AI for Mental Health: Human-Assist Tools for Training and New Treatment Delivery, with Dr. Shannon Wiltsey Stirman
November 2025
This mini-series episode of What Makes Up Your Mind looks at another aspect of AI for Mental Health (AI4MH), a Special Initiative of the Chair of Stanford’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Our guest, Dr. Shannon Wiltsey Stirman, is developing ways to utilize Large Language Models (LLMs) to enhance the delivery and availability of the latest mental health treatments for PTSD.
As a professor of psychiatry with many years working with the veteran community, Dr. Wiltsey Stirman knows well how the shortage of therapists, and their over-extended bandwidth, limits their access to training and administering the newest in ever-evolving, evidence-based medical care.
As co-Director of CREATE – Stanford’s Center for Responsible and Effective AI Technology Enhancement of treatment for PTSD, Dr. Wiltsey Stirman’s work is utilizing this powerful technology to close the research-to-provider-to-patient treatment gap. This is AI as a human-assist for therapists, not a replacement, and our discussion includes what current commercial chatbots can and cannot offer patients. Dr. Wiltsey Stirman is also co-Lead of the Stanford Mental Health Technology and Innovation Hub.
