The AI Our Clients Are Using: Ethical and Clinical Considerations for Behavioral Health Professionals

Description

This course is a live, interactive webinar held on September 25, 2026, from 1pm-3pm Eastern Daylight Time.

This reduced price webinar does not offer CE Credits. The same live event is available for purchase and offers 2 Ethics CE hours for behavioral health clinicians.  See "related products" below.

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.

Key Takeaways:

• Recognize the tools clients are already using: Gain familiarity with AI-powered platforms clients may be using for emotional support, mental health information, companionship, self-reflection, or crisis-related guidance.
• Understand what draws clients to AI support: Explore the clinical and practical reasons clients turn to AI tools, including accessibility, immediacy, privacy, emotional validation, and the desire for support between sessions.
• Respond with ethical and clinical confidence: Learn strategies for discussing AI use with clients in ways that support safety, informed decision-making, privacy awareness, and the therapeutic relationship.

Why This Course?

• Timely guidance for an issue already in the therapy room: Clients are using AI tools now, often without telling their therapists, and behavioral health professionals need a clear way to address this reality before it creates ethical, clinical, or safety concerns.
• Practical ethics without unnecessary technical complexity: This course does not require clinicians to become technology specialists; it gives them the working knowledge needed to ask better questions, recognize potential risks, and respond thoughtfully when AI use becomes part of treatment.
• Expert instruction grounded in clinical practice and professional standards: With Dr. Georgiadou’s expertise in culturally responsive clinical education and supervision and Dr. Burke’s focused scholarship and presentations on AI ethics in mental health, participants receive guidance that is both clinically useful and ethically aligned.

Learning Objectives

• Identify at least five AI-powered tools or platforms commonly used by clients for mental health support.
• Describe three key reasons clients use these tools.
• Apply four strategies for responding to clients who use AI tools for mental health support.

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.

Format and Access

This course is a live, interactive webinar.

Course Details

Schedule: (listed in Eastern Daylight Time)

• 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm Lecture
• 2:00 pm - 2:05 pm Q&A
• 2:05 pm - 2:50 pm Lecture
• 2:50 pm - 3:00 pm Q&A

How to Attend: 

Course access and completion instructions.

Who Should Attend: 

This course is intended for clinicians who provide behavioral health services.

Teaching Methods: 

This is a live, interactive webinar. Enrollment includes access to live event(s) but does not include recordings of the presentations.

Instructor and Disclosures

Instructors

About Sofia Georgiadou, Ph.D., LMFT-S, LPC-S, NCC

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.

About Jay Burke, Psy.D., LMFT

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.

Disclosure Statement: 

The instructor(s) for this course receive compensation for their services. There are no reported conflicts of interest to disclose.

CE Hours

This reduced price webinar does not offer CE credits, just great content.

The same live event is available for purchase and offers 2 Ethics CE hours for behavioral health clinicians.  See "related products" below.

Participants may request a printed version of their certificate of attendance to be delivered by mail. A shipping/handling fee of $6.95 will be charged per request. Shipping internationally may require an additional charge.

Agreement

By registering for this event you are agreeing to the following:

• 24 hour notice is required if you are not able to make it to a live event. Recordings are not provided to webinar registrants.
• To update and test using Zoom.us/test before the event to ensure you are ready for the event.
• Since this is a live interactive event it means that your interaction during the event is expected.  Your name and image will be visible to other participants during the live event. You will NOT be included in any recording made.
• An evaluation must be completed within one week of the event. Continuing Education credit(s) cannot be issued unless you attend the event and the evaluation is submitted.  (Evaluation is not mandatory for APA hours)
• Partial CE credits are not possible; therefore you are required to be present throughout the event in order to receive CE credits.
• Respect all other participants during the event as though you would if you were sitting with the other attendees at a conference table:
  • Dress appropriately
  • Be in a private location void of distractions
  • Do not multitask
  • Do not drive during an event
  • Remain on mute unless you are sharing with the group

Accommodations and Policies

Close Captioning is available for live webinars and recorded video presentations.

You can click on the following links to view our policies:

• Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities.
• Cancellation Policy
• Grievance Policy
• Support Options
• Disclosure Statement