Why I Don’t Use AI to Write or Design Websites for Therapists
Introduction
This is an excerpt from Delightful Sites — a weekly email series helping therapists, coaches, and entrepreneurs build sustainable, values-aligned businesses, through the power of website marketing. 💐
There are two types of people in the world.
Those who use em dashes (—)
Those who use hyphens (-)
(As well as a third category of people who don’t care either way. 🤭)
Personally, I’ve always been an em-dasher. The big dash feels satisfying to me.
Apparently, AI also uses em dashes. These days, writings that contain the em dash carry the implicit message that AI may have been involved.
This is why I’m now seeing people include disclaimers in their newsletters, like: though this email uses em dashes, please note that it was 100% written by me, not by AI. I also see people reverting back to hyphens to show that they’re not using AI.
AI has become the elephant in the room. Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, it’s here. 🐘
To be clear, this is not an email about whether you should or should not use AI (like Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT) — because that’s a super nuanced conversation & personal choice.
👉🏽 What I do want to share is my current relationship to AI within my web design & copywriting business. Whether we ever work together or not, I believe that you have the right to know whether the creative professional you hire for services is using AI, and in what way.
My observation so far is that using AI for creative projects zaps my brain’s creativity. It also impacts my working memory & intuition in ways that I don’t enjoy.
As I deeply value my creativity, intuition, & working memory, that is reason enough, for me, to avoid AI in my personal & professional life. I do not use it for any website projects or to write any of these email newsletters.
✏️ When I write copy for a client’s website, I want the copywriting to come from their unique voice and my creative writing skills.
🎨 When I design a website, I want the design to reflect the client’s unique personality and to come from my mind’s eye.
These are my creative preferences / boundaries / values, in their current expression.
Also, in my observation: AI-generated copywriting simply doesn’t sound as good, or as human, as human-written copy. (At least not without significant tweaking.) AI copy does not tend to resonate with people seeking something as vulnerable as therapy or healing services. Your website needs to sound human. 💗
👉🏽 AI is changing the mental health industry, and it’s worth paying attention to.
These days, people are typing into AI: I’m having anxiety attacks, please find a therapist in the area who can help me… or who hosts the best holistic healing retreats on the east coast USA?
AI is becoming a practitioner-client matchmaker of sorts.
In future newsletters, I’ll share tips on how you can make your practice more likely to be recommended by AI when your ideal client is searching for services — stay tuned!
I also want to name the big-picture POV: AI is impacting people’s mental health, the planet, and society as a whole.
Though I don’t use AI directly in my professional work, I remain AI-aware — meaning I observe it from a distance & continue to learn from people participating in the AI conversation, from a variety of perspectives (technological, sociocultural, environmental, global, ethical, psycho-spiritual).
I’m curious to know: how do you feel about AI? What has been its impact on your life?
Until next time,
Liz
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