AI therapy is about to make therapy a lot cheaper

Hands on laptop / Photo by Matthew Henry via Burst / Used under license“I’m in L.A. We have a lot of therapists,” Angelle Haney Gullett told the Washington Post in 2022. “So it’s just kind of wild to me that that many people are at capacity.” She had contacted 25 different therapists after her father passed away, knowing that she needed help. Even though she was willing to pay cash, not one would take her. No one would even put her on a waiting list.

She’s not alone. Tens of thousands of Americans struggle to access mental health care even when they know they need it, and even when their health insurance covers it. But for clients like Angelle, mental health care is about to get much easier to access. It’s about to get a lot less expensive, too. This will happen thanks to artificial intelligence. AI therapy is already here, and it’s about to upend US mental health care.

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HIPAA compliance: Three great resources under $35

HHS logo. HHS offers information on HIPAA
The US Department of Health and Human Services.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA, confuses a lot of therapists. Parts of the law are flexible based on the size and type of entity involved. Other parts apply equally to every covered entity. It’s a big and complex law, one that sometimes scares therapists and counselors away from using technology in their work.

Thankfully, there are a number of good and inexpensive resources for psychotherapists who want to comply with the law. Each of the ones listed below is less than $35.

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A therapists’ union is not the answer

USCurrency_Federal_ReserveFirst thing, to be clear: I am pro-union. If there is any possible way that employees at your workplace can unionize, you probably should. Union workers have significantly better pay and working conditions than their non-union counterparts, and the notion that union dues will outweigh the gains you make as part of a union is typically false. Unions are good.

Psychotherapists often decry the current state of the field. Education and training costs continue to rise. Reimbursement rates are not rising. Salaries aren’t keeping up with inflation. The list goes on. (I discuss each of these issues at some length in Saving Psychotherapy.) It makes sense to wonder why there isn’t something like a therapists’ union to protect the interests of psychotherapy professionals.

However, the idea that a union of therapists will fix the problems in the field is largely wrong. A union for psychotherapists is not the solution we’re looking for. Here’s why.

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