4 Reasons Why Our Therapists Don’t Use AI for Note-Taking

There are a growing number of mental health counselors using AI as a surrogate scribe that listens in on their therapy sessions and writes their clinical documentation. While this might save counselors time, there are some inherent risks. Here are four reasons why the therapists at Star Meadow Counseling won’t be using AI to assist them in writing clinical documentation:

1. Privacy Risks: The counseling office is one of the most personal, vulnerable spaces. And, confidentiality is the foundation of what ensures it is such a safe space for such a bearing of souls. Involving AI in the therapy room raises the question about how AI is storing and/or using that audio data. There are risks of data breach, surveillance, and of information getting farmed out to benefit big tech companies.

2. Over-Disclosure of Personal Information: AI is most certainly recording personal information beyond what is required by your state healthcare authority. Your clinical record should never contain a play-by-play description of what is discussed in your therapy session. At Star Meadow Counseling, we train counselors in how to write documentation that covers the minimum required for compliance purposes, but then omits details that someone might never want included in their record (for example, details about your trauma history).

3. Errors:  AI is not error-proof. In fact, it is known to “hallucinate.” It wants to perform for you, to please you. It cares more about accomplishing the task you requested than getting things “right,” so it will fill-in-the-blanks, sometimes even with information that was never shared and sometimes by omitting important things that are central to your care.

4. Bias: According to a 2024 review of 30 different research studies, AI has been found to perpetuate racial biases in healthcare, upholding long-standing inequities that harm Black and Brown folks. Please take a moment and read this entire article to get a more complete picture of the problem, but some snippets include:

• “AI underperformed on predicting depression severity for Black patients as compared to White patients.”
• “An AI model used for suicide prediction also performed worse for Black patients, with researchers finding that it successfully detected 62% of suicides among White patients but only 10% among Black patients.”

If you are looking for mental health counseling that is not using AI for clinical note taking, book an appointment with a Star Meadow Counseling therapist today. We care about your privacy and we’re here to help.

References:

https://clearhealthcosts.com/blog/2025/03/therapy-notes-by-ai-create-false-narratives-therapists-say/

https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/the-growing-use-of-artificial-intelligence-in-health-care-and-implications-for-disparities/