The Clinician's Survival Guide to the Chatbot Revolution

Allen Frances

HardcoverPaperbacke-bookprint + e-book
Hardcover
January 19, 2027
ISBN 9781462567959
Price: $44.00
224 Pages
Size: 6" x 9"
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Paperback
December 22, 2026
ISBN 9781462566952
Price: $29.00
224 Pages
Size: 6" x 9"
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e-book
December 22, 2026
PDF and Accessible ePub ?
Price: $29.00
224 Pages
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print + e-book
Paperback + e-Book (PDF and Accessible ePub) ?
Price: $58.00 $34.80
224 Pages
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professor copy Digital professor copy available on VitalSource once published ?

Chatbots now conduct more mental health sessions than all human clinicians combined—despite having little training, zero licensing, and no professional accountability. This essential guide from world-renowned psychiatrist Allen Frances helps clinicians understand the bewildering chatbot revolution and provides strategies for thriving within it. Frances describes how to train AI-based tools to be helpful therapy assistants—not rivals or harmful replacements. He discusses ways to evaluate patients' use of chatbots, assess possible risks, set up guardrails for using these tools safely, create between-session chatbot homework, manage digital boundary violations, and protect patient privacy. The book is packed with vivid stories, concise explanations of technical concepts, and practical tips. The companion website features reproducible/downloadable tools for clinicians and a multipage patient handout.

About the Author

Allen Frances, MD, is a clinician, educator, researcher, and leading authority on psychiatric diagnosis. He chaired the DSM-IV Task Force, was a member of the Task Force that prepared DSM-III-R, and wrote the final version of the Personality Disorders section in DSM-III. The author of several hundred papers and more than a dozen books, Dr. Frances is Professor and Chair Emeritus of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University.

Audience

Clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatrists, counselors, psychiatric nurses, and coaches.