Early bird Full day £119 instead of £149. All tickets reduced until Monday 24 August, 8pm
In-person CPD · London

AI and Ethics in Private Practice

A practical CPD day for counsellors and psychotherapists who want to respond thoughtfully when clients bring AI into therapy, make safer decisions in their own practice, and work out where their professional boundaries sit.

Friday 2 October 2026 Bath Place, Shoreditch, London EC2A 3JE 10:00am – 4:30pm, arrival from 9:30am
Book your place See what the day includes

Full day £119 early bird, usually £149  ·  Morning or afternoon only £75, usually £85

7 in 10

had already had a client bring AI into the room

18 of 25

named accuracy and misinformation as a leading concern

Very little

of this was covered in the professional training most of us received

From my own survey of 25 therapists in private practice, July and August 2026. A small, self-selecting group who chose to respond, so these figures describe them rather than the profession as a whole.

The situation

Your clients are already using AI

I say that with some confidence, because I asked. Here is a little of what therapists described.

A client who asked ChatGPT whether they had PTSD.
A client keeping a journal inside a chatbot, and reading its replies.
A client using it at 2am, when they couldn't reach their therapist.
A client who arrived because ChatGPT suggested what therapy might help, and told them to find someone.
A client checking whether they had understood their homework properly.
A client who turned up to a first session with a complete formulation already written.

Some of it sounded genuinely useful. Some of it sounded like reassurance-seeking with a faster response time.

Meanwhile the professional conversation has gone to the extremes. One camp says AI will replace therapy. The other says it has no business anywhere near it. Neither gives you anything to say on a Tuesday afternoon when a client mentions it.

"This isn't something we ever got trained in."

One of the therapists I surveyed

Before you book

Where I stand

Someone said to me recently that there's no such thing as ethical AI, and that the nature of the thing makes the phrase meaningless.

I think that's an argument worth taking seriously, and we'll start the day there rather than tiptoe around it.

You're also allowed to feel conflicted about this. A great many of us are, and it's an understandable place to be given how quickly it arrived and how little any of us were trained for it.

Even therapists who choose not to use generative AI directly are increasingly working within systems and client experiences shaped by it. That is worth naming plainly. It doesn't mean the choice has been taken away from you.

What remains yours is everything that matters:

  • What you understand about how these tools work
  • How you talk about it with clients
  • Whether and where you use it in your own work
  • What you decide you will never use it for
  • How you stay professionally accountable for any of it

The day is built to help you arrive at your own version of that, rather than adopt mine.

Who it's for

Qualified therapists in private practice

Wherever you currently sit with AI, there's something here for you. The day works for therapists who don't use it at all and need to understand what clients are doing, for those who use it occasionally and want to check their foundations, and for those who use it regularly and want firmer judgement and better systems around it.

You don't need to be technically confident, and you don't need to already use AI. Around three quarters of the therapists who registered interest use it in some form, and the rest don't.

The day draws on my own work with therapists using AI in private practice, alongside direct survey responses about what clients are already bringing into therapy. I'm a practising therapist myself, so the examples come from the realities of private practice rather than from a technology background.
The programme

Two halves, built to run into each other

This is the shape of what we'll cover. The emphasis within each session will be shaped by who's in the room and what people most need on the day.

Morning

Clients, ethics and professional judgement

10:00am – 1:00pm

Why these tools feel compelling to clients

A plain, clinically relevant explanation rather than a technology lecture. These tools predict plausible language rather than knowing things, which is how confident misinformation happens. They also tend to default towards agreement and validation, which means they may reinforce a client's existing interpretation rather than challenge it. And they are there at 2am, endlessly patient, apparently non-judgemental, with no waiting list.

What clients are actually doing

Self-diagnosis and self-formulation. Reassurance-seeking. Journalling and symptom checking. AI companions. Modality recommendations and AI-sourced referrals. Neurodivergent clients using it as a thinking tool, often more skilfully than we assume. Drawn from what therapists reported to me directly.

When AI comes into the therapy room

The heart of the morning. How to respond when a client says "ChatGPT told me…". How to ask about AI use without shaming or judging. Where the question belongs in assessment and contracting. Telling reflection from rumination. And what to do when AI has told a client something you clinically disagree with. Worked through as scenarios in small groups.

Confidentiality, risk and professional duty

Confidentiality and what actually counts as identifiable information. Misinformation and hallucination. Safeguarding, and what these tools cannot do when someone is in crisis. Where your existing professional duties already apply without anything new being written. And the professional default on client data.

Afternoon

Practical implementation

2:00pm – 4:30pm

What the platforms can actually do

This is not a prompting workshop. Most people are using a fraction of what's available to them. We'll look at the capabilities that matter most for a private practice, including projects, memory, working with your own documents, research tools and scheduled tasks, and where each might genuinely be useful to you.

Settings and data, at the level that matters

Less clicking, more judgement. What memory actually retains, what the training and data controls do and don't cover, and where free and paid accounts differ. You'll make real changes to your own settings while you're in the room.

Making it yours

Personalise whichever platform you use to your modality, your clients, your values and your tone, and write clear guardrails and instructions to go with it. This is what stops it producing the generic, faintly salesy copy nobody wants their name on. It improves relevance and consistency rather than accuracy, so everything still needs reading before it goes anywhere.

Your own usage plan

Decide what you would genuinely offload, what you would review carefully, and what you would protect. You'll leave with a practice-specific plan and a written list of what you won't use AI for.

Small groups, your own pace

You'll work in small groups organised around what you want to get done. Nobody has to finish everything during the session, and there'll be time to ask the questions you'd rather not ask in a big room.

Demonstrations will use ChatGPT and Claude, since those are the platforms most attendees are likely to bring. You only need one of them. The principles transfer to Gemini and Copilot. This event is not endorsed by or affiliated with any AI company.

The framework

The THINK Framework for Ethical AI Use

A five-part model I created for working out whether a particular use of AI is appropriate for the task, attentive to human impact, safe in relation to information and confidentiality, honest about its limitations, and consistent with the professional responsibility that stays with you.

It works in both directions. You can use it to think about what a client is doing with AI, and to decide about your own use. On the day we'll take a genuinely difficult case through it together rather than an easy one.

THINK is a way of slowing a decision down and making your reasoning visible. It isn't a compliance check, and applying it doesn't make something safe. You'll leave with a one-page version to keep.

Shape of the day

How the day is structured

9:30Doors open. Tea, coffee, pastries and fruit juices, so there's time to settle in if you're travelling. Come any time from now.
10:00Morning session begins. Welcome and framing, then how these tools work and what clients are doing with them. Client scenarios and small-group discussion, and the THINK Framework applied to a difficult case. A break part-way through.
1:00Lunch, one full hour, out locally
2:00Afternoon workshop begins. What the platforms can do, settings and data, personalising your chosen platform to your practice, and building your own usage plan. A break part-way through.
4:20CPD reflection and close
4:30Finish

Start and finish times are fixed. The detail within each session may be refined between now and October, so that the day reflects what people most need when they arrive.

What you'll leave with

Four questions you'll be able to answer

This is the test I'd hold the day to.

  • 1What do I say when a client tells me they have been using ChatGPT?
  • 2How do I tell when a client's AI use is helping them, and when it isn't?
  • 3What can I safely hand over in my own practice, and what stays mine?
  • 4Where do I go when I am not sure?

Made in the room

Yours, in your own words

  • Wording for client conversations, including assessment questions and how to raise limitations
  • Your AI Practice Map, sorting your real tasks into support, review and protect
  • A written "not for this" list
  • Your practice context and guardrails
  • Settings changes made on your own account
  • A CPD reflection and a clear next step

The take-home pack

So the day goes on discussion rather than paperwork

  • Informed consent wording and contract clause options
  • Privacy notice paragraphs covering AI use
  • The THINK Framework one-pager, with worked examples
  • Settings and privacy guidance for the main platforms
  • A plain-language glossary
  • A summary of where UK professional and data protection duties currently sit
  • A checklist for reviewing your contract and client communication
  • Further reading and professional body positions

Everything in the pack is a starting point to adapt to your own practice. It is not approved wording, not legal or data protection advice, and not a substitute for checking with your professional body, insurer or a data protection adviser where that would be appropriate.

A CPD certificate of attendance will be provided for the sessions you attend.

Venue and practical details

Bath Place, Rivington Street

Bath Place, Rivington Street, London EC2A 3JE, in Shoreditch.

Getting there

Old Street (Northern line), about 5 minutes' walk
Shoreditch High Street (Overground), about 5 minutes
Liverpool Street (Elizabeth line and national rail), about 12 minutes

Refreshments

Doors open at 9:30am with a light continental menu, including pastries and fruit juices, so you can arrive early and settle in. Tea and coffee through the day, and biscuits in the afternoon.

Lunch is not included

You have a full hour, from 1:00pm to 2:00pm, to leave the venue and buy lunch locally. There are plenty of options within a few minutes' walk. Food cannot be brought into the meeting room.

Access

The venue states that it has disabled access. If you have access, mobility or sensory needs, please tell me when you book so I can discuss what you need and confirm what the venue and I can provide.

Breaks

There are scheduled breaks mid-morning and mid-afternoon as well as the hour at lunch. Step out whenever you need to.

What to bring

A laptop and charger for the afternoon, a notebook, and your login details for whichever AI tool you use. The morning needs nothing but you.

Tickets

Book your place

Morning only

10:00am – 1:00pm

For therapists who mainly want the ethics, the client conversations and the professional thinking, rather than the hands-on workshop.

Early bird, save £10
£85£75

Until Monday 24 August, 8pm

  • The full morning session
  • The THINK Framework
  • Continental refreshments on arrival
  • CPD certificate of attendance
Book the morning

Nothing to set up and nothing to implement.

Best value

Full day

10:00am – 4:30pm, arrival from 9:30am

Both sessions, and the option most people choose. The clearest choice if you're newer to this, since the morning gives the afternoon its context.

Early bird, save £30
£149£119

Until Monday 24 August, 8pm

  • Both sessions in full
  • The complete take-home pack
  • Everything you build in the room
  • Continental refreshments, plus afternoon tea and coffee
  • CPD certificate of attendance
Book the full day

Afternoon only

2:00pm – 4:30pm

For therapists who mainly want the practical side: understanding what these tools do, setting them up properly, and working out where they might genuinely help.

Early bird, save £10
£85£75

Until Monday 24 August, 8pm

  • The full practical workshop
  • Settings, personalisation and your usage plan
  • Afternoon tea, coffee and biscuits
  • CPD certificate of attendance
Book the afternoon

Beginners very welcome. No technical confidence required.

Early-bird pricing closes Monday 24 August at 8pm.
Until then the full day is £119 rather than £149, and either half-day is £75 rather than £85. After that, standard prices apply to all three.

At early-bird prices the full day gives you both sessions for £119, compared with £150 for the two half-days booked separately. A difference of £31.

Claire Feldman, therapist and founder of Prosper in Private Practice
Your host

Claire Feldman

I'm a therapist in private practice and the founder of Prosper in Private Practice, where I support therapists with the business and professional side of the work.

Let me get the obvious out of the way first. I am not a tech person. I have never written a line of code, I still call the settings menu "the thing", and I once lost most of an afternoon to a problem that turned out to be a cable. If you were hoping for someone from Silicon Valley, I'm going to disappoint you.

What I am is a fairly relentless learner. I've been using AI for about three years now, mostly for the business side of my practice, and I've spent that time experimenting, breaking things, reading far too much and working out what's genuinely useful. As a neurodivergent therapist I've found it properly helpful. It gets me through things I'd otherwise put off for weeks, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise just to sound balanced.

I also take the criticisms seriously. The questions about how these models were built, what they cost, what they get wrong, and what happens when a distressed person talks to one at 2am are all real, and none of them are answered by enthusiasm. That tension is why I put this day together. We need somewhere to have the conversation properly: what we say to clients, where the ethical lines sit, and what any of this means for the way we work.

I'm currently completing certification as an AI Practitioner, largely so that what I pass on is grounded rather than improvised. And I'm committed to explaining all of it in plain English, partly on principle, partly because I couldn't manage it the other way if I tried.

I created the THINK Framework because therapists kept asking me some version of the same question, usually "is it alright if I…?". What they needed wasn't my answer. It was a way of working out their own.

Claire

Where my limits are. I'm not a lawyer or a data protection officer, and nothing on the day is legal advice, data protection advice or regulatory approval. I don't have the final word on what ethical practice looks like either. What I can do is help you think it through carefully and reach a position you'd be comfortable defending.
Questions

Before you book

Do I need to be good with tech?

No. The afternoon is built for people who describe themselves as "not technical". You'll work at your own pace, in a small group, and nobody has to finish everything.

Which AI platform do I need?

Just one. Demonstrations will use ChatGPT and Claude, since those are what most people are bringing, and you can follow along on either. The principles transfer to Gemini and Copilot if that's what you use.

A free account is fine. Some features are only available on paid accounts, and I'll be clear about which, but nobody will be excluded from the day for using a free one. This event isn't endorsed by or affiliated with any AI company.

I'll be in touch before the day about getting your account set up, so we don't lose workshop time to it.

Is this suitable if I'm sceptical about AI?

Yes, and you'll be in good company. Plenty of people coming feel conflicted about it. We open the day with the strongest argument against AI rather than avoiding it. Nobody will be pushed towards a particular use, and where you land is genuinely up to you.

I already use AI regularly. Will this be too basic?

It shouldn't be. Around three quarters of the therapists who registered interest already use AI in some form, and a good number use it regularly, so the day is pitched with that in mind.

The afternoon isn't a prompting workshop. It's about the capabilities most people never get to, personalising a platform properly to your practice, and building a deliberate usage plan with clear boundaries rather than improvising each time.

Can I attend only half the day?

Yes. Either half is £75 at the early-bird price, £85 after 24 August.

The split is straightforward. The morning is about clients, ethics and professional judgement. The afternoon is about actually using these tools well in your own practice. Take whichever interests you.

Most people book the full day, and if you're new to all of this the morning gives the afternoon its context. Neither half assumes you've done the other.

Will we use client material?

No. No identifiable or confidential client information goes into any AI tool at any point in the day. Why that line matters, and how to hold it, is part of what we cover.

Is lunch included?

No. You have a full hour, from 1:00pm to 2:00pm, to go out and buy lunch locally, and there are plenty of options within a few minutes' walk. Continental refreshments are provided on arrival, with tea and coffee through the day. Food cannot be brought into the meeting room.

What kind of CPD certificate will I receive?

A CPD certificate of attendance, showing the hours attended and the content covered. That is generally what accrediting bodies ask to see, but requirements vary and I'd encourage you to check your own.

What if I book and can't attend?

Tickets can be transferred to another therapist up to 7 days before the event. Just let me know the name.

Refunds are available up to 14 days before the event, after which tickets are non-refundable. If the event has to be cancelled or postponed and the new date doesn't work for you, you'll be refunded in full.

Will there be an online version or a recording?

This is an in-person day and it won't be recorded. A good deal of it is small-group discussion of real clinical situations, which doesn't belong on a recording.

Several people have asked about an online version. If there's enough interest I'll look at running one, and I'll let people know if that happens.

Is the venue accessible?

The venue states that it has disabled access. If you have access, mobility or sensory needs, please tell me when you book so I can discuss what you need and confirm what can be provided.

What should I bring?

A laptop and charger for the afternoon, a notebook, and your AI login details. The morning needs nothing but you.

Is this legal or GDPR advice?

No. This is professional training. It isn't legal advice, data protection advice, or approval from any professional body, and the templates in the pack are starting points to adapt rather than approved wording. We'll cover the responsibilities you already hold and how to think about them. The decisions stay yours.

Somewhere between the two extremes

Clients are already bringing AI into therapy, and most of us were never trained for that conversation. This is a day to work out what you say, where your lines sit, and what you protect.

Book your place

Friday 2 October 2026  ·  Bath Place, Rivington Street, London EC2A 3JE
Early-bird prices until Monday 24 August, 8pm  ·  Full day £119, then £149  ·  Half day £75, then £85