AI Tools and Marketing for Therapists: What You Need to Know

If you’ve been online in the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard the recent buzz around AI tools. They’re transforming how some businesses operate, from workflow and internal processes to their marketing strategy. However, in an industry so personal, intimate, and inherently human as therapy, what does AI mean for you? 

The mental health industry is not exempt from being impacted by advances in artificial intelligence. Researchers are even using AI to analyze conversations between therapists and clients, to get a better understanding of how therapy can work more effectively. The applications for AI might seem endless, but it’s important to take the time to understand what it can and can’t do before diving in and animating your business practices and your therapy practice’s marketing strategy. 

How Therapists Shouldn’t Use AI 

It might be tempting to dive in and take full advantage of all of the new artificial intelligence tools available to us. However, AI isn’t advanced enough to take over most areas of your therapy marketing strategy (yet). It simply isn’t capable of knowing the intricacies of your brand or taking on your tone of voice entirely. While AI tools may be able to generate content for blog posts and other written copy to some degree, it is not recommended for therapists to use AI for this for several reasons:

1. Lack of authenticity: AI-generated content may lack the personal touch and human connection that is important in therapy. Clients are looking for a real relationship and want to know that their therapist understands their individual experiences and perspectives.
2. Ethical considerations: Blogging about mental health and therapy is a sensitive topic, and therapists have an ethical responsibility to ensure that the information they provide is accurate and helpful. Using AI-generated content may not ensure the quality or accuracy of information that is being shared with clients and potential clients.
3. Limited understanding of human experiences: AI algorithms are limited in their ability to understand human experiences, emotions, and relationships. Therapists need to be able to share their unique perspectives and insights based on their experiences working with clients. There is a lot of nuance in the therapist-client relationship, which can even vary from therapist to therapist. 
4. Branding: Therapists use their blog posts and other written content to establish their personal brand and build their reputation as a trusted and knowledgeable expert in their field. Some clinicians express their personality in their blogs, while others keep their tone more professional and formal. Beyond that, therapists can use a wide variety of modalities and styles in their practice. An EMDR therapist might have a very different way of speaking on a topic than an IFS therapist or a holistic therapist. Using AI-generated content may not align with the therapist's personal brand and may not reflect their individual style and perspective.

While AI tools may be able to generate content quickly and efficiently, it is not recommended for therapists to use AI for their blog posts or written content due to the importance of authenticity, ethical considerations, limited understanding of human experiences, and personal branding.

AI Tools That Can Support Therapists’ Marketing Efforts

Although we don’t advise AI taking over your blog or content strategy, there are aspects of your therapy center marketing that AI tools can help you accomplish more quickly or effectively!

No More Writer’s Block

Thanks to ChatGPT, our writer’s block here at Theory About That has been cured, and yours can be, too! Our favorite way to use AI tools so far is as a brainstorming machine to get our creative juices flowing. While we’d never use an AI-written blog as is (they’re simply too repetitive, dry, and uncreative for our taste), we are not above using the prompt-based AI system to get us started. AI is never a substitute for good ideas and creativity, but will do just fine when you’re feeling stuck. 

Combine Your Paid Ad Management

If you’ve chosen paid social and display ads to attract therapy clients, you are probably juggling at least two platforms if not more. AdEspresso is an AI-based tool that provides a single platform for managing advertising campaigns across multiple platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads. If you manage your own ads, it can further save you time by automating manual tasks. AdEspresso’s algorithms analyze and optimize campaigns in real-time, helping to improve ad performance and generate better results. Finally, AdEspresso's AI algorithms provide insights into target audiences, enabling therapists to reach the right audiences with their advertisements.

Easily Repurpose Content

Repurposing your marketing content is an excellent way to save time and resources, keep consistent themes and voice across your platforms, and engage different groups of people. One way to quickly repurpose content is to transform videos or podcast recordings into blog posts or website pages. Descript makes this process easy. You can simply upload your audio recording and it will transcribe it for you, delivering blog-ready content.  If you have multiple speakers on your recording, you can even add speaker labels with their AI-powered Speaker Detective and it will label the content based on who is speaking. 

Analyze Social Performance

If you manage your practice’s social media strategy, you might be able to use a resource that does the analysis for you so you can clearly see what’s working and what’s not. Tools like SproutSocial and Hootsuite Insights use AI to simplify audience research, monitor trends, and analyze the performance of your social strategy. 

Find the Right Stock Image

Photos convey emotion and encourage viewers to look through your website, blog, social channels, and more. Therapists have specific needs with stock photos because according to most stock image sites, they cannot use photos depicting models’ faces with text insinuating that the model suffers from mental illness or addiction. If you’ve ever spent too long searching for the perfect image, Stocking is an AI tool worth looking into. It generates a photo on demand for you from your prompt.   

Up Your Podcast Game

Given the intimate nature of therapy, a podcast can be a great way to grow and engage with a group of potential clients. Podcasts take a long time to produce and edit, but tools like Podcastle and Cleanvoice can support you in recording and automatically editing filler words out of the audio. 

Improve Your Day-to-Day Therapy Practice Business Operations

In addition to supporting your marketing strategy, AI tools can help you work smarter and more quickly in other areas of your business. Here are some of our favorite ways to automate and improve your processes.

AI Virtual Assistant Support

Therapists can use AI virtual assistant tools in a number of ways, including automating administrative tasks. Tools like Calendly and Clara can handle tasks such as scheduling appointments, sending appointment reminders, and answering frequently asked questions.

In addition, virtual assistants can enhance client engagement. AI-powered virtual assistants and chatbots can provide clients with reminders, resources, and support for self-care activities, such as exercise, stress management, and medication adherence. They can also streamline communication between clients and healthcare providers, allowing for quicker and more efficient exchange of information.

While AI virtual assistants cannot replace the human connection, they can provide an additional layer of support and make the process of seeking mental health care more accessible and convenient for potential clients.

Smoother Video Calls

If you’re one of the majority of therapists that take telehealth clients, you understand how important it is that your call quality is smooth and there’s no distracting background noise. Uncontrollable sounds from construction, housemates, children, pets, or traffic can interrupt intimate therapist-client conversations. Krisp is an AI solution for real-time elimination of background noise. It works seamlessly with over 600 conference and messaging/streaming applications. You can opt for either the free version or the premium version with a nominal fee. Additionally, Krisp is available as a Google Chrome extension.

If AI Isn’t An Option, Outsourcing Can Be

While many of these new AI tools and algorithms are new and have yet to stand the test of time, our experienced team of experts has a proven track record of supporting therapists with their marketing. From content writing to website development, we specialize in helping therapists reach their goals. Reach out today or schedule a meeting so we can chat about your practice’s needs.