us as therapist, and then sends it back to the therapist as this really amazing summary of everything that the client shared over the last week. So it gives the clinician a lot more insight into what the client’s doing.

[00:03:29] And then you don’t have to spend like that first like 10 or 15 minutes of your session saying, okay, so what happened this week? You know, that like catch up that we have to do with clients before session. Like I hate that. It’s like, okay, now we’re like 20 minutes into the session and we can actually get to the meat of what we need to work on because we’ve just been playing catch up for the last week.

[00:03:46] Ava like takes care of that part and that’s when I was reading the study, it also takes care of that part that you don’t really want to do. I don’t like that part, like the technical piece. Like, Hey, here’s how you structure a automatic thought and here’s how you identify the emotion behind it, and then here’s a new sentence for you to use differently, or something like that.

[00:04:06] Like I can’t stand that stuff. Now, forgive me if you’re listening, you’re like, I’m a CBT therapist and I love that stuff and I’ve been doing it for years. Fine. But for the rest of us, I’m trying to frame this like this is actually a good thing. So ways you can do this right now. Right? So we’ve got Ava, we’ve got Auralink Pro.

[00:04:22] Again, the link is down below. You can go click on it. I would suggest to anybody doing this, even if you don’t wanna use it, sign up for Auralink Pro. They’ve got a free trial. I set myself up as like a fake client basically. ’cause I wanted to see how it worked before I even like shared it with anybody else.

[00:04:37] So I went and did it. I actually, as a therapist, gave it a problem that I’m having as a person and sent it to Ava and had Ava do a session with me. Amazing. I’m like, this output is so good. I need to send this to my therapist and also tell my therapist to use Ava. That’s one way you can use like AI and its summary abilities and its helpfulness to help you in your practice without actually, selling your soul to AI or something like that.

[00:05:03] ‘Cause I know a lot of therapists worry about that. Like, I don’t wanna use ai. I am training the model. This is not that. And what I’m gonna tell you more can also help with the CBT stuff, for example. So you can create with the ChatGPT, or if you’re using Berries, you can go inside and use the assistant in there and say, Hey, and if you’re using ChatGPT, no PHI.

[00:05:22] But you could easily say like, you know, I’ve got a client struggling with this recurring thought over and over and over again. I need you to develop five CBT exercises that I can send them in a custom GPT if you wanted to, right? Because there’s no PHI in there. They can choose to open it and use it and put their information if they want to, a custom GPT or just a chat thread with some information in there about, you know, here’s how you handle that thought.

[00:05:47] Here’s some reframes. Every time it comes up this week, I want you to notice, and I want you to just like talk about it in this chat thread. Share it back with me, or bring it to the therapy session. That’s just an easy way to use this type of technology to help you, and that’s what this study was really diving down into.

[00:06:02] But it gives the therapist more mental energy to just like be in that messy middle instead of like all those details that really weigh us down. Especially if you’re insurance based or giving super bills, you’re always trying to do like evidence-based techniques and modalities and that sort of thing.

[00:06:19] You don’t have to anymore if you’re using tools like this, you could just like review it and put it in the progress note that you’re doing that, if that makes sense. Okay, so I’ll put the link to the study down below in case you wanna go check it out and read more about it. You can even take the study, put it in your favorite AI, Claude, ChatGPT or whatever, and say, Hey, I want you to review this and come up with some ideas that I can use with my client, X, Y, Z.

[00:06:41] Not name, but like. Having X, Y, Z and tell me creative ways I could do this using AI in my practice to speed up the process. I was talking about this in the run your private practice with ai Facebook, last group with Auralink Pro. These are opportunities to do upsells. If you’re using Ava, for example, in Auralink Pro, you could say, oh, for like.

[00:07:02] Concierge or a VIP boutique type therapy practice. You can take this Ava and you could say, look for an extra, like $35 a week, you’ll get access to ava, my VIP tier of AI assisted therapy. That helps me go way more in depth with you much more quickly so we get to the core more quickly. If I’ve got these tools in the background, and I’m gonna give you access to that for an upsell.

[00:07:27] And of course there’s all these legal nuances or whatever, and I’m not a lawyer, but you could totally do that. There’s lots of boutique concierge type services that are offering these VIP levels or layers to things like this that they’re using. Auralink Pro just makes it super easy. You could also do it with tools that you already have, right?

[00:07:45] So ChatGPT like, Hey, every week I’m gonna give you a customized worksheet for an upsell. I’ll email it to you and you can use it in your daily life. Popping into ChatGPT, it’s gonna write something really good for you based on some details you might give about the client, not PHI, but some details that could make it very specific to the client.

[00:08:03] So these are ways to upsell in your practice to make more money, less one-to-one time, help your clients more be more present with your client in the room. ’cause you’re not having to do these minute little things in session with your clients. I’m totally shifting gears now. Something else that’s just in the news right now is all of these states are passing legislation around AI chatbot.

[00:08:23] So I just wanna talk about that for a little to just make you aware of what’s going on with us right now. So quick breakdown of what’s happening right now. Colorado HB 1 1 95 past the committee would prohibit licensed clinicians from using AI chatbots to communicate directly with clients without oversight.

[00:08:40] This is going to make this stuff a lot more regulated, and in my opinion, it’s a good thing for us. You might might’ve heard the stories about the kid that talked to ChatGPT and said he was suicidal, and ChatGPT said, great. Go ahead. That was a terrible, terrible tragedy. I think that has really launched all of these regulatory, sort of, movements towards monitoring chatbots and just using AI in general in our practices.

[00:09:05] And we have California SB 9 0 3. Human centered Care requirement is another one. You guys can go look these up. I’m sure you don’t want me to read you these, but Pennsylvania and New York, they have similar protections in the works. So across the country we’re seeing this wave of regulatory, you know, proposals.

[00:09:21] Some of ’em have turned into law already, and I’ve covered that in other episodes. But this is happening across the country now, and I think it’s gonna become more and more regulated. So the good news about this, in my opinion, is that these laws are protecting you. They’re not banning ai, they’re banning AI without a licensed professional in the loop.

[00:09:39] We need that, right? Because I think it’s like 8 million people hit ChatGPT every single week for mental health advice. There needs to be some sort of regulation in there and the ability to, like these AI companies to put out these. Therapy bots or whatever, there needs to be regulations saying there needs to be licensed therapists in the middle here.

[00:10:01] Like checking the stuff, making sure it’s accurate, using clinical oversight as a human instead of just letting these bots do this. So these regulations I think are very good for us and gonna be helpful in the long run to maintaining our careers as AI continues to do like scope creep into our careers, our jobs, we’re seeing it everywhere.

[00:10:22] And you know, I’m always a proponent of AI and things like this, like the study I talked about, or Auralink Pro, or Berries. These are really safe ways, in my opinion, that we can let AI help us and still be the clinician in the equation versus that study I was telling you about. So finding tools. They can help us be more efficient, more present with our client, but also make our jobs a lot easier.

[00:10:44] These regulatory boards, these tools, I’m talking about Berries, Auralink Pro, they’re not gonna be regulated because the therapist stays in the loop. Even with Berries, it will give you like suggestions. It’ll basically say, here is an intervention I think you might want to consider, or here’s a diagnosis you might want to consider, or here’s something you might’ve missed.

[00:11:04] You might want to think about it putting into your next session. It suggests that stuff, but it’s not being the therapist. It’s not saying, you know what? I’m gonna go in and meet with this client via a chat bot. Give them this advice or give them this information, or tell them to do this intervention instead.

[00:11:19] It’s not doing that. It’s just making suggestions and we stay the clinical voice in the loop and that’s how it should be. Of course, always. And these regulatory laws are gonna keep us in place, in my opinion. So if you’re not paying attention, maybe look in your state and see if any of this is going on.

[00:11:37] Advocate with your policy makers to make sure that the clinician stays in the loop with these companies. I think it’s super important for us to maintain our careers and our longevity as therapists with AI coming on the scene and getting better and better every day, especially the Agentic ai that I talk about all the time that I’ve got doing a lot of the jobs that my VA was doing for me.

[00:11:59] Now that the AI is doing it, and we don’t want that to happen to our profession. So I would say go look up what regulatory boards and what’s happening in your state and see if you can advocate or get your lawmakers to participate in advocating for these laws to go through.