The AI Our Clients Are Using: Ethical and Clinical Considerations for Behavioral Health Professionals
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This course is a live, interactive webinar held on September 25, 2026, from 1pm-3pm Eastern Daylight Time. Registration closes at midnight (EDT) the day before the event Clients are already turning to AI tools for emotional support, self-reflection, relationship advice, crisis-related guidance, and mental health information—often without ever mentioning it in therapy. For behavioral health professionals, this creates an emerging ethical and clinical challenge: how to respond with curiosity, competence, and care when clients bring AI-generated content or AI-based support experiences into treatment. As tools like ChatGPT, Woebot, Wysa, Character.AI, and other AI-powered platforms become more accessible, clinicians need practical guidance for understanding what clients are using, why they are drawn to these tools, and how to address AI use without compromising the therapeutic relationship. This course offers behavioral health professionals a thoughtful way to engage in these conversations while staying grounded in ethics, clinical judgment, and client-centered care. Dr. Sofia Georgiadou and Dr. Jay Burke bring expertise in clinical training, supervision, ethics, systemic therapy, and emerging applications of AI in behavioral health education and practice. Dr. Georgiadou’s background in culturally responsive counseling, marriage and family therapy education, qualitative research, and supervision supports a nuanced approach to client experiences with technology, identity, and help-seeking. Dr. Burke’s teaching, scholarship, and presentations on the ethics of AI in mental health, along with his clinical and academic leadership in marriage and family therapy, directly inform this course’s focus on the AI tools clients are already using and the ethical questions clinicians must be prepared to address. Their approach is practical, ethically grounded, and clinically relevant. Rather than asking clinicians to become AI experts, this course helps participants build enough familiarity with common AI tools to have informed, honest conversations with clients. The presenters will connect current client behaviors, emerging research, and professional ethics principles from organizations such as APA, NBCC, NASW, and AAMFT to concrete strategies clinicians can apply in practice. This course will address AI-powered tools and platforms commonly used by clients for mental health support, including ChatGPT, Woebot, Wysa, Character.AI, and other AI-based resources. Topics include why clients use these tools, such as accessibility, immediacy, anonymity, emotional support, and curiosity; the promising outcomes and symptom reduction reported in emerging research; and the safety gaps that remain, including inappropriate responses to suicidal ideation and inconsistent crisis handling. The course also explores four critical areas of concern: crisis safety and privacy, emotional attachment and relationship formation with AI companions, AI hallucinations and misinformation, and patterns of overuse or dependence. Participants will learn how to respond to clients’ AI use in ways that maintain the therapeutic alliance, support informed decision-making, and uphold ethical responsibilities. AI is becoming part of clients’ emotional lives, support systems, and decision-making processes, whether clinicians invite it into the conversation or not. This course offers a grounded, practical way for behavioral health professionals to meet that reality with ethical awareness, clinical curiosity, and the confidence to help clients think more carefully about the tools they are using. This course is a live, interactive webinar. Schedule: (listed in Eastern Daylight Time) Course access and completion instructions. This course is intended for clinicians who provide behavioral health services. This is a live, interactive webinar. Enrollment includes access to live event(s) but does not include recordings of the presentations. Dr. Sofia Georgiadou is an Assistant Professor and Internship Coordinator at the University of Houston at Clear Lake’s MA in Family Therapy Program. Additionally, she teaches as an Adjunct for the Family Institute at Northwestern University and Yorkville University's fully online Master's in Counseling Psychology program. She is also the administrator of COAST’s Educators Division, the Sotersectional approach in her teaching and supervision. Her research experience centers on qualitative/mixed methods and survey design. Sofia seeks to understand the lived experiences of diverse groups to better support international students, immigrants, and individuals from equity-deserving communities. Jay Burke, PsyD, LMFT, is Division Chair of Marriage and Family Therapy at The Chicago School, where he leads the master's and doctoral programs across three California campuses and a distance-learning modality. He is an AAMFT Approved Supervisor and Clinical Fellow, a site visitor for the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE), and co-founder of OCneuroPSYCH, a neuropsychology and behavioral health practice in Orange County where he sees individuals, couples, and families. Over the past few years, Jay's teaching and scholarship have focused on what AI actually means for clinical work, including the tools clients are already using on their own, and avatar-based simulation in graduate training. He has presented on the ethics of AI in mental health for AAMFT, the American Family Therapy Academy, and the Systemic Family Therapy Conference, and co-authored a recent article on using AI in systemic therapy training in the International Journal of Systemic Therapy. The instructor(s) for this course receive compensation for their services. There are no reported conflicts of interest to disclose. This course consists of 2 ethics continuing education hours of credit. Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No, 6693. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Mental Health Counselors. #MHC-0048. Many MFT licensing boards accept our courses or one of the approvals which we have from professional associations. You can check with your board to determine if your licensing board would accept this course. Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, #1609, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 05/02/2024 – 05/02/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 2 ethics continuing education credits. Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Social Workers #SW-0435. This course has been approved by Telehealth Certification Institute LLC, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #193104, Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is responsible for all aspects of the programming. Telehealth Certification Institute LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Telehealth Certification Institute LLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content. Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Psychologists #PSY-0128. Telehealth Certification Institute, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for Licensed Creative Arts Therapists #CAT-0093. This course qualifies for 120 minutes of instructional content as required by many national, state and local licensing boards and professional organizations. Retain your certificate of completion and contact your board or organization for specific filing requirements. This course is an-interactive, live online webinar. Participants may request a printed version of their certificate of completion to be delivered by mail. A shipping/handling fee of $6.95 will be charged per request. Shipping internationally may require an additional charge. By registering for this event you are agreeing to the following: Close Captioning is available for live webinars and recorded video presentations. 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