What is it about?
More people are beginning to use AI tools like ChatGPT for emotional support and mental health advice. Although these tools can feel helpful, comforting, and always available, they can also give inaccurate responses, encourage unhealthy thinking, or miss signs that someone is in crisis. This article examines how psychologists can respond when clients use AI for mental health support. Using a prevention-focused ethical framework, the paper discusses ways psychologists can recognize possible risks early, openly talk with clients about AI use, and support safer and more responsible use of these tools.
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Why is it important?
As AI tools rapidly become part of everyday emotional coping, psychologists are increasingly encountering clients who use ChatGPT and similar systems for mental health support. However, little attention has been given to how client AI use may affect therapy, ethical decision-making, and client safety. This article offers one of the early discussions on how psychologists can prepare for and respond to these emerging challenges in clinical practice.
Perspectives
This manuscript originally began as a final paper for a professional ethics course in our counseling psychology program. I chose the topic mostly out of personal curiosity and my own experience seeing how people, including myself at times, use ChatGPT to process stress or difficult emotions. I also started noticing more clients mentioning their use of generative AI for comfort and support. As I read more about emerging harms and real-world cases, I realized there was still very little guidance for psychologists navigating these situations. Writing this paper became a way for me to think through those questions more carefully. I hope this article encourages more thoughtful conversation about AI and mental health.
Gihun Im
University of Iowa
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Ethical risk prevention in client generative artificial intelligence (genAI) use: Applying the primary risk-management model., American Psychologist, May 2026, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/amp0001731.
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