Episode 9: Psychological Innovations for the AI+Mental Health Conundrum (feat. Jake Tumeinski, Claude Michelle Oliveira)

Speaker 1  00:00

Bell, welcome to from ideas to impact the show where students, professors and professionals seek to understand the overlap of creativity, innovation and a love ethic in various industries. I'm Jocelyn Bell, the professor of the human spark class at Bryant University, a class formerly known as the sociology of innovation and creativity, and we're in the segment of the podcast when we hear student reflections on and analyzes of the themes and ideas that emerged over the course of the class. Sometimes they used this final assignment as a chance to imagine what an episode of their own podcast would sound like. Other times they put the episode together as part of the larger story of the class. One thing that's consistent throughout this segment of the show is that each student invites you into their thoughts on the overlap of creativity, innovation and a love ethic, the overlap of creative, abrasion, intersectionality and Claude. Michel's discussion with the class is only one of the interesting pieces of this episode from Jake. Check out the webpage for this episode to see some of the sources he referenced to build the analysis you're about to hear.

Speaker 2  01:50

Hello everyone, and welcome to from ideas to impact. This is a podcast where we challenge the idea that creativity and innovation belong only to artists or engineers. Instead, we highlight the work of innovators in various industries who are reimagining the world and their industry they are in. We highlight especially those who use a love ethic while working. How can everyone in any industry change the world we live in through creativity and innovation is what we specialize in. I am Jake, a student of sociology of innovation and creativity, and your host for this episode. In this episode, I will bring up Claude Michel, who is a feature as a guest speaker in one of the previous episodes. To refresh your memories, I will go through a quick background of her. Claude Michel is not just a dancer, choreographer, nor just a director, but she is a visionary who has found a way to blend the world of dance, psychology and therapy. Her approach to therapy is nothing short of groundbreaking, where she is challenging the notion of healing as a one size fits all journey. She has a bachelor's degree in dance and psychology from Rhode Island College, and also she has a Master of Arts in clinical mental health counseling and dance movement therapy from Lesley University. She's currently serving as a full time clinician and board certified dance movement therapist in Providence, Rhode Island, where she specializes working with youth and adolescents. She holds the role of counselor and Health Wellness Educator at the wheeler school in Providence. She's also the owner of valiant arts in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. I am going to highlight Claude Michel in this episode due to her innovative way of tackling therapy through movement and community, she is relevant to this whole idea of innovation, creativity and love that our class has gone through so deeply because she created her studio with the attention of community, which is a massive part of love. And her innovation and creativity speaks for itself, by the way she has intermingled mental health and movement.

Speaker 2  04:15

In this episode, we will be diving into one of the most pressing and complex conversations in society today, the mental health issue our world has been going through. Here's my main argument. As AI reshapes our world, it risks deepening mental health struggles, eroding human connection and side lighting the creative, emotional and communal dimensions that psychology must now fight to preserve and evolve. We will work this through three core aspects, first, the widespread mental health crisis affecting people worldwide today. Second, what AI means for social change as far as the risks go. And third, the need for love and innovation in psychology. To unpack this, I will draw from clips of our featured guest speaker, Jocelyn. Claude Michel, lectures, course materials, sociological theories and research from peer reviewed articles.

Speaker 2  05:18

For our first core aspect meant the mental health crisis. It is no secret that around the world today, we face a growing mental health crisis. Depression, Anxiety rates have risen dramatically, especially among youth, isolation, burnout and a lack of access to care are among the top reasons for this, and these have been affecting people across race, class and geography for a while now that and the pandemic has only deepened these challenge within all populations. But this isn't just a clinical issue. Is a social one. Mental health is shaped by the environments we live in, the technology we use, and then communities we are a part of or separated from. Now, this is a good bridge to one of the three core questions of each guest speaker episodes, what is the matrix of relationships, structures, systems and or contexts that support and or hinder through creativity and innovation? Highlighted to explain this matrix, we can use a sociological theory that can help us, and that is intersectionality. Intersectionality is a social framework that examines how multiple overlapping social identities and systems interact with one another to create unique experiences for everyone. Sociologically, we can use intersectionality to understand how factors such as race, gender, disability and income level shape people's mental health experiences, also, as everyone has different views into society because of our unique overlapping of social identities we all have in the matrix of relationships and systems we come into contact with every single day. This shows how there's a need for creativity in the field of psychology, to be able to see all of these intertwining and maneuver through them with everyone and help their mental health. If psychologists are able to guide everyone differently by seeing their overlappings, then this can be a big step to our problem.

Speaker 2  07:32

All right, now, let's talk about AI, specifically the implications of AI. It has rapidly entered everyone's lives in a multitude of ways. Some use it as a search engine. Some use it as a way to help study and some use it as a way to research. At first glance, this can be seen as a good thing, but in a society where more and more research is showing that outdoor and connecting with people in real life is decreasing and screen time has been dramatically increasing, the introduction of AI can be risky. More people can use it as a way to seek an emotional connection, rather than through our human counterparts. With the lack of community and connection already in the world today, as is because of this dramatic increase in screen time and less outdoors time, this is yet another option for people to use it as a way to escape reality and search for emotional connections outside of humans, which is less fulfilling. It is also rapidly entering the mental health space through chat bots and AI generated therapy prompts. This will provide greater access 24/7, support and personalization. But here's the risk, AI and mental health care can lead to negative social change if it replaces human connection with automation and it prioritizes data over empathy, or can even reproduce bias. Let's go a little deeper into that algorithm, algorithmic bias, so AI can be trained on non diverse data sets which may misunderstand or misrepresent potentially marginalized users, which would lead to a negative social change. There's also lack of empathy. AI may respond to surface level support, but miss the emotional nuance that real therapists can bring, or not just therapists, but also a community that can bring real empathy through social support. And lastly, isolation, AI can make users feel even more alone if they're interacting with a tool rather than a person over a long period of time.

Speaker 2  09:42

You let's move on to our third core aspect of this debate, the need for love and innovation in psychology. So what do we do with all this? The answer, at least, I believe, lies in a love ethic and community building. First to tackle love ethic. Let's go back to one of the core questions of this podcast episodes. How does love in action overlap with creativity and innovation? For me, the answer is, love in action is the fuel that makes innovation human centered in psychology, it means we don't innovate just to make things faster or cheaper. We innovate to make people feel seen, heard and valued. A love ethic drives us to ask, who's being left out, whose needs are being met? That's where creativity steps in, not just as a tool for building new tech, but as a way of imagining more and better systems of care. And here's where we get to the heart of it. As I mentioned, innovation in psychology cannot happen without love. It requires us to challenge traditional thinking, to question systems that aren't working, and to embrace the creative abrasion that comes with exploring new ways of integrating AI within our world. Creative abrasion is the process of generating innovative ideas through constructive conflict and debate, where posing viewpoints are actively considered and challenged. It's all about creating a place for diverse ideas and perspectives to be amplified in order to drive creativity and better outcomes for everyone. Yes, it might be uncomfortable at times, but it's precisely this discomfort that will begin to spark innovation and creativity. By fostering environments where different ideas can collide, we open the door to the future of mental health care. This way, creative abrasion becomes a driving force in the discussion of AI and mental health. It emphasizes that progress requires tension and diversity of ideas leading to better, more innovative solutions, particularly in fields as sensitive as therapy. This brings us to our final core question, what does this episode teach us about the impact of this matrix on social change. Social change doesn't just happen because we build new tools. It happens when we transform the values systems and relationships that shape our lives. If we center love and justice and our innovations, AI can support real positive changes in mental health care. If we don't, we risk doing more harm than good. Now, as far as community, let's listen to our guest speaker, Claude Michelle,

Speaker 3  12:28

just building community. I love unival. Anywhere I go, I'm like, Who are you? What you doing? I own a studio, some art things like, I try to make sure and not an obvious way, but in a sense of really blending and building community together. And so that's why whenever I meet someone, I try to connect, right and build that thread together. But

Speaker 2  12:50

here you can see how Claude Michelle values community very highly. Community is such an important aspect of a person's mental health. It's a place of social support, sense of belonging, reduced isolation, and you can share experiences with one another. Another clip I want to share for is going more into depth about some of these aspects I just mentioned a little

Speaker 4  13:13

deeper in how we came up with the idea to open a dance studio as a way to bring together the

Speaker 3  13:19

community, and again, I wanted to provide them with a space to be themselves, a space that gave them cultural awareness, cultural identity, where they can tap into anything and everything that they can get into because they weren't able to get it elsewhere. And so that was my biggest why, because I know I needed it for myself, so I had to do it for somebody

Speaker 2  13:43

else. As you can see, a big part of starting her own dance studio was to help out others, because she knows she needed it for these reasons. I stated before, creating space safe spaces is essential for mental health because they provide individuals with the opportunity to embrace their authentic selves. Many people can struggle to find spaces that respect and value their identity, which can negatively impact their mental well being. These spaces offer a sense of belonging emotional support by fostering environments where individuals can express themselves without fear of judgment, and these communities will therefore empower people and have this sense of belonging and get rid of this isolation that has become such a problem in our society today, this approach can not only address mental health from a human centered perspective, but also incorporates love and empathy into innovation, ensuring that mental health care is Personalized and not in a one size fits all style.

Speaker 2  14:51

To start concluding, I want to remind you of where we started our core debate or argument for this episode of from idea. To impact was as AI reshapes our world. It risks deepening mental health struggles, eroding human connection and sidelining the creative, emotional and communal dimensions that psychology must now fight to preserve and evolve. And here's what we have covered throughout this episode. First, the world is facing a rising mental health crisis. Second, AI offers tools, but also introduces risks that could worsen emotional isolation our society faces today. But the solution isn't to simply reject AI, but to reshape it with love and creativity at the center of it in psychology, especially within therapy, and third quantum, Michelle's work reminds us that transforming mental health care doesn't just mean new tools or technology, it means rethinking the system and how to help others. That is how we build systems for everyone that don't just function but care. And on top of this, building up our own communities and making sure we are engaging in connections with others in our community to create that social support and these emotional connections that we all thrive off of, especially for our mental Health. Thank you for listening to from ideas to impact. I'm Jake, and I hope I was able to bring an interesting conversation to the table, and this episode has left you with new insights and new hope for what's possible when a world uses the structure of innovation, creativity and love. You. You.