- Therapy
- Technology
- 4 mins
In the past 10, five, or even three years, the pace of technological change seems to have hit a speed previously unimaginable. With widespread smartphone use and omnipresent connectivity, saying that everyone is online all the time is less a euphemism these days, and more a literal description of the world. Technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), once discussed only in high-tech niches, have entered the mainstream, and industries across-the-board are finding creative ways to address needs old and new with such technologies. Therapy is no exception.
Yes, therapy is, at its heart, about people, not computers or devices or software applications. But today tech solutions are already reshaping and improving how clinicians help clients, and as technology in general keeps evolving so do therapy solutions. The following five examples of how this exciting evolution is unfolding will give you an idea of the tools and tech-based techniques on the horizon; solutions which may improve client outcomes like never before.
1. Taking the Next Step in Telehealth
When the coronavirus pandemic put the world on lockdown, industries rapidly began piloting new online technologies, as a society confined to the home shifted online to meet basic needs. Mental health was among the spaces especially affected, because the pandemic and lockdowns caused a spike in demand for therapy services even as physical offices were all closed. Clinicians quickly began leveraging telehealth, conducting therapy sessions with clients via video call. It worked better than anticipated. Post-pandemic, telehealth therapy has remained popular because of its convenience and flexibility for both clinician and client.
With telehealth now commonplace, researchers and experts are studying its unique benefits. For instance, a Psychology Today article suggests that particular client segments, such as “high-achievers” who have extremely busy schedules, may be particularly suited to telehealth. There are more serious potential positive implications, too. A recent study indicates that certain telehealth interventions may be able to help prevent suicide attempts.
As telehealth matures, we will see the knowledge keep growing about who it can be most helpful for and how. Clinicians can count on their telehealth therapy solutions evolving accordingly.
2. Innovating a New Generation of AI-Enabled Therapy Apps
Since the debut of Generative AI (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT, there has been an ongoing discussion about what role solutions based in the technology, like lifelike online assistants, will play in everyone’s life. Therapy has seen a proliferation of tools and platforms using such Large Language Model (LLM) technology, which provide end users dynamic bot-based guidance.
Wellness entrepreneur Deepak Chopra has emerged as a huge proponent of GenAI’s benefits for therapy. In 2024 he launched his “digital twin” app, an AI-based bot trained on his video library and more than 90 books, meant to give clients access to a “clone” of him to get advice from in a conversational format. While you might not get your own bot as personalized as Chopra’s (though one never knows), we may be verging on a world in which interactive chatbots meaningfully and reliably extend therapy’s value beyond the office visit. There remains much to learn about how clinicians can best and most safely leverage such GenAI-based therapy solutions (and some deployments have proven controversial). In any case, therapists should anticipate more innovation in this space.
3. Using AI-based insights improve therapy’s effectiveness
AI solutions can find trends no human could spot in incredibly large datasets. In the mental health field, this is already yielding novel insights into client care. For instance in 2021, a machine learning-based solution debuted that can more quickly and clearly separate out diagnoses of bipolar disorder from major depressive disorder, conditions that are difficult to distinguish between for even seasoned clinicians. More recently, a machine learning algorithm applied to FitBit data was, fascinatingly, able to identify markers for the onset of a bipolar episode in individuals. Discoveries like this could pave the way for new kinds of therapeutic interventions to ease the impact of what have long been difficult conditions for therapists to treat.
4. Making Surprising Mental Health Breakthroughs with Digital Tools
The classic video game Tetris can be a time-burner, but it recently demonstrated surprising therapeutic value. New research finds that Tetris can help trauma sufferers control intrusive thoughts, as a Financial Times article explores. Another cutting-edge digital innovation the article describes, “avatar therapy” is for clients suffering psychosis. In this type of therapy, sufferers create a digital avatar of the hallucinated voice they hear during psychotic episodes, and engage in real-life dialogue with the bot. While it sounds unconventional, this digital technique seems to be showing a therapeutic benefit. As researchers on the cutting edge show results, such creative therapy solutions will only become more common, and may even eventually become standard for care.
5. Smoothing Out Operational Kinks with Digital Onboarding
Across industries, digital streamlining solutions that let everyone in a business do their job with minimal friction are proving key to efficiency, profit, and workplace success for all sorts of businesses. In therapy, digital onboarding is one such tool. While it’s simple, it’s a therapy solution that is proving to have huge benefits for practices and their clients.
Onboarding solutions, like those offered by Shrink Think, give both clients and clinicians access to short-form instructional videos explaining how to “do” therapy right. For clients, videos can instruct on the right mindset and expectations to have, how to communicate with a therapist, and other easily-overlooked parts of the client-therapist relationship that are critical to success. For therapists, onboarding videos can detail billing and office fundamentals, as well as best practices for providing care. Onboarding removes confusion and tidies up operational loose ends that can quietly impede therapy’s effectiveness.
