The Future of AI in Mental Health: Safety, Therapy, and Human Judgment with Dr. Alyssa Dietz

In this episode of Beyond the Couch, Dr. Ernest Wayde sits down with Dr. Alyssa Dietz, a clinical psychologist whose career spans academia, clinical practice, digital therapeutics, and technology-enabled mental health care. Dr. Dietz shares how her work evolved from researching digital interventions and training future therapists to developing and evaluating AI-supported mental health tools. She discusses how AI can help expand access to evidence-based care, where it performs well in areas such as skills training and pattern matching, and why human clinical judgment, context, and nuance remain essential. The conversation also explores what responsible AI looks like in mental health care, including continuous safety testing, monitoring for model drift, and identifying both obvious and subtle risks such as self-harm, reinforcing delusions, avoidance behaviors, and overly sensitive safety responses. Dr. Dietz explains how psychologists can contribute to designing, evaluating, and supervising AI systems through their expertise in research, assessment, psychometrics, human behavior, and clinical care. She also reflects on how psychologists' roles may evolve as AI takes on more skills training and support functions and encourages psychologists to keep learning and remain open to technology, business, and new professional opportunities. **Takeaways:** -AI Can Expand Access to Mental Health Care, But It Cannot Replace Human Understanding. -Safety in Mental Health AI Requires Continuous Monitoring, Testing, and Calibration. -AI Can Support Skills Training While Humans Provide Clinical Judgment and Nuance. -Psychologists Are Uniquely Positioned to Help Design, Evaluate, and Govern AI Tools. -The Future Role of Psychologists May Include More AI Supervision and Strategic Clinical Oversight. -AI and Business Literacy Can Help Psychologists Shape the Future of Mental Health Technology. **Connect with Dr. Alyssa Dietz** LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alyssa-dietz-phd-8a99bbaa Website: https://www.ieso.ai/ **Connect With Us** https://www.waydeai.com/ https://www.facebook.com/waydeaillc https://www.linkedin.com/company/wayde-ai/ info@waydeai.com **Subscribe** https://the-waydeai-brief.beehiiv.com/ **Chapters:** 00:00 - Intro 02:00 - Meet Dr. Alyssa Dietz: From Clinical Psychology to AI 03:29 - Lessons From Digital Therapeutics 06:44 - Why Safety Matters in AI Mental Health Tools 08:54 - When AI Safety Systems Overreact 11:15 - How Psychologists Can Use AI in Their Workflow 15:05 - AI, Human Oversight, and Escalation to Care 18:48 - Psychologists and AI Safety, Evaluation, and Research 21:18 - What Psychologists Need to Know About Business 24:49 - Behavioral Health Tech and Therapists in Tech 26:18 - Dr. Dietz’s Transition From Psychology to Tech 29:41 - The Value of Psychologists in AI Development 32:18 - AI Insights for Clinicians: Dropout and Symptom Prediction 33:41 - Dr. Dietz’s Advice: Never Stop Learning