Exploring Customizable Interactive Tools for Therapeutic Homework Support in Mental Health Counseling

Paper Title

Exploring Customizable Interactive Tools for Therapeutic Homework Support in Mental Health Counseling

Publication Info

• Topic area: Therapist-centered AI tools for mental health counseling.
• Keywords: Therapeutic homework, mental health counseling, generative AI, therapist-facing tools, cognitive offloading, customization, clinical workflows, AI trust, human oversight, ethical AI.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Therapists face cognitive burdens in synthesizing fragmented client homework data, which is often scattered across formats like paper worksheets, verbal reports, and app-based submissions. Existing tools fail to integrate and summarize this data effectively.
• Significance: Efficiently tracking and interpreting therapeutic homework is critical for improving client outcomes, enabling therapists to focus on clinical insights rather than administrative tasks.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research has explored client-facing mHealth tools and therapist-facing practice management systems, but few have addressed therapist needs for synthesizing multi-format homework data. Generative AI has shown promise in adjacent tasks, such as progress note generation, but its application to therapist-facing homework review remains underexplored.

Solution

• Proposed approach: TheraTrack, a customizable therapist-facing tool that integrates multi-dimensional data and leverages large language models (LLMs) to generate traceable summaries and support natural-language queries.
• Novelty:
  1. Centralized integration of fragmented homework inputs into a single interactive dashboard.
  2. Customizable widgets tailored to therapists’ clinical goals and therapeutic modalities.
  3. GenAI-powered summaries and chat assistant for efficient synthesis and query-driven exploration of client data.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Defining Needs: Therapists complete an onboarding survey to specify preferences for tracking homework and clinical assessments.
  • Choosing Widgets: Therapists select relevant widgets, such as homework progress charts, GenAI summaries, and assessment trackers.
  • Displaying Customized Dashboard: The dashboard integrates homework trends, assessment results, and optional biometric data, with GenAI features enabling traceable summaries and interactive queries.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • 79% of therapists found GenAI summaries reduced their workload.
  • 64% rated the graphs and metrics as visually clear.
  • 50% expressed strong enthusiasm for long-term integration.
• Advantage over baselines: TheraTrack reduced cognitive load, enabled verification of AI-generated insights, and provided a centralized view of client data, addressing fragmentation and inefficiencies in current workflows.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Pilot study with 14 therapists using simulated client data.
  • Methods included think-aloud exploration, semi-structured interviews, and Likert-scale surveys.
  • Evaluated usability, perceived usefulness, trust, and customization.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Small sample size may limit generalizability.
  • Focused on therapist perspectives; client perspectives remain unexplored.
  • Real-world adoption and long-term use may reveal additional challenges.
  • Current design tailored to specific homework tracking scenarios; broader therapeutic contexts require adaptation.

Summary

TheraTrack is a therapist-facing AI tool designed to streamline the review and interpretation of therapeutic homework by integrating fragmented data into a centralized, customizable dashboard. Leveraging GenAI for summaries and queries, it reduces cognitive burden, enhances session preparation, and supports clinical sense-making. Pilot study results indicate high usability, perceived usefulness, and trust among therapists, with customization enabling flexible integration into diverse workflows. Future research should explore long-term adoption, client perspectives, and adaptation to broader therapeutic practices.