I really like this concept I was introduced by Terry Hanley, writing about AI and psychotherapy:
When it comes to artificial intelligence and therapy, I’m increasingly struck by how many of us may be operating in a place of unconscious incompetence. Not through negligence or lack of care, but through familiarity. Therapy has always absorbed new tools, new forms of language, new contexts for relating. Technology, in that sense, can feel like just more background noise – something that sits “over there” in admin systems, appointment booking, outcome measures, or risk protocols.
But, and this is quite a big but, AI is arguably not just another tool. It is quietly reshaping how information is produced, filtered, summarised, and interpreted – including information about people’s distress, identities, and lives. And when something becomes woven into the fabric of everyday systems, it becomes easy not to notice what we don’t yet understand.
Unconscious incompetence is a surprisingly comfortable place to be. If we don’t quite see where AI is operating, or we assume it is neutral, peripheral, or someone else’s responsibility, then there is little immediate pressure to engage. The risk, however, is that decisions about therapeutic work – ethical, relational, and practical – are being shaped in ways we haven’t fully thought through.
https://counselling.substack.com/p/a-new-years-resolution-for-therapy?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=869300&post_id=183794185&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=hcf3&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
This is exactly how I’ve always seen the challenge of digital scholarship. What I call technological reflexivity is an antidote to unconscious incompetence in the sense of deliberately practicing a reflective orientation to the use of technology in your work. Competence can often result as an outcome of that process but it’s not a necessity for it – what matters is the reflection itself. This maps onto what Terry says here about therapists and AI:
None of this requires perfect knowledge. What it requires is attention, humility, and a willingness to say, “I need to know more about this and understand this better.” This list is of course not comprehensive but some areas that I believe are important for us to have on our radars.
The risk is not that we engage imperfectly, but that familiarity arrives before reflection. Seen this way, moving from unconscious incompetence to conscious competence is less about professional deficit and more about professional positioning. It shows up in small, often unremarkable practices: noticing where technologies are already shaping decisions, being clearer about boundaries in training and supervision, and staying alert to how administrative systems influence therapeutic work.
The phrase “familiarity arrives before reflection” feels like it concisely captures something I’ve been circling around for years without being able to quite express.
Mark Carrigan 