In the previous two articles on AI-based therapy, Iāve detailed why AI therapists are poised to transform the mental health care industry and why many clients will prefer AI therapists over human ones. Here, weāll look at how human therapists can remain indispensable as cheap, AI-based therapy becomes widely available.
Professional Counseling
Therapy and coaching: Understanding the differences
Itās not unusual for private practice therapists to seek to expand their practices through coaching. Some clients will engage in coaching, but not therapy, because of the stigma they associate with therapy. At the same time, some therapists note that the unregulated nature of coaching means that anyone can call themselves a ācoach,ā regardless of qualifications. So ācoachingā sometimes carries stigma in the world of licensed therapists.
Setting aside stigma, though, what are the actual differences between coaching and therapy? How different do these practices need to be in order for therapists to engage in both?
To solve mental health provider shortage, states propose loans they call “scholarships”
Your state needs more mental health providers. Policymakers and professional organizations know this. But legislators are reluctant to take actions that would get more folks licensed. So what can they do instead? Scholarships! (Yes, you should say it this way.)
Journal article: Clinical exams in mental health do not meet testing industry standards
Regular readers here know that when it comes to clinical exams for mental health licensure, I’m not a fan. A recent article of mine, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Mental Health and Clinical Psychology, tackles a key component of the legal underpinning for these exams. As I explain, despite the claims of exam developers, clinical exams in mental health care do not appear to meet basic testing industry standards.
The mental health workforce shortage solution is right there
There is a severe mental health workforce shortage in the US. You have heard this time and time again. In a time of unprecedented demand for mental health care ā and deaths from lack of it ā we simply donāt have enough therapists. And the therapists we do have arenāt representative of the communities they serve.
The solutions proposed for this problem so far are trivial. But there is a readily available solution to the mental health workforce shortage. It could immediately grow the field by thousands of qualified practitioners. It would dramatically improve diversity within the field at the same time. Even better, it would cost states virtually nothing to implement, and could be done in a week.