{"id":326743,"date":"2025-12-20T16:31:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T16:31:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/326743\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T16:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T16:31:11","slug":"my-therapist-used-ai-without-my-consent-the-hidden-role-of-ai-in-counselling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/326743\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My therapist used AI without my consent\u2019: The hidden role of AI in counselling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Librarian Molly Quinn, 31, had been seeing her therapist for two years with no issues. Until the day her therapist asked Molly if she\u2019d consent to her using a new note-taking app \u2013 an app that uses AI<\/a> to record sessions, transcribe them and create summaries. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a big fan of AI,\u201d admits Quinn. \u201cBut I know how hard note-taking is in the therapy<\/a> world, so I told her I needed to think about it before I signed anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quinn planned to go away and research the app to see how the private data would be stored, which was a concern \u201cThe app supposedly deletes the data after it\u2019s recorded the session and transcribed it, but the fact it\u2019s being summarised as well means it\u2019s being placed somewhere in the AI cloud of stuff, which I\u2019m just not comfortable with.\u201d<\/p>\n

But halfway through that therapy session, Quinn noticed her therapist wasn\u2019t taking handwritten notes like usual. Instead, she was using her iPad to record their session. That was when Molly realised her therapist was using the AI note-taking app \u2013 without her consent. \u201cIt left me feeling violated,\u201d said Quinn. \u201cI messaged her after to say I wasn\u2019t going to come back because I didn\u2019t appreciate what went down. She basically admitted to it, saying we don\u2019t ever have to use AI again, but my trust was broken. I no longer see her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Molly is by no means the only client to notice their therapist using AI. The National Alliance of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (NACP) in the UK has received numbers of complaints from clients about their therapists using AI this year \u2013 whether it is for note-taking, transcribing sessions, or even to reply to emails and questions. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are certainly therapists dabbling with it one way or another,\u201d says Meg Moss, head of public affairs and advocacy at the NACP, who thinks the numbers will only continue to grow. \u201cThe complaints have been around therapists using AI, perhaps without contracting for it or without appropriately disclosing it to their clients. Clients have been obviously feeling uncomfortable about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are dozens of threads on Reddit with clients sharing their stories of noticing their therapists using AI. One had a shock during a Zoom meeting when their therapist accidentally shared their screen to reveal they were using ChatGPT to work out what to say during the session. <\/p>\n

The photographer Brendan Keen wrote on Medium<\/a> about his experience with online therapy platform BetterHelp. After a successful first session on video, he later spoke to his therapist using the platform\u2019s built-in text chat functionality and realised (after sharing his thoughts on a book called The Courage to Be Disliked, only to be sent a reply with a disconcertingly familiar block of text) that his therapist had used AI to reply. When he called her out on this, she admitted she\u2019d \u201creferred\u201d to AI without \u201crevealing any client information\u201d \u2013 but it left Keen feeling betrayed and worried about a breach of therapist-patient confidentiality. <\/p>\n

Moss urges all therapists to ensure they have their clients\u2019 consent before using AI. But she also stresses that there are other issues that therapists need to think about. \u201cFrom a data perspective, you have to be careful about the privacy platforms of any platform you\u2019re using. With AI, how is that data being used to train the model?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Molly<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

Molly Quinn felt \u2018violated\u2019 when her therapist used AI without her consent (Molly Quinn)<\/p>\n

She also explains that it can be damaging from a therapeutic perspective. \u201cThere is the effect on the therapeutic relationship itself. For example, when you\u2019re potentially using AI in order to understand your client, how are you understanding what that effectively third perspective is having? What bias are they bringing in? Bias is a really big thing and people underestimate the effect it has on the output of AI, because it\u2019s trained on heavily Western data and experiences. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have clients from different cultures, and you\u2019re asking AI to make sense of their notes for you, it might not make any sense at all because it\u2019s not culturally attuned. If you\u2019re a therapist using AI, it\u2019s important to deeply consider how you\u2019re using it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ranjith Devakumar has been working as a therapeutic counsellor for the last two years since he left a career in compliance. He\u2019s been using AI ever since he qualified and has no plans to stop. \u201cIt\u2019s a tool that\u2019s useful and I can\u2019t deny that,\u201d he explains. \u201cI use things like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot to bounce off ideas to work out the best way to support my client, or research different tools or techniques.\u201d<\/p>\n

He would never share a client\u2019s private information or personal story with AI. Instead, he offers hypothetical scenarios or simply says things like – \u201cshow me different techniques on how to manage emotional regulation or stress for a male client in his thirties\u201d \u2013 to work more efficiently and effectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of work to do your own research sometimes and AI helps me to do that in a quicker way,\u201d he says. He would never use AI for note-taking, and still ensures his primary source of support is his supervisor, but thinks of it more as a \u201csoundboard\u201d.<\/p>\n

Devakumar has considered including it in a written agreement with his clients but decided against it because \u201cthat\u2019s like telling them I read textbooks or go into online e-journal libraries or Facebook groups for therapists\u201d. He believes that even when he\u2019s been practising for decades, he\u2019d still use AI as a learning tool, because therapists never stop learning. <\/p>\n

Ruby Mitchell, an NCPS-accredited therapist, has a similar view. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t use AI to make clinical decisions to refer someone on, or learn a new way of working. I would use it to brush up on things. For example, I\u2019ve done specialist ADHD training and I might say what are ADHD-friendly strategies that would help with X issue? It\u2019s a refresher rather than a teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

The NACP has received complaints from clients about their therapists using AI (Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n

She\u2019s noticed AI assistance appearing as an automatic feature on Zoom to summarise meetings and has specifically opted out to make sure it doesn\u2019t compromise her clients\u2019 data. She\u2019s cautious around AI, fearing it can keep clients stuck in loops by constantly offering reassurance if they use it for personal therapy, but also that it could replace supervisor contact for therapists who become reliant on it.<\/p>\n

Even so, she admits she\u2019s been tempted to use it in that exact way. \u201cI\u2019ve come away from a tricky session with a client and thought I need to run through this with my supervisor. But he\u2019s a busy man, and that means bringing my next meeting with him forward. There is that temptation to run it by ChatGPT and see if I\u2019m right in my thinking. I\u2019ve toyed with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if and when things go wrong, and we make bad decisions, which does happen, where does that put you if you\u2019re hauled in front of a complaints panel or tribunal and you quote ChatGPT? If you go to a supervisor with an ethical dilemma, you have a paper trail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Therapist Richard Miller is currently working with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) as an ethics consultant to create an ethical framework review \u2013 a \u201crulebook for counsellors\u201d. The plan is to include AI, to give therapists an up-to-date, evolving guide on how to use AI \u2013 and how not to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want a counsellor using ChatGPT for a diagnosis in the same way I wouldn\u2019t a doctor to do that,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd if you\u2019re outsourcing your note-taking, don\u2019t outsource your critical thinking. Your client\u2019s story doesn\u2019t belong to you, it belongs to them. Even if a large server says it is secure and data is deleted, if you can\u2019t check that, as an industry we need to push ourselves to have the highest standards we can and be uncomfortable using the tech until we can do that safely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want the first generation of people who use AI to be the guinea pigs of confidentiality.\u201d<\/p>\n

He delivers training to ensure counsellors don\u2019t make mistakes with AI, and urges therapists to think primarily of their client\u2019s consent, and then not to store anything on the cloud that might embarrass or cause shame to clients if it became public. <\/p>\n

But above all, he wants therapists to think conscientiously and to do the research before using AI to help them speed up their work: \u201cI don\u2019t want the first generation of people who use AI to be the guinea pigs of confidentiality.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly how Molly Quinn felt when she walked out of that therapy session. \u201cThere were two moral issues that happened there. The first was a lack of consent, which was why I knew I couldn\u2019t go back to that therapist. Then there was the other question of her using AI in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked up the app she suggested and it says on their page it goes through OpenAI rather than closed AI, which is more private. The app has an agreement with OpenAI that they\u2019re supposed to delete the data afterwards, but I don\u2019t trust that OpenAI does that. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if in the next couple of years we see data leaks from stuff like this\u201d.<\/p>\n

She doesn\u2019t think her therapist actually understood \u201cthe moral implications or how AI really worked\u201d and now worries for clients who \u201care not as well versed in tech and might not know to ask for details.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meg Moss understands therapists using AI to spark ideas, or assist them with communication if that\u2019s something they struggle with. But she does urge caution as it can drastically change the therapist\u2019s relationship with their client.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt throws up all sorts of questions for the client if they know their therapist uses AI. Like, if they\u2019re using it now, are they using it for my notes? It\u2019s going to add a huge dimension of uncertainty to that relationship. I\u2019d caution against using it unless you absolutely have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also points out that it\u2019s just not necessary. \u201cTherapists have been doing their job for years without AI, and I\u2019m sure they were doing just fine. I want them to be confident they don\u2019t need AI. Sometimes, it can cause more problems than it solves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Librarian Molly Quinn, 31, had been seeing her therapist for two years with no issues. Until the day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[102,1906,6623,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-326743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-mental-health","10":"tag-mentalhealth","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}