The Testing Psychologist Podcast 562. AI and the Ethics of Efficiency
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I’m diving back into a topic that I feel more strongly about every day, which is the intersection of professional burnout and the way we handle our documentation. Honestly, the research on clerical burden as a driver of exhaustion is pretty staggering, and in our field of assessment, it’s compounded by the fact that we’re writing these massive integrated narratives rather than simple chart notes. In this episode, I’m making a bit of an ethical plea for automation—not as a way to cut corners, but as a clinical safety measure to preserve our executive functioning for the high-level synthesis our clients actually need. I walk through the APA ethics code, the “skeleton versus soul” model of report writing, and the non-negotiables of data sovereignty in 2026. I also share a four-point protocol for integrating these tools responsibly, from the “blind edit” to clear disclosure, because at the end of the day, I’d much rather we use our brain power for conceptualization than for transcribing scores into tables.
Main Topics
- 00:38: The documentation crisis and the burnout loop in psychological assessment
- 01:25: Why documentation efficiency is a clinical safety and practice issue
- 02:44: Navigating APA Ethics Standard 9.09 regarding automated interpretation
- 03:35: The skeleton versus soul model of AI-assisted report writing
- 04:58: Current state of research on AI writing quality and patient outcomes
- 05:55: Data sovereignty and the dangers of public LLMs in clinical practice
- 07:45: A four-point ethical efficiency protocol for clinicians
- 10:28: Transparency and disclosure statements for AI-assisted reports
Cool Things Mentioned
- The Testing Psychologist mastermind groups and business consulting
- Reverb: the premier AI-powered report-writing platform for testing psychologists
Featured Resources
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About Dr. Jeremy Sharp
I’m a licensed psychologist and Clinical Director at the Colorado Center for Assessment & Counseling, a private practice that I founded in 2009 and have grown to over 20 clinicians. I earned my undergraduate degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of South Carolina before getting my Master’s and PhD in Counseling Psychology from Colorado State University. These days, I specialize in psychological and neuropsychological evaluation with kids and adolescents.
As the host of the Testing Psychologist Podcast, I provide private practice consulting for psychologists and other mental health professionals who want to start or grow psychological testing services in their practices. I live in Fort Collins, Colorado with my wife (also a therapist) and two young kids.
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