So, therapists are starting to use this because it simplifies notetaking, which is actually a big behind-the-scenes thing. Therapists have to maintain sometimes multiple sets of notes on each patient: one for insurance/billing, one for their records, one that can be viewed by you on-demand, one for judges or other individuals involved in a person's treatments. When it comes to billing notes, it's a formulaic thing they're doing to justify your treatment, they basically extract a few quotes to keep your insurance company paying for whatever it is they think they're paying for. Insurance doesn't just write check a check every week saying "hope you talked about fun stuff." Treatment plans have to be done and progress accounted for. Even if those treatment plans are just to satisfy a beancounter reading the reports.

And it it turns out this is actually all a great use for AI, summarizing and filing - it doesn't need to be creating, just distilling. And as such a therapist can see more patients, or have more time with their families (being a therapist is cognitively stressful, you can't just zone out or scroll on Tiktok when you get bored).

At the same time, every therapist I know (I'm married to one, have a kid with another, and a lot my friends are therapists - plus my own) is experimenting and won't feel the least bit upset if you say "no." They are trying to get a feel for what patients are OK with.

I let my therapist use it. We're doing a very specific modality and I'm not the least bit worried about that being recorded.

But if I were detailing my own childhood rape or something, I might not feel the same way, IDK.

Just communicate with them honestly.