Healing Collective Conversation Series: Stacy Rae on AI in Therapy ⚙️
Welcome to my first blog post in a new series I’m starting called the Healing Collective Conversation. Here you’ll get to share in the conversations I have with therapists, dietitians, and other providers, sharing their insights, expertise, and maybe a fun fact. The hope is to explore together different approaches to mental health and healing, while highlighting diverse perspectives in the field. As an eating disorder therapist in the Los Angeles area, I’m constantly looking to get to know more about my fellow colleagues and if you’re here, you likely do too.
My first feature is my friend and colleague Stacy Rae, LMFT who will be discussing AI in the therapy realm. With the non-stop progression of technology, building an awareness of how this may impact our therapeutic work is going to be pretty important. Stick around and by the end of this post, you should have an understanding of what AI is and some reasonable expectations of its influence on therapy and mental health practices.
Stacy Rae ☀️ (She/Her/Ella) is a therapist based in Los Angeles with 10+ years of experience specializing in eating disorders, with a focus on the intersections of systemic racism, fatphobia, and mental health. She has worked at all levels of care (RTC, PHP, IOP) and is currently in her own solo practice. Stacy incorporates harm reduction practices and amplifies marginalized voices- work that has fueled her passion for shaping ethical and inclusive practices in emerging spaces like AI.
Stacy has recently started transitioning into consulting and facilitation, focusing on the ethical use of AI in therapy and mental health to ensure the right standards are set from the start. Her goal isn’t to push AI on therapists or clients, but to make sure they have the knowledge and confidence to engage with it in ways that actually help— without being taken advantage of by tech companies looking to capitalize on the industry.
“I want AI to reduce burnout, improve care, and work for us, not the other way around.”
AI 101: What’s the deal?
Let’s take a moment and imagine if you asked google for some very specific help: I am wanting to have a dinner party with 10 of my friends, with an Italian menu. I have 2 friends that are gluten intolerant, 1 that doesn’t eat dairy, and 2 that don’t eat spinach. Can you create a menu for my dinner party (including apps, drinks, entrees, and dessert), make an ingredient list, shopping list (including amounts), and recipes, and a time management schedule of what order to cook everything in? Please also do this with roughly $100 budget. And do it with an essence of Italian summer vibes. AND GOOGLE COULD ACTUALLY DO IT. That is what AI has the capability of doing. Helping us with grand or mundane tasks that otherwise would take hours of research and gathering and organizing. It allows us to expedite the process of researching and gathering, but also being able to make that information more accessible and easier to digest.
What are your goals in the growing field of AI/ what impact you'd like to make?
My goal is to ensure therapists and clients are part of the AI conversation—so they’re not just passive users of new technology but active voices shaping its development. I want to empower clinicians to ask the right questions, advocate for ethical AI integration, and avoid being exploited by companies prioritizing profit over patient care. I want clients to be informed about their rights in being recorded, and also how to use AI as a tool in their lives. I want them to be informed consumers for how to create and shape this tool that can with what they are working on in the therapy room, or for those with minimal access to no access to therapy, how to be able to use AI as a tool to offer some support and relief.
What are your hopes for AI being integrated into the therapy field? & are there any considerations for how to not approach integrating AI into therapy/ mental health?
Excuse my French, but I HOPE that corporations don’t f🤎ck everyone over. My concern that is really driving me is that I believe firmly that companies and corporations will use AI to increase clinicians caseloads since things like notes and treatment plans will eventually be done automatically, giving more ‘free time’ to clinicians. This obviously just maintains, if not worsens, the same level of burn out that is currently happening, which continues to impact client care. what I HOPE actually happens (which is part of my mission) is that I can help therapists and clients be informed of their rights, boundaries, etc to set the standard for expectations before these companies can start implementing AI practices that are predatory.
What I also hope is that we can work on AI to help level the playing field. Because AI is based in machine learning, which is taking basically human history and producing results, that includes bias, racism, misogyny, etc. However, we can also help to ‘teach’ it to underlearn or opt out of those type of responses, or teach it to notice when those things are present and help educate people around them when it occurs. AI doesn’t have the same ‘discomfort’ as humans since its not a human, so its ability to shift language can be way quicker if its taught correctly. Basically with AI, I don’t want the same communities to get left behind, and I think we have the opportunity at the onset to help decrease that from happening, but we need to be informed to do that and actually be able to engage with the product. If we wait until it feels more ‘normal’ (think how we first felt about virtual sessions) we are going to be too late in the creation of the systems to make meaningful changes. We can start demanding now what we expect from these AI therapy type platforms. And I intend to.
When not in client sessions or educating others on AI, what do you like to do for fun?
So many things lol I take dance class (heels class), I love love cooking and recipe reading, Traveling obviously, going to play at the beach, and going to my local coffee shop and hanging with my friends (while sometimes doing work lol). [editor’s note: when co-working with me, we don’t get much done]
What’s a fun fact about yourself?
Working remotely has completely changed how I live my life. I travel often, the past 2 years I have basically been away almost 50% of the year. Usually I stay with my besties who live in other states, or have been going to Mexico for months at a time for Spanish Immersion programs. My goal with that is to be able to eventually take Spanish speaking clients. I have been very lucky to be able to live this style of life.
How to connect with Stacy & all things AI
Right now my IG is the BEST place. Come engage with me, share your thoughts, concerns, ALL OF IT. @_bolognasandwich_
