Privacy & Discretion:
Why I Choose a No-AI Practice
Your Privacy Matters in a Digital World
Artificial Intelligence has quickly become a dominant force in modern business. However, when it comes to the deeply sacred space of therapy, I prioritize my clients’ absolute privacy and data confidentiality above all else. I believe making this boundary transparent is a critical part of choosing the right therapist for you in 2026.
AI corporations are aggressively advertising to therapists on the principle that using AI for documentation will save substantial amounts of time, allowing them to see more clients and significantly increase their income. My professional ethos is entirely different. I refuse to compromise the standards of my practice for commercial volume, and I operate on two distinct ethical boundaries:
First, I refuse to compromise the deeply focused, bespoke nature of my practice just to increase the number of sessions I hold. I want to provide truly high-quality therapy and deeply hold each client's unique life history. Achieving that level of clinical focus is simply not possible with an overloaded schedule, because there is a literal limit to the volume of nuanced information a single human brain can retain and hold responsibility for—no matter how much an AI program were to write my notes.
Second, quite apart from my clinical capacity, I refuse to expose your private details and thoughts to profit-driven AI corporations. I have chosen not to maximize my potential income in this way because I am acutely mindful that once your data is placed in the hands of a third party, it is completely beyond our control. Throughout my life, I have always chosen passion over profit, and your trust is something to which I will never attach a price tag.
Perhaps an anomaly within the therapeutic world, I do not even store therapy notes on a remote cloud or third-party site. It goes then to say that my remote sessions are held on a secure platform that is never recorded by me to utilize AI therapy programs. I commit to not using artificial intelligence (AI) in any aspect of my business.
You may understandably be unfamiliar with the specifics of this field, so let me explain how AI is being used in the field of therapy.
The Reality of AI Therapist Assistants
Because these AI corporations are marketing their services so aggressively, it is important to look closely at what they are actually selling as a "shortcut" for documentation. These programs accommodate both virtual and in-person sessions by recording the entire conversation. While these services routinely use the phrase "HIPAA compliant" in their marketing materials, a deep dive into their actual terms and conditions reveals severe legal caveats:
Vulnerable Databases: Online databases are never completely impervious to being hacked. Many corporate terms of service explicitly state that they cannot guarantee absolute data security and reserve the right to share your information with third parties.
Mandatory Tracking: Many of these services do not allow you or your therapist to opt out of the pervasive tracking and data logging they engage in.
Feeding the Algorithm: The fine print often requires your recorded session data and transcripts to be fed directly back into the AI database to train and develop their commercial products.
The service fees for a therapist to use these AI note-writing programs are either free or absurdly low because the true currency being traded is your private data. I am a fierce advocate for my clients, and I want you to step into therapy with your eyes wide open to the reality that these automated tools are simply a mechanism for tech corporations to advance their commercial products. The aggressive data collection practices of these entities indicate that their ultimate goal is to harvest intimate client-therapist dialogue to build the foundation for future automated therapist chatbots.
The Rise of AI Chat Therapists
The use of artificial intelligence is permeating the mental health field in another key way that I want to make you aware of: the commercial rise of AI chatbots.
It is vital to understand that AI Chatbots are legally categorized as “wellness” applications, not formal “healthcare.” Because of this subtle legal distinction, they are completely exempt from HIPAA requirements. They do not claim to diagnose or treat medical conditions, which means they are entirely unregulated by the Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) and face zero oversight or enforcement from the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
Similar to AI Therapist Assistants, the information these chat platforms capture is fed directly back into corporate databases without any legal privacy protections, clinical accountability, or liability for the results the chatbot generates. Individuals who seek help through these platforms are left in the hands of corporations seeking profit, operating entirely without the extensive training, ethical oversight, and deep empathy of an actual human therapist.
I share these technical realities because I believe absolute transparency is the foundation of a safe therapeutic relationship. I hope this provides some perspective, and want you to know that I am deeply committed to protecting the safe space of our work together.