Editorial Standards & Our Use of AI

Some of our articles are written by our counsellors from start to finish. For others, AI tools help with the drafting and structure. We never use AI to publish. Whichever way an article begins, nothing appears on this site until a named, registered counsellor has read it, checked it for clinical accuracy, edited it where needed, and approved it. Every article carries the name and professional registration of the practitioner behind it, and a named person at Hope Therapy takes responsibility for what we publish.

If you would rather not read the detail, that is the whole of it. The rest of this page explains how it works and why we have set it up this way

“Where AI helps with a draft, it does not decide what is clinically sound, and it does not publish. A qualified human being does both”

Some articles never involve AI at all — a counsellor writes them because it is their specialism and they want to. Where we do use generative AI, it helps with drafting, research and structure. Used well, it means our counsellors spend their time on the part that needs clinical judgement rather than on assembling a first draft. Used badly, it produces confident, plausible, wrong information — which on a mental health website is not a small problem.

So we have drawn the line in a specific place. Where AI is involved, it helps produce a draft. It has no role in deciding whether something is clinically sound, whether a subject is safe for us to write about, or whether an article is fit to publish. Those are judgements made by qualified people, and they are made every time.

Things we will not publish

Some subjects are excluded from our written content entirely, because they need a conversation with a professional rather than an article. We do not publish material on methods of self-harm, and we do not write on areas outside our clinical competence. Where an article touches on serious distress, it says clearly that we are not a crisis service and points to services that are.

Why we do not badge articles as “AI-generated”

Because it would not be accurate. That label describes machine output published without review. Where AI has assisted with a draft, that draft is then read, checked, where necessary edited and approved by a registered counsellor whose name and registration appear on the page and who is professionally accountable for its accuracy. And some of our articles involve no AI at all. Telling you the whole process on a page like this is more honest, and more useful, than a badge that would give you a misleading impression in either direction.

• No article is published without review by a named, registered practitioner — whether or not AI helped draft it.
• Every article names a real, qualified person you can look up.
• We record who reviewed each article and on what date.
• We do not present AI output as clinical advice, and nothing here replaces speaking to a professional.
• Where we are uncertain, we say so rather than sounding more confident than the evidence allows.
• If we get something wrong and you tell us, we will correct it.

If you think something on this site is inaccurate, out of date, or unclear, please tell us and we will look at it. If you would like to know who reviewed a particular article, ask and we will tell you. You can reach us through our contact page.