If you’ve spotted the little logo (via notbyai.fyi) at the bottom of my website, perhaps you’ll guess that I take seriously the importance of transparency around the use of artificial intelligence in counselling and psychotherapy.

This page is intended to offer a brief guide to how I do and don’t (but mainly don’t) use AI in my work.

Website

I was inspired to add the Not By AI button to my site after noticing how much AI content was working its way into therapist websites and profiles.

I want my clients to know they’ve met ‘me’ when they encounter me in online spaces like directories and this website, so none of the text on my website or directory profiles has been written by or created using AI. The same goes for the images, although there are some occasions (such as when resizing an image or taking a photograph) that the graphics program or camera app I use may have deployed some sort of AI to do the job.

In some cases I’ve used AI to help me figure something out (for instance, when I needed to work out how to make the button on the homepage launch a booking popup instead of linking to a normal page). If I run adverts online (such as through Google Ads), most of the optimisation process seems to use AI too.

Communications

I don’t use AI to write, rewrite or edit any of my communications with clients. I don’t use artificial intelligence to respond to emails or in any sort of ‘virtual PA’ capacity.

Some notifications (like booking confirmations or out-of-office responses) are generated automatically, but this is all done in much the same way it would have been done twenty years ago rather than by using AI.

Therapeutic work

I don’t use AI to record, transcribe or summarise sessions. (I don’t record or transcribe sessions at all.) Where possible I do my best to ensure that services like Zoom, which I use for most of my online sessions, have these options turned off.

I don’t put confidential client information into AI services, and I don’t use AI as a replacement for supervision.

From time to time I do use AI to explore psychotherapeutic themes and ideas, and to help with research on topics I want to explore further. I’ll generally use Gemini and NotebookLM for this. Both are Google services that are set not to use my interactions for learning, for what it’s worth.

So how about your use of AI?

I’m more than happy for clients to discuss their use of AI, in relation to therapy or anything else in their lives, and discussions around this can lead to some interesting and helpful territory. I’d even be open to working with a client in bringing AI into our work, if that’s a preference.

So if you’re using AI before or during our work together, I’d hope you’ll feel comfortable discussing that with me, but only if you want to. Or, to put it another way, I’d hope that the presence of this page reflects my wish for transparency, rather than creating the impression that I’m anti-AI.

If you’ve got any questions about any of this or would like to discuss further, just drop me a line.