Clinician Information
Name: Dr. Katherine Hyde-Hensley, PsyD, LCMHS, IPPE-C
Practice: Hyde Hensley Counseling & Consulting PLLC
Website: https://katherinehydehensley.com/
Licensed In
- North Carolina
Populations Served
- Adults
- Families
Specialties
- Perinatal Grief and Loss
- PTSD from Birth Trauma
- Attachment Parenting
- Family Stability
- Reproductive Grief
- Pregnancy After Loss
- Maternal Mental Health
About Katherine
Tell us about your journey into behavioral health.
My journey into behavioral health began long before I became a therapist.
In 2005, just three days before my scheduled C-section, I learned the words no parent is prepared to hear: “There is no heartbeat.”
Instead of delivering our third child at 38 weeks, my husband and I delivered our stillborn daughter, Helen. Helen weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces and looked just like her siblings.
After her funeral, the world around us returned to normal, but our family was left navigating profound grief, trauma, and isolation. I struggled with severe postpartum depression, anxiety, PTSD, milk production after loss, parenting two young children, maintaining a marriage under strain, and returning to work while carrying an invisible wound.
As I searched for support, I discovered how few resources existed for bereaved parents. Not even my obstetrical providers checked in on my mental health. Like many families experiencing stillbirth and infant loss, we encountered stigma, silence, and a lack of understanding about the lasting impact of losing a baby.
Helen’s death changed every aspect of our lives. It also became the catalyst for my professional path.
I pursued a career in counseling and eventually specialized in maternal mental health, perinatal loss, trauma, and reproductive grief.
Today, I combine clinical expertise with lived experience to support individuals and families facing some of life’s most devastating and transformative experiences.
Tell us about your practice today.
I primarily serve individuals and families navigating perinatal mental health concerns, infertility, pregnancy after loss, birth trauma, stillbirth, infant loss, and reproductive grief.
I also work with healthcare professionals seeking to provide more compassionate, trauma-informed care to bereaved families.
What makes my practice unique is my ability to meet clients exactly where they are. Many arrive carrying fear, uncertainty, and a deep distrust of the medical system after experiencing traumatic pregnancies, births, or losses.
My approach combines evidence-based trauma treatment with compassionate, relationship-centered care. I help clients find their voice, advocate for their needs, and reclaim a sense of agency in their healthcare experiences.
Whether they are navigating grief, considering another pregnancy, or preparing to give birth after loss, I strive to create a space where they feel seen, understood, and empowered.
What are you most passionate about when working with clients?
I am most passionate about helping clients move from surviving trauma to living with purpose, hope, and connection.
Some of the bravest people I know are parents who choose to love again after loss.
Supporting families as they face the unimaginable fear of another pregnancy after the death of a wanted and deeply loved baby is sacred work.
I am honored to walk beside them as they process trauma, navigate uncertainty, and learn to hold both grief and hope at the same time.
I believe healing does not mean forgetting. It means finding ways to continue loving and honoring the child who died while fully embracing life with the children who are here.
Whether through advocacy, remembrance, connection, or personal growth, I am passionate about helping families discover that healing and grief can coexist and that their story can become a source of strength, meaning, and compassion for others.
Before AutoNotes
What was documentation like before AutoNotes?
Documentation was one of the most stressful parts of my work as a therapist.
Notes often took an additional 1.5 hours after my clinical day ended and sometimes spilled into the following days when life became busy.
No matter how much time I spent documenting, I never felt fully confident that I had captured the depth of the clinical work that occurred in session.
My biggest frustration was creating notes that demonstrated medical necessity while maintaining continuity from session to session.
I struggled to consistently document interventions, treatment progress, clinical decision-making, and SOAP elements in a way that felt comprehensive and audit-ready.
Instead of feeling accomplished after meaningful client work, I often found myself staring at my computer late into the evening, wondering whether I had documented enough.
What impact did documentation have on your life outside of work?
Documentation contributed significantly to fatigue and burnout.
It stole time from my family and limited my ability to be fully present after work.
Even when I wasn’t actively documenting, I carried the mental burden of unfinished notes and worries about audits, denied claims, clawbacks, and whether my documentation would adequately support the care I provided.
The stress followed me long after I closed my laptop.
What solutions had you tried before AutoNotes?
Before finding AutoNotes, I created my own documentation systems in OneNote and experimented with several AI-assisted solutions, including:
- Heidi Health
- Freed
- Otter AI
- Evernote
While each offered some benefits, I still found myself spending significant time editing, reorganizing information, and ensuring my notes reflected the quality and continuity of care I wanted to provide.
Discovering AutoNotes
How did you first hear about AutoNotes?
I discovered AutoNotes in April 2026, either through Instagram or email.
What initially made you skeptical about AI?
Honestly, I wasn’t skeptical. I was immediately impressed by the amount of time it saved.
What convinced you to try AutoNotes?
The efficiency and accuracy of the transcription convinced me to try AutoNotes.
I also discovered that I could use the transcription to create action plans for clients that summarized the interventions and next steps discussed during the session.
Life With AutoNotes
How has your documentation process changed?
I am now able to complete documentation for a full day of approximately seven sessions in less than 30 minutes, often before dinner.
Time saved
More than 10 hours per week.
Most impactful features
- Live Session Recording
- Treatment Plans
- Client Overviews
- Clinical Recommendations
- Screening Tools
Example impact
I work extensively with infant loss and grief.
AutoNotes allows me to be fully present with grieving parents while still accurately tracking postpartum symptoms, PTSD symptoms, treatment progress, and safety concerns.
The session summaries help me develop action plans and safety plans while capturing details that memory alone might not fully retain.
This allows me to focus entirely on the client while maintaining documentation accuracy and safety.
Impact Beyond Documentation
Impact on work and well-being
AutoNotes has reduced my cortisol levels and improved my work-life balance.
It has also increased my confidence that I am providing effective interventions and maintaining accurate documentation.
What changed
AutoNotes has allowed me to clock out at the end of a full workday.
What do you do with that time?
I spend more time with my family and advocating for bereaved parents.
Privacy & Trust
Initial concerns
My primary concerns were privacy, HIPAA compliance, and protecting both my clients and my professional license.
Current perspective
As a clinician, those concerns never completely disappear.
However, I have developed safeguards that allow me to use AI responsibly, including informed consent, pseudonyms, and avoiding identifiable PHI in recordings.
Once I saw how much time AutoNotes saved and how much more present I could be with clients, I felt the benefits outweighed the risks when used thoughtfully and ethically.
Final Thoughts
Is AutoNotes worth trying?
Try it. It’s very helpful.
AutoNotes helps me…
AutoNotes helps me turn documentation from a nightly burden into a manageable part of my clinical workflow, giving me back time, energy, and peace of mind.
One thing therapists should know
Reducing documentation burden isn’t a luxury. It’s a sustainability strategy.
AutoNotes has helped me stay focused on clinical work instead of spending evenings catching up on notes.
