North Carolina Psychology Board

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer on the horizon of clinical practice; it is in the consultation room. Mental health providers across almost all professional settings encounter AI tools in documentation workflows, electronic health records, transcription software, and client-facing digital platforms. Often, providers are asked to learn or use these systems without fully understanding how they work, what they can and cannot do, where they fail, and what clinicians owe their clients by way of AI use disclosure.

This course provides a grounded, clinically relevant framework for navigating the ethical, epistemic, and relational dimensions of AI integration in behavioral health care. It is organized around four core areas. First, it examines the practical and ethical dimensions of AI use in clinical documentation. Second, it addresses the consent obligations that arise when AI is used to record psychotherapy sessions, which raises unique, ongoing security and confidentiality risks. Third, it introduces practitioners to the concept of epistemic hygiene and the structural limitations of large language models, equipping clinicians to evaluate AI-generated content critically. Fourth, it examines digital boundaries in client communication, including the professional risks of AI-assisted messaging and the irreplaceable relational dimensions of human therapeutic presence.

This course is designed for licensed doctoral- and master’s-level mental health and substance use practitioners in outpatient and inpatient settings across all states. It is relevant to social workers, counselors, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, and psychiatric nurses who use or are considering using AI tools in their work. No prior technical background knowledge is required. The course draws on peer-reviewed literature from AI ethics, social work, clinical psychology, and the philosophy of technology to support evidence-informed practice.