Therapists Are Using AI to Take Notes, Record Sessions. Is It A Useful Tool or A Breach of Trust? NPR 📱

Therapists are using AI to take notes. Is it a useful tool or a breach of trust? May 26 2026. NPR. Edit.
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- Photo: A couple-man and woman sit next to one another. Seated across from them is a mental health therapist. Between the two parties is a table with two smartphones on it.
- A growing number of mental health therapists are using AI tools to record sessions, take notes and do administrative tasks.
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For two years, Molly Quinn trusted her therapist with things she hadn't told anyone else.

So when her therapist mentioned trying an artificial intelligence tool to take notes, Quinn didn't immediately refuse. The 31-year-old librarian from Fayetteville, Ark., asked to research it first. She wanted to understand where her words would go — whether they would stay local or be processed somewhere in the cloud. (- With therapy hard to get, people lean on AI for mental health. What are the risks?)

- Replaying the session in her head
The session moved on that day, but halfway through, Quinn noticed something was different. "She wasn't taking notes like she usually did," Quinn says. "The iPad was just propped up." That's when Quinn realized the session was being recorded. Quinn says she froze for a bit. But then she kept talking. It wasn't until she walked out of her therapist's office that the weight of it landed.

"The more I thought about it, the more I just started getting more and more sick to my stomach," she says. "This person who I'm supposed to be able to trust with some very private and very intense emotions had just completely disregarded something I said I was not comfortable with. I felt completely violated."

She drove home replaying the session in her head, unsure what to do next.

- New tools from new companies
Across the U.S., a growing number of therapists are experimenting with artificial intelligence tools that record sessions, generate transcripts and draft clinical notes automatically.
Software companies say these tools can save hours of administrative work each week.
One company, Berries, markets its platform as a way to lighten paperwork so therapists can focus more fully on their clients and have a better work-life balance in their own personal lives... Read More,
https://www.npr.org/2026/05/26/nx-s1-5826943/talk-therapy-mental-health-ai-artificial-intelligence-privacy-trust