How Responsible AI looks like in Mental Health Coaching | with Shelby Garay

with Shelby Garay

As Program Director of the Headspace Training Institute — training the next generation of mental health coaches — Shelby sits at one of the most critical intersections in coaching today: where AI meets mental health, and where getting it wrong has real consequences. This conversation is about what getting it right actually looks like. At Headspace, that means clinical safety guardrails with human oversight, a 30-minute limit on AI companion conversations to prevent overuse and prompt degradation, and an empathetic AI companion called Ebb that meets people where they are — every single day, not just in crisis. Because that's the shift Shelby keeps coming back to: mental health care can't only happen when things fall apart. It needs to be daily. Like going to the gym. Rebecca and Shelby also dig into how Headspace is training coaches to have the AI conversation with their clients — not avoid it — and why the coaching industry needs to stop asking "AI or human?" and start asking how AI can amplify what only humans can do. And in a moment that lands quietly but hard: Shelby shares why she's teaching her students to embrace failure — and why that might be the most human skill of all. In this episode: Why Headspace put a 30-minute limit on its AI companion — and why that's revolutionary How to build clinical guardrails that actually hold Training coaches to talk to clients about AI — not around it The danger of general-purpose chatbots being used for mental health Embracing failure as the foundation of mental health and coaching Links and resources mentioned in this episode: Headspace Training Institute Headspace Ebb - Headspace's Empathetic AI Companion Headspace Coaching Shelby Garay LinkedIn Shelby Garay Coaching & Consulting Find out more: https://vivalacoaching.com/vivapodcast/

Human. AI. And Something Neither Can Do Alone | with Jonathan Kirschner

with Jonathan Kirschner

What if the most powerful coaching relationship in the future involves three parties — a human coach, an AI, and the space between them that neither could create alone? Jonathan Kirschner has been thinking about this longer than most. He built AIIR (Assessment, Insight, Implementation, Reinforcement) in 2009 to bring behavioral science and structure to what Harvard Business Review called "the Wild West of executive coaching." Now, nearly two decades in, he's at the frontier again — this time asking how AI and human coaching can combine into something genuinely greater than either. His answer: Aeron, AIIR's AI digital coach assistant. Meridian, their AI-powered assessment debriefer. And a firm belief that 1+1=3 — but only if you're intentional about it. Because there's a trap. Coaches who delegate cognitive work to AI and pocket only the time savings? Jonathan's hypothesis is blunt: we'll get dumber. The edge isn't in the tools. It's in what you grow into when the tools take the heavy lifting. Rebecca, your host, and Jonathan also dig into agentic AI as the real breakthrough for sustaining behavioral change, the uncanny valley of AI persona design (and why naming your AI is harder than it sounds), and why the number one challenge for leaders right now isn't strategy — it's finding clarity when the ground won't stop moving.   He closes with a grounding practice that requires zero technology and zero budget. Just breath. In this episode: The 1+1=3 case for human-AI coaching collaboration Why efficiency without depth is a slow kind of atrophy Agentic AI and the future of long-term behavior change Leading through constant uncertainty — and staying grounded The uncanny valley, AI personas, and the politics of naming Links and resources mentioned in this episode: aiirconsulting.com aiiranalytics.com Find out more: https://vivalacoaching.com/vivapodcast/

Come Stand With Us at The Edge

Coaching is changing. AI is here. And nobody has all the answers yet. The Edge of Human & AI is the podcast for coaches, leaders, and thinkers who want to go deeper than the hype — into the real questions about what it means to be human in an age of intelligent machines. Bold conversations. Uncomfortable edges. No easy answers. Welcome to the Edge. https://vivalacoaching.com/vivapodcast/