Ep 4: When AI Meets Therapy: Risks, Ethics, and Advocacy with Dr. Ajita Robinson
Release Date: 09/11/2025
Ep 46: The Crisis Text Line with Dr. Shairi Turner
The Mental Health Evolution
Rachel speaks with Dr. Shairi Turner, Chief Health Officer at Crisis Text Line, a nonprofit that provides free, 24/7 text-based mental health support and crisis intervention through a community of trained volunteer counselors. In 2025, Crisis Text Line had more conversations than any year since its founding — over 1.5 million — and the data from those conversations tells a story that every clinician and practice owner needs to hear. Dr. Turner walks Rachel through how Crisis Text Line actually works: what happens from the moment someone texts HOME to 741741, how volunteer counselors...
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Ep 45: Stop Doing What Worked Ten Years Ago with Dr. Elizabeth Carr
The Mental Health Evolution
Rachel speaks with Dr. Elizabeth Carr, a clinical psychologist and the founder and CEO of Kentlands Psychotherapy in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Elizabeth leads a team of 20 doctoral and master's-level clinicians and has spent over two decades building a community-focused, financially sustainable practice through some of the most disruptive periods in the history of mental health care. A former Navy psychologist and sought-after speaker on practice management, she recently published a piece on strategic positioning during industry upheaval that is the centerpiece of this conversation. The mental...
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Ep 44: They Knew and They Profited Anyway with Matthew Bergman
The Mental Health Evolution
Rachel speaks with Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, about the landmark KGM verdict — the first social media addiction case in the United States to reach a jury. In March 2026, a Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in the design of their platforms and awarded $6 million in damages to a young woman whose mental health was seriously harmed by her use of Instagram and YouTube beginning at age six. Matthew has spent four years building the legal case that made this moment possible, and the theory at its center is straightforward: this was...
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Ep 43: When Payers Own the Data: What the CAQH Rebrand Means for Providers
The Mental Health Evolution
In this solo episode, Rachel Harrison takes a break from her usual guest conversations to address something that has been generating a lot of discussion in the mental health community this week: the rebranding of CAQH as DataSpring. If you have been in mental health practice for any amount of time, you know CAQH. It is the credentialing portal most clinicians and practice owners have relied on for years to maintain licensing, training history, liability insurance, and practice information for insurance credentialing — a system designed so that providers enter their data once and it flows...
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Ep 42: What Clinicians Need to Know About AI Law with Dr. Nick Shumate
The Mental Health Evolution
Rachel Harrison speaks with Dr. Nick Shumate, a psychiatrist at the Division of Digital Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, whose background is as rare as it is relevant: before medicine, he was a regulatory attorney practicing before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. That combination of clinical training and legal expertise is exactly what drove him to lead a sweeping 50-state review of how the United States is governing artificial intelligence in mental health — research that produced findings every clinician and practice owner needs to...
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Ep 41: The Coverage Gap Is a Policy Problem with Cara Cheevers
The Mental Health Evolution
Rachel Harrison speaks with Cara Cheevers, Vice President of Coverage Policy at Inseparable, a national mental health advocacy organization working to win better mental health care for everyone in this country. Cara brings more than fifteen years of experience in health equity advocacy, including leading Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act enforcement at the Colorado Division of Insurance. In this conversation, Cara and Rachel dig into something that sits at the heart of the mental health access crisis: the workforce shortage is not simply a supply problem — it is a policy problem....
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Ep 40: When States Step Up for Safety with Delegate Lily Qi
The Mental Health Evolution
In this episode, Rachel Harrison speaks with Maryland State Delegate Lily Qi, who represents District 15 in Montgomery County and has served in the Maryland General Assembly since 2019. Delegate Qi sits on the Economic Matters Committee, where her work focuses on consumer protection, business regulation, and positioning Maryland for the industries of the future. This conversation centers on Maryland House Bill 883, legislation she championed to require basic disclosure when consumers interact with AI systems in behavioral health contexts, and what it means that the bill passed the House with...
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Ep 39: Brain Science for Better Leadership with Dr. Lisa Riegel
The Mental Health Evolution
In this episode, Rachel Harrison speaks with Dr. Lisa Riegel, leadership strategist and creator of the NeuroWell Framework, about why most organizational change efforts fail and what brain science reveals about how to fix that. Dr. Riegel opens with a foundational idea that runs through all of her work: behavior is always the intersection of biology and context, and when leaders understand that, they stop seeing resistant employees and start seeing brains that feel unsafe. From there, the conversation moves into the gap between aspirational leadership and operational leadership, why people do...
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Ep 38: Advocacy, Autonomy and the Future of Psychotherapy with Linda Michaels of PsiAN
The Mental Health Evolution
Rachel speaks with Dr. Linda Michaels, PsyD, MBA, a psychologist in private practice in Chicago and co-founder of the Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAN). Founded in 2017, PsiAN was built to provide a unified voice for psychotherapists across all disciplines and theoretical orientations, advocating for access to quality care and pushing back against the forces reshaping the field. Dr. Michaels brings a rare combination of clinical training and a prior career in business, marketing, and organizational consulting, and that background is evident in how she analyzes the systems bearing down on...
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Ep 37: Trusted Tools for Peer Workers with Naveen Raman
The Mental Health Evolution
In this episode, Rachel Harrison speaks with Naveen Raman, a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University whose research focuses on sequential decision making and the integration of human feedback into AI systems. Naveen is a developer behind PeerCoPilot, an AI powered assistant being tested in real behavioral health settings to support peer support workers in their day to day sessions. The conversation explores how PeerCoPilot works, from its curated database of vetted local resources to its built in tools for benefits navigation, web search, and structured wellness planning, and why the...
info_outlineIn this episode of The Mental Health Evolution Podcast, Rachel sits down with Dr. Ajita Robinson to explore the rapidly evolving role of AI in mental health care. They discuss the ethical, legal, and practical challenges of AI chatbots, the risks of unregulated technology, and what it means for both therapists and clients. Ajita shares her insights as a therapist, coach, and advocate, offering guidance on how the mental health field can protect both its professionals and the people they serve.
Key Topics Covered:
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The emerging use of AI in therapy and its potential risks
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Legislative developments around AI in mental health
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Advocacy for protecting the professional identity of therapists
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How tech startups and insurance collaborations are reshaping access to care
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Practical steps for therapists to advocate for the field and their clients
Articles Mentioned:
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Manatt Health: Health AI Policy Tracker — Keeping track of federal and state AI policy developments
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Axios: Tech firms and states look to rein in AI chatbots’ mental health advice — The growing push to regulate chatbot therapy apps
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Behavioral Health Business: CareFirst + Headway collaboration — How insurers and startups are reshaping access to care
Connect with Us:
Website: https://www.traumaspecialiststraining.com
Instagram: @thementalhealthevolution
LinkedIn: The Mental Health Evolution
Facebook: The Mental Health Entrepreneur
Connect with Dr. Ajita Robinson:
Instagram: @dr.ajitarobinson
Facebook: Dr. Ajita
LinkedIn: Ajita Robinson
Website: ajitarobinson.com
Music by Zach Harrison