How AI is Changing Mental Health Support

But if people are going to use it for support for mental health, I really want to strongly encourage you to use it in a way that's been designed by people who actually understand mental health, not just a team of tech people. Hey there, and welcome to let's Talk about it with Laurie Streeter. A space to talk honestly and get real about mental health, therapy and all things wellness. I'm Lori, licensed therapist, speaker and your host, here to bring you insights, talk tools and information you can actually use, whether you're navigating anxiety, healing your relationship with food, or trying to figure out which techniques will work for your life. I'm so glad you're here. Let's dive in and let's talk about it. Welcome back to let's Talk about it. I want to talk today about AI and mental health, because AI is not going anywhere. I think it is like the Internet and social media. You don't have to grasp it, you don't have to be involved in it, but it is going to be part of our world somehow. And depending on your goals and however you choose to embrace it, if you choose to embrace it at all, I think it's going to be around us. I don't think it's going anywhere. Are there concerns? Sure, absolutely. And I can talk about a couple of those. But I want to talk about this idea of can AI help mental health? Can AI help with stress and anxiety management? Because that's my wheelhouse. But mental health in general, can it help? Is it beneficial? What are the benefits of it? Like, how can it supplement traditional therapy? I want to talk about that today because I think we're often nervous and afraid of the things we're uncertain about. I definitely was resistant to it. I actually had a client months and months and months ago. I don't even know how long ago at this point, but when kind of chatgpt really came on the scene and. And I was like, I'm not sure. And he was like, no, here's how I'm using it in between sessions. Here's how I'm using it to help me at work. And I was kind of floored. And then we really dove into how it could help supplement what we were doing in sessions and how beneficial it was. So that was one of my first forays into AI as a whole. And since then, I've honestly really embraced it. There are some concerns with how involved it is. I personally, I'm not going to use it to listen to sessions, to help me write notes and stuff from my therapy sessions. That's just a personal preference. I know some therapists are using it for that. That's fine. Maybe my opinion will change in the future. I'm okay with shifting and transforming my opinions, but right now that's not something I'm interested in. I do use it to help me do a couple organizational things, but I really focused right now on how it can help support mental health in general and again, especially stress and anxiety. So let's talk about how tech can support your mental health IRL in real life. The first thing is that we can't always access skills in high stress moments. This sounds like I know what to do. I just can't seem to do it in the moment. When you're super stressed, your fight or flight, your alarm system, your amygdala hijacks your decision making and kind of your ability to think things through. So remembering to do a technique or remembering a specific tool that you've been taught can sometimes be frustrating or sometimes just falls out of your head. So using tacker AI in a way to talk through a stressor in the moment or help you, quote, unquote, snap out of it so that you can think it through and implement a technique, you can create a window where you can utilize a tool that you know or be given something that you aren't thinking of in the moment or that you've never thought of. AI can help in the moment. When you say, hey, this is what's going on. It can then give you, based on what you said, here's some suggestions or based on previous conversations that you've had with this AI tool, here's some things you can do or here's some things I can remind you of. One thing I've done is created an AI tool based on my experience, all my content, all my years of professional experience, so that you're not asking the general Internet and you're getting my expertise, my perspective, my knowledge, and how I would answer you. This is what's really cool about what I've created and done with AI in terms of mental health. Because I think it can help. I think we have to be careful where that help is coming from. So being able to access something in the moment where you can't necessarily think or come up with something can be really beneficial. Number two is we all need real time support. We do, we need nonjudgmental support, Support that's calming and support that's available. I can't tell you how many clients I've heard over the years tell me that. Keep stuff in because they're not ready to talk about it, or they don't want to feel judged, or the person they wanted to talk to wasn't available, or they wanted to talk through something in therapy before they addressed it in their personal life. Nothing is wrong. But all of those stop us from getting that real time non judgmental support. So recognizing that stress doesn't just happen in a vacuum. It shows up at work, in relationships, while you're driving, sometimes right before bed. We need those moments to be able to think about something, process, vent, whatever it might be. So this might sound similar to things like I have a family event coming up and I'm already anxious or I keep replaying what I said in that meeting and it's driving me bananas, right these in the moment real time stressors that we again, maybe don't have someone we can talk to right away, or therapy's not for another five days, or you don't want to talk about it with a human yet because you're feeling self conscious or whatever it might be asking AI for help in that scenario. You can journal and all of those things, but getting kind of real time feedback and support can be really helpful and it can kind of help us move through something sometimes a lot quicker. Getting help that's scenario specific can be very, very beneficial and supplemental to therapy. You know, you can say something to AI, like remind me how to set boundaries without feeling guilty. Can you give me three ways to ground myself or calm myself before XYZ meeting? You can give it a specific scenario and ask for something specific. And again, it will give you tools, it will give you techniques. And this is why what I've created means something very, very special to me. Because it isn't just a chatbot that's going to scrape the Internet of all of these tools. It's literally a library of everything I've taught, all the techniques, everything that I have in my head to offer my clients and people to provide in the moment. So really going to it for that real time support can be super, super helpful. And this third thought of how it can really support mental health is this idea that people need check ins, not always an in depth conversation or therapy session. Sometimes it can help to just get a quick judgment, free venting session or a quick reflection. The stress comes up like we talked about already in various ways. It can come up at work, an upcoming date, nighttime spirals. And I don't mind, honestly, if my clients send me messages in between sessions. They do this. And I'm totally okay with It I would rather them reach out in a moment of need or in a moment of celebration than feel like I'm not there for them or feel like they have to wait now. There is something to them being able to work through something individually and making sure they don't feel dependent. I think that's an incredibly important part of therapy is making sure that people feel confident and resourceful and can use the tools that they're learning in order to manage stress and anxiety and stuff like that. But sometimes we just need a quick check in. And while my clients can do that, sometimes they don't. I can't tell you how many times I've also heard where they're like, hey, I was going to text you but I didn't want to bother you, or I was going to text you but it was too late, or I was going to send you a message and tell you I did xyz, but it was the weekend and you know, I didn't want to send you a message over the weekend. So whether it's a quick something that's bothering them or a quick something that they're super excited about, I don't mind if they send me a message. And to be able to have that real time, quick check in can be really helpful. And also the idea that I can't always respond immediately, I can't provide a whole conversation in between sessions unless, you know, we need to set up an emergency session or whatever. So being able to work through something in real life in real time is a game changer. And it can help you calm down or feel prepared or have you back in action pretty quickly because you get that in the moment, real time thing to kind of, kind of kick you back into action, to help you reflect and whatever you need in the moment. I hope that that kind of gives a 30,000 foot overview of how we're starting to look at AI help and support mental health. If you're someone who struggles with stress or anxiety, AI could be beneficial. Again, there are some concerns with it, absolutely. But this is why I created this AI tool to help with real life stress in the moment, be able to remind someone of techniques and give other tools and techniques that they might not know of or might not think about, or if someone isn't in therapy, that they have other tools accessible to them. Because not everybody's in therapy, not everybody can afford it, not everybody has time for it. I mean, even though therapists try to arrange their schedules for when clients are available, sometimes it just doesn't work out. So there's plenty of reasons why people are and aren't in therapy and AI, I mean, it is going to be part of our world and if you choose to embrace it, it could be beneficial. So I hope again that that gives a little bit of an overview. I did design an AI tool and I'm super proud of this. I put a lot of time into it, a lot of resources, a lot of thought, a lot. And it is like a digital twin of myself. I'm telling you, I have two decades of experience. Classes, I've taught social media things, I've posted videos, I've created blog posts, I've written guest articles, I've written. Any content that I've created in my professional experience is in this tool and it has. And I can prove this with screenshots. I'm happy to do so because I am going to talk more about this. It has over 700,000 words of my content. We're not talking about stuff from the Internet, we're talking about my words and my experience, my professional experience, my content. There's over 720,000 words of content that is available on this AI tool, this therapist trained helper. So if you are interested, you can sign up for early access and be on the list before anyone else has access to it. Founding members are going to get special information behind the scenes looks all before it officially launches. The plan is on July 1st. So if you want to be among the first to kind of try this, see what it's like, I would love for you to experience the benefits of it and I would love to have you join the early access list. I really think AI is here to stay. How much we embrace it, that's going to be up to you. That's a personal decision. But if people are going to use it for support for mental health, I really want to strongly encourage you to use it in a way that's been designed by people who actually understand mental health, not just a team of tech people. This is all of my content, my experience and my perspective. I'm not saying I know everything about mental health, but getting information from a team of tech who hasn't been involved with mental health or they don't have mental health clinical experience, there's some concerns there. So tech is amazing, but we want to do this in a way that there's an interplay between tech and mental health. And that's why I created this AI tool, because it does blend those two worlds, I think very well. And the people who have used it, they say that it's really great. It answers like I would. So just imagine being able to have a check in when you need it most, right in the morning, in the middle of a situation, 3am spirals, getting suggestions before an event or being able to track your mood, being reminded of tools that will work for you. Imagine having that at your fingertips from the perspective of a mental health professional. This tool is therapist trained by me. It is lore AI and you can go to the link in the show notes to access the Early Access list before it launches in July so that you can have a behind the scenes look and first crack at trying it and seeing how AI can support mental health. If you're in regular therapy, if you're considering therapy or you're just focused on keeping your head above water, this could be for you. Truly don't think it's going anywhere. I also don't think AI is going to replace therapy. I really, really don't think it's going to replace human connection. But I think it can be a great supplement to what we're already doing and enhance all of the things that are at our fingertips. So if you want to join the Early Access list, I will see you in there. I am super excited. I am so proud of this. But at least if you took anything from this, I hope that you'll consider how AI could possibly support mental health and in the moment, real time real life scenarios, check ins the things that you're struggling with on a day to day. If you have any questions, I'm here for you. The link is in the show notes and I will see you next time. Thanks for hanging out with me today on let's Talk about it with Laurie Streeter. If this episode resonated with you, it would mean so much if you'd leave a five star review, share it with a friend, or come say hi on Instagram Auristreeter. Your support will help this podcast grow and I so appreciate you being here today. I want to help people just like you feel like they're not alone and gain the tools they need to grow. Until next time, take care.