AI Prompts and AI Tools for Therapists

With the rise of AI, many professionals are looking to incorporate this technology into their work, including often-overburdened healthcare workers. The use of AI in therapy can have many benefits. Clients have sometimes found that AI chatbots can be helpful stand-ins for a therapist when they are unable to see one, lack insurance, or need a more affordable option. AI can also act as a self-guided mental health ally that's accessible anytime and anywhere; helping people to deal with difficult situations by suggesting things like meditation, listening to calming music, or breathing exercises.

However, this doesn't mean that in-person therapists will become obsolete. While AI can be a helpful tool, many people still prefer to talk to a therapist in person and hear their feedback. But many therapists have been able to incorporate AI into their practice to benefit their patients.

The Benefits of AI for Therapists

Chatbots can help people who can't go to a therapist for one reason or another, but therapy is still primarily a human career. However, AI technology has already been applied in several ways in the mental health field. AI tools can analyze patient data to assess the risk of certain conditions developing, classify disorders, and optimize treatment plans. AI for therapists can also help to enhance patient engagement by using conversational AI to make appointments, answer phone calls, send appointment reminders, and provide patients with health education. AI can benefit both clients and therapists by simplifying the process of getting help.

AI Prompts for Therapists

Therapists can save time by using AI to create educational materials, double-check diagnoses, and handle clerical tasks. Useful AI prompts for therapists to feed into a generative AI tool could include:

• Develop a schedule for therapy sessions for a patient with [mental health disorder].
• Create a list of activities for patients with [disorder] that they can do at home.
• Create a set of evaluation tools to check the progress of a patient with [disorder].
• Give me potential mental health diagnoses with this information: [paste in information from a client session, including details about what may be bothering them and specific comments they've made].
• Write a guide for patients with severe social anxiety about how to initiate a conversation in a grocery store.

For the best results, try to phrase each AI prompt as a command instead of a question and be as specific as you can. It may take a few tries to get exactly what you want, but you'll be able to shape the results by tweaking your prompt.

AI Tools for Therapists

Most AI tools for therapists focus on basic clerical tasks like appointment scheduling and reminders, such as Calendly, which can be very useful for therapists who have their own practice. You can also use AI tools like Mentalyc to create patient progress notes for you, which can save a lot of time. And some chatbots, like Wysa, can be helpful for patients to use between sessions.