More than one-third of Americans are comfortable using AI chatbots for mental health support, and nearly half favor integrating these tools into existing therapeutic services. This raises new concerns for mental health professionals who are unable to oversee the use of these tools outside of scheduled sessions.
General-purpose AI chatbots pose several concerns, including:
Dispensing information that is overly affirming without clinical validation
Operating independently of established clinical treatment protocols
Insufficient mental health safety procedures
Functioning entirely outside the scope of a healthcare provider's clinical oversight
Grow's solution
Grow’s solution was to develop a tool with our clinical and product teams to seamlessly integrate into your practice, supporting client progress, safety protocols, and transparency. This tool offers:
Clinically informed support that maintains progress between sessions.
Integration with your treatment approach.
Evidence-based interventions designed by mental health professionals.
Safety protocols specifically engineered for mental health settings.
Transparency — enabling you to monitor clients' engagement between sessions.
Coach's development
Grow Therapy’s coach tool is built with a clinical evidence base based on established principles of between-session support. It was built and trained with the direct guidance of fellow clinicians, including the incorporation of feedback from providers during development.
Coach has ongoing clinical effectiveness monitoring and supports evidence-based practices such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
Who developed Grow Therapy's coach? Coach was developed collaboratively by Grow Therapy's Clinical and Product teams, incorporating input and training directly from clinicians.
Coach settings
Disable or re-enable the coach
Note: If the coach detects a safety concern, the client will be shown crisis resources, the coach will be disabled, and an alert will be visible in the provider dashboard, allowing you to review the flagged concern and decide whether to re-enable the coach for your client.
Providers can manually restrict a client's access to the coach by modifying the settings in the client's chart within the provider portal. To disable or re-enable the coach:
Navigate to Clients via the sidebar.
Search and select the client you wish to view.
Select the Client Activity tab beneath the client's name.
Scroll down to locate the "Coach Interactions" section.
Select Settings in the top right corner of the section. In the pop-up, toggle the client's access to the coach on or off.
Privacy, data, and safety
Both the coach and the iOS app reflect privacy-by-design practices, including built-in safeguards and routine reviews that work together to help protect client information.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Can providers see every message a client sends? Yes, by default, providers can view all messages that clients share. Clients can activate private mode during the conversation, and only messages that the system identifies as a potential safety concern will then be sent to their provider.
Is anyone reading conversations with the coach in real time? No. Coach is powered by AI and is not live monitored by Grow Therapy. If the coach detects a safety concern, the client will be shown crisis resources, the coach will be disabled, and an alert will be visible in the provider dashboard, allowing you to review the flagged concern and decide whether to re-enable the coach for your client.
How is client data protected when using the coach? All messages with the coach are encrypted and include built-in safeguards and routine reviews that work together to help protect client information.
Can Grow Therapy read client messages with the coach? On rare occasions, a small, HIPAA-trained Grow team may review messages solely to ensure quality and compliance. These reviews are never used for marketing or advertising.
Is Grow Therapy using the coach to train external LLM models? No. Messages with the coach are not used to train external LLM models.
Can clients request that their data be deleted? Yes. Clients can request the deletion of their data at any time by completing this form. However, Grow may retain personal information or personal health information for longer periods, for example, where legal, tax, and accounting requirements set by government or industry authorities require us to do so. Learn more here.
Why don't all of my clients have access to this feature yet? We're gradually rolling out the coach to ensure everything works smoothly. Availability can vary depending on the client's location, eligibility, and other requirements. If a client doesn't yet see this option, it likely means their account isn't included in the current release group.