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AI in Mental Health: Essential Skills

Gazing into the Machine: AI, Psychotherapy, and the Changing Clinical Landscape

Molly Pachan, PhD
Sean Perryman, JD
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Description

This session examines how artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping psychotherapy and the clinician’s place within it. We will trace a brief history of psychotherapy’s cultural presence in media and explore how AI-mediated approximations of care highlight what is at risk when technique is detached from the relational processes that make therapy effective. Drawing on the AI ASK framework, this workshop invites clinicians to understand this moment not as a threat, but as a call to clarify psychotherapy’s core mechanisms and evolving role in a rapidly changing landscape. Participants will consider how machine-assisted wellness may complement human care while maintaining the clinician’s role as a thoughtful, accountable presence within the therapeutic relationship. Featured guest Sean Perryman will offer perspective on how these shifts are shaping the industry, public policy, and mental healthcare. He will share his experience with the technical underpinnings of LLMs, how they serve productive roles in many domains, and how they function or fall short in the mental health realm.

Educational Goal

The educational goal of this session is to enhance clinicians’ ability to understand and respond to the changing role of psychotherapy in an AI-mediated cultural landscape by integrating evidence-based interventions with the relational techniques that keep therapy human.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

  • Enhance clinicians’ ability to understand and respond to the changing role of psychotherapy in an AI-mediated cultural landscape by integrating evidence-based interventions with the relational techniques that keep therapy human.

  • Identify risks associated with AI-mediated approximations of therapy, including frictionless soothing, diminished reality testing, and reduced opportunities for relational development.

  • Apply AI‑ASK-informed principles to integrate evidence-based interventions with relational techniques, supporting attunement, reflective functioning, and meaningful therapeutic engagement.

Target Audience

  • Addiction Professional
  • Counselor
  • Marriage & Family Therapist
  • Psychologist
  • Social Worker

Presenters

Molly Pachan, PhD
Dr. Pachan is a clinical psychologist and AI expert who specializes in assessing and addressing the impact of patient AI usage.
Sean Perryman, JD
Sean Perryman is an attorney and AI governance advisor who works at the intersection of artificial intelligence, governance, and public policy. He is the founder of Perryman Consulting & Advisory, where he counsels technology companies, philanthropies, and institutions on responsible AI deployment. Previously, he served as Global Head of AI & Fairness Policy at Uber, building governance across more than 70 countries, and as Counsel on the U.S. House Oversight Committee under the late Rep. Elijah Cummings. Sean is adjunct faculty at Vanderbilt Law School, where he co-teaches AI governance and ethics. He writes The Human Cost, a publication examining AI's psychological and societal toll.

Financially Sponsored By

  • Molly Pachan PhD