Innovative Horizons: Integrating Telehealth and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Mental Health Counseling

Innovative Horizons: Integrating Telehealth and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Mental Health Counseling

Aaron Norton, PhD, LMHC, LMFT, MCAP

Description: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, counselors scrambled to embrace a technology that only 5 to 10% of them had previously dabbled in telehealth. Just as many of us felt like we had achieved at least an intermediate level of competency in telehealth, artificial intelligence (AI) emerged as yet another mysterious, exciting, and perhaps terrifying technology to have to contend with, creating a slew of relevant questions: Can AI help me write my progress notes and treatment plans? How do I handle the fact that my counseling students are using AI to write their papers for them? What’s up with the creation of AI bots that offer mental health advice to our clients? Is it true that some clients are recording their therapy sessions (without the therapist’s consent) and then selling those recordings to tech developers working on AI-powered therapy bots? Will AI make therapists obsolete? Is Cyberdyne finally coming to destroy us all? (Okay, that last one’s a little over the top…or is it?). This presentation was designed to offer an overview of how telehealth and AI can (and already have) revolutionized our field, as well as strategies for ethical and impactful use of both technologies.

Learning Objectives:

1. Summarize research on the efficacy of telehealth. 
2. Identify and describe emerging issues related to the use of AI in counseling.
3. Implement a list of guidelines and strategies for ethical and effective use of telehealth and AI in mental health counseling.

CEU Workshop Agenda

10:45 am - Registration and Networking
11:00 am – Lunch & Learn Begins*
12:45 pm - Break and Networking
1:00 pm - Presentation Continues
2:15 pm - Lunch & Learn Concludes

3.0 Telehealth CEU Hours

Dr. Aaron Norton is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with certifications in addictions, alcohol and drug counseling, rehabilitation counseling, clinical mental health counseling, trauma treatment, forensic mental health evaluation, forensic behavioral analysis, telehealth, and forensic psychometry. He serves as Assistant Professor of Counselor Education at the University of South Florida, Executive Director of the National Board of Forensic Evaluators, International Counseling Task Force Chair for the American Mental Health Counselors Association, and Chair of the Government Relations Committee for the Florida Mental Health Counselors Association. Dr. Norton has a particular interest in the use of technology in counseling and has written, taught, presented, and published research on virtual reality, telehealth, artificial intelligence, and computers in counseling. He co-authored a set of universal telehealth guidelines for a joint AMHCA-International Association of Counseling task force, served on the expert panel that created the standards and written exam for the Florida Certification Board’s Certified Telehealth Practitioner (CTP) credential, and co-wrote a revision to the AMHCA Code of Ethics clarifying ethical standards for the use of artificial intelligence in counseling. He has 20 years of experience as a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, researcher, and professor.

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