Which AI Scribe is Best for Psychologists and psychological therapists?
Exploring Nabla, Freed, and Heidi
There’s a lot of heat around the use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in psychological consultations at the moment. Us clinical psychologists are not renowned for our tech skills and computer literacy, but with the emergence of AI there is really no getting away from it.
Clinical note writing, referral letters, process notes, client emails… all this admin takes time, way more time than we would like to admit (well done if you can do all your notes in the 10 minutes we give ourselves!). The reality is, that the more time we spend on admin, the less time we have for doing the “people” bit which is often the bit that got us into the career in the first place.
I have been exploring how AI can work in my practice for about a year, and I am sold that it is an important part of our future. We can find ways for it to work to our advantage and benefit us, so we don't need to fear that it might steal our jobs or feel overwhelmed by not understanding it. There are many ways of involving AI in your practice, from the very small practical tasks to actually delivering psychological interventions (surely not), but for now I’ll share the biggest game changer for me… note taking!
I’m going to share insights on three popular AI scribes that claim they are great for therapists: Nabla, Freed, and Heidi. Each has unique features that could benefit any practice, but which one stands out as the best fit for psychologists and psychological therapists? This isn't just a generic review of all three. I do land on one I feel is better for our profession… see below.
Understanding AI Scribes
I thought I’d start by briefly looking at what an AI scribe does. Essentially, these tools are designed to reduce the administrative burden. They can transcribe sessions, suggest relevant therapeutic interventions (suggest being the operative word), and even help manage schedules and client records. The key is choosing one that aligns well with the specific needs of your practice.
Concerns Around Consent and Data Privacy
Before I go any further it's crucial to address the concerns surrounding consent and data privacy. Many of my colleagues express understandable anxiety about how patient conversations are recorded, stored, and used by AI systems. Ensuring the confidentiality of patient information is SO important in any psychological practice. Each AI tool mentioned below—Nabla, Freed, and Heidi—complies with stringent data protection regulations like GDPR, which governs data security in the UK. However, it remains vital to discuss and obtain explicit consent from clients before introducing these tools in sessions. Do you put it in your terms and conditions? How do you word it? Do you read out a ‘blurb’ at the start of your sessions? Like any data we use and store, clients should be fully informed about what data will be captured, how it will be used, and who has access to it. Safeguarding this trust is as crucial as the therapeutic work itself, ensuring clients feel secure and supported throughout therapy.
The three systems I’ve tested so far are NABLA, HEIDI AND FREED
Nabla
£: Free for the first month then £100ish per month
Pros: ‘Magic edit’ (more on that below) and customising instructions on top of templates is accurate and means your note can be tailored.
Cons: Cost per month is high and doesn’t have as many options with how detailed notes are and generating a variety of letters etc.
Info about Nabla:
Nabla is designed with a focus on healthcare and was originally designed for Drs transcribing medical notes. It offers robust features that extend beyond simple transcribing. It can analyse conversations in real-time, providing insights that can be pivotal during therapy sessions. For psychologists seeking a deeper understanding of client interactions, Nabla’s AI-driven analytics can be an invaluable asset. However, its fairly sophisticated and this might be more than necessary for those who are only looking for basic transcription services.
How it displays your notes:
There is a specific psychology template you can use for your consultations. You can edit the wording of these headings but you cannot edit the psychology template itself (there is a function for hiding or showing certain sections in the final note). A way round this is you can add custom instructions to each consultation e.g you could ask it to list any exercises used in the session which is a way of adapting the template. It doesn’t have any feature for an initial consultation or follow up sessions- it’s one template.
The note generated either is displayed as bullet points or as a paragraph. There is not as much variation as ‘Freed’ (see below ). There is also a ‘magic edit’ button. When I asked it to generate some psychological hypothesis (to see how good it was at interpreting conversation) here was the attempt:
-Joanna’s high expectations and struggle with setting boundaries may stem from her attachment system. She may have developed a pattern of high expectations and a need for control as a way to manage anxiety and uncertainty in relationships. This could be a result of past experiences where her needs were not met or she felt taken advantage of.
- Joanne’s tendency to overthink and worry about certain situations, particularly when there is uncertainty or a lack of communication, may be a coping mechanism to manage her anxiety. This could be a result of past experiences where she felt powerless or out of control.
Other features:
As well as providing a note to the clinician it can generate a letter/email to the patient. This outlines the agreed plan from the therapy session.
Freed
£: Costs around £80 per month for unlimited visits. Get a trial free initially.
Pros= Lots of variety, learns as you edit the note. Very easy to use and simple.
Cons= It’s expensive
About Freed: Sign up here
Freed is popular among healthcare professionals for its efficiency and accuracy in transcription. If your primary need is to reduce the load of documentation, Freed is reliable
How it displays your notes:
Freed supplies various different formats for copying information across. These include:
Subjective- this distills your transcription into a few paragraphs in note format that is written like a clinical note( perfect for adding into your online system). It doesn’t feel too formal and would suit if you want short notes that capture the essence of what was spoken about in a session
Objective: These are fairly medical and not particularly relevant to a psychology session
Assessment and plan: This section splits up the conversation into sections based on the topics discussed. It then comes up with some bullet points focused on what the plan moving forward is e.g work with X, encourage patient to do Y, explore Z.
Freed has the ‘magic edit’ button (Nabla does too, see more on that below) where you can teach it how you want the note to appear (e.g if it got the client’s name wrong or you want an area more or less detailed). However when I then asked it to do something more complex e.g generate some psychological hypotheses based on the conversation (I know this is a little ambitious but I was curious as to what it might put) it just ignored this request so perhaps that is a step too far? Interestingly Nabla performed much better in this area.
Other features:
If you write letters routinely to your patients then it can put your consultation into a letter/email format in which you can send to your client after your session. This would be helpful if you and the client wish to have a summary after every session and with the ‘actions’ for the week ahead.
At the end it has a summary where it gives you the option of viewing the whole transcript or just what you (the clinician) say- this is helpful if you want to easily review your own verbal ‘tics’ or habits or you can reflect ton how a particular conversation landed. It’s presented in paragraphs so easy to read.
Heidi: Sign up here
£= Free for basic package with unlimited consults. If you want to add AI prompts you are limited to 10 on the free package. You can pay £35-45 per month depending on if you do yearly or month by month for unlimited AI prompts and quicker note generation.
Pros: Price, it’s free/low cost. You can customise your templates to the intervention you are using (I use it to outline an EMDR session, I use it to keep a record of the ACT principles we've covered. You can also use the ai tool to act as your administrator (e.g "pull up a timeline of significant events the client mentioned" or "bullet point the goals the client mentioned")
Cons: I didn't find it very user friendly initially, takes a while to learn how it works and doesn’t necessarily have the versatility of the more expensive ones. It also takes a while to generate notes if you don’t have the paying version,
About Heidi
Heidi is particularly designed with psychological practices in mind, which means it is capable of understanding complex therapeutic terminology and nuances. Heidi not only transcribes but also suggests possible psychological frameworks or interventions based on the dialogue it processes (I find this to be quite medically focused to be honest e.g it will assign DSM diagnoses which I am firmly against using, but you can delete anything from the notes you don't want). This feature can be particularly helpful for less experienced therapists or those looking for a collaborative AI tool. I personally found the user experience of Heidi to be much less straight forward than the other two. I got there eventually but wasn’t as easy on the eyes and felt more complicated (these were just initial thoughts though)How it displays your notes:
Heidi will vary what it displays depending on whether you want it and has a spectrum from ‘super detailed’ to 'brief'. I think this format is perfect if you want to have notes written for content for your online software and then something more detailed for your process notes.
You can apply specific templates to the notes. This is the number 1 feature in my opinion e.g it can put the note into either a letter, a referral letter, a care plan etc. It also has an ‘initial psychology template’ which will provide a basic 7 p’s formulation , which I thought was pretty intuitive. It also will highlight every area you could have asked about in an assessment e.g cognitions, thought process and beside it list ‘ not mentioned’ if you didn’t put it (Depending on your inner voice this could be rather overwhelming, or a kick up the bum to sharpen up your initial assessments :) ).
Within the note generated it automatically breaks it down into next steps for your session based on what you said. This makes it feel tailored to psychologists as opposed to a generic medical note. I prompted mine to create a separate section for what the therapist committed to doing so that if I said I would send a book chapter, or a link to a video I reduce the chance I'll forget it.
It’s important to say that Heidi takes a while to generate the notes, and you need to pay per month if you want it quicker (the others are only a few seconds) but a big plus with Heidi is that you can create your own templates-the others don’t do this. I now have the paid version and have no problems with the speed of note generation.
Overall:
Having a scribe feels like a luxury I could not longer be without. My bet is in 12 months we will see most of us using ai in some form. Not only does it help cut down my note taking time but my notes are far more comprehensive which I feel means I can bring more to the sessions. I can also be more present not wondering if I missed something or noted it down incorrectly. I have found that writing formulations with clients, producing reports at the end of sessions is now very feasible and doesn’t take the time it once would have done. It goes without saying you have to check the note. Occasionally it will site something I have said as what the client said, so it's not totally foolproof.
In my opinion, Heidi provides the best option as an AI scribe for psychologists and psychotherapists. I really like being able to tailor how detailed the notes are, and to add my own template to it. It also wins hands down on the price front too. The main area it fails is the ‘magic edit’ edit button, which is essentially the part of an AI that learns and adapt based on the information you give it. It’s that part of AI that does feel a little bit scary…but right now I don't need it to do that part of my job for me. If you do want to try Heidi you can get 1 month of pro for free by signing up here
I hope that brief overview is helpful and I’d love to hear any of your reflections if you have used the above so feel free to email me.
