Sunday, October 4, 2026

"Psychotherapy and Artificial Intelligence: Hallucinations, Cognitive Offloading and Data Mining - We’re not in Kansas Anymore"

Presented by Shara Sand, Psy.D.

Date: Sunday, October 4, 2026

Time: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. - CE Course
10:30 a.m. - 10:55 a.m. - HVPA members are invited to join for a brief update meeting starting 30 minutes before presentation time and ending 5 minutes before the presentation.

Location: This will be a Zoom presentation. (You will receive the Zoom login information the week before the presentation takes place.)

Presenter: Shara Sand, Psy.D.

Dr. Shara Sand is a Clinical Psychologist who has taught in a number of graduate and undergraduate settings during the more than thirty years she has been in practice. She currently supervises doctoral candidates in Clinical Psychology at CUNY, and serves as supervisor at the Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy’s LTBTQ Certificate program. Dr. Sand has also taught and supervised at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology at Yeshiva University, where she was Assistant Director of Clinical Training.

In addition, Dr. Sand has been in private practice for more than 30 years, and specializes in trauma, sexual orientation, gender identity, and work with creative/performing artists. Dr. Sand holds a M.A. in Music Performance from the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, as well as an undergraduate degree from the Manhattan School of Music.

In recent years, Dr. Sand has developed expertise in the role of Artificial Intelligence in Psychology, and works as the AI Psychology safety officer/developer at Micro1. She has co-written a “White Paper” for NYSPA on the subject of “Using Artificial Intelligence Safely and Wisely: Protecting the Public and Professions — Consumer Safety and Beyond.” Dr. Sand has also presented on the subject of AI for several psychological associations throughout New York State.

Target Audience: All mental health professionals. NOTE: Only Doctoral Level NY State licensed Psychologists can receive CE credits.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to identify:

1. Participants will be able to explain 3 ways in which LLM’s(large language models), or Generative AI (GAI), GPT, Claude, Anthropic, etc., are used in ways that are different from non-generative AI (Google, Siri, etc.). These include identifying how algorithms for AI are constructed, how AI “hallucinations" occur and how machine programming is different from human programming.
2. Participants will be able to verbalize 3 positive and 3 negative contributions that AI can make to the educational and clinical aspects of psychology.
3. Participants will be able to cite 3 studies in which data/legal constraints challenge the “benefits only” model proposed by AI corporations.
4. Participants will be able to identify 3 core problematic aspects of AI Therapy bots.

CE INFORMATION

Statement of Sponsorship: Hudson Valley Psychological Association (HVPA) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0200.

CE Credits: 2 CE credits for NYS Psychologists (only) are provided upon course's completion. HVPA is authorized to provide CE credits ONLY to NYS Psychologists.

To receive continuing education (CE) credit, you need to attend the program in its entirety. CE certificates will be provided for all NYS psychologists who attend this program in full and who complete/return an online program evaluation. Please indicate your license type and license number on your registration form.

FOR ONLINE COURSES: We verify your online attendance at the beginning & end of the program and by your completion of the evaluation form.

If you have questions, contact ContinuingEd@hvpa.org.

Register Here