Therapy Progress Note Template: SOAP, DAP, BIRP and GIRP Examples

A therapy progress note template gives every session note the same bones, so you write faster and a reviewer can find what they need. The four formats most therapists use are SOAP, DAP, BIRP, and GIRP. They hold the same clinical facts in a different order. The right one depends on what you need the note to show: symptoms, process, interventions, or progress toward goals.

Below is a copy-ready template for each format, followed by the same fictional session written four ways. Seeing one session in four shapes is the quickest way to choose.

What every progress note needs, whatever the format

Before the headings, the content. A progress note in any format should let another clinician, a supervisor, or a payer understand what happened and why. That usually means:

• Session facts. Date, start and end time, session type (in person, telehealth, phone), who attended, and the service provided.
• Presentation. What the client reported and what you observed: mood, affect, engagement, notable changes since last time.
• Interventions. What you did, named specifically. "Cognitive restructuring of the thought 'I always fail'" is useful. "Supportive therapy" on its own is not.
• Response. How the client responded to the interventions in the session.
• Risk. Whether risk was assessed, what was found, and what you did about it. Write "No current suicidal ideation, intent, or plan reported" when that is true. Silence on risk reads as an omission.
• Progress and plan. Movement toward treatment goals, homework, the next appointment, and any referrals or coordination.
• Signature. Your name, credentials, and the date you signed.

Your licensing board, your payers, and your jurisdiction may add requirements. Check them once and build them into your template so you never have to remember them mid-note.

SOAP note template

SOAP comes from medicine and is the format many insurers and multidisciplinary teams expect.

SOAP Progress Note
Client: [Name or ID]   Date: [ ]   Time: [start to end]   Session type: [ ]

S (Subjective): Client's report in their own words. Symptoms, events since last session, stated goals for today.
O (Objective): Your observations. Appearance, affect, behavior, speech, measure scores (PHQ-9, GAD-7).
A (Assessment): Your clinical interpretation. Progress, risk assessment, diagnostic impressions.
P (Plan): Interventions planned, homework, next session date, referrals.

Clinician signature, credentials, date: [ ]

Use it when you work alongside medical providers or a payer asks for SOAP. Watch for the S section turning into a transcript. Summarize what is clinically relevant.

DAP note template

DAP folds subjective and objective information into one Data section. It is the fastest of the four to write.

DAP Progress Note
Client: [Name or ID]   Date: [ ]   Time: [start to end]   Session type: [ ]

D (Data): What the client reported and what you observed. Interventions used and the client's response.
A (Assessment): Your interpretation. Progress toward goals, risk assessment, clinical impressions.
P (Plan): Next steps, homework, next session, referrals.

Clinician signature, credentials, date: [ ]

Use it when you want short, readable notes for a solo private practice. Watch for interventions getting buried in the Data section. Name them in their own sentence. See the full DAP notes template and examples.

BIRP note template

BIRP puts interventions and the client's response front and center, which makes medical necessity easier to see.

BIRP Progress Note
Client: [Name or ID]   Date: [ ]   Time: [start to end]   Session type: [ ]

B (Behavior): Client's presentation and reported concerns. Observed behavior and affect.
I (Intervention): The specific techniques you used and why.
R (Response): How the client responded to each intervention in session.
P (Plan): Homework, next session focus, referrals, next appointment.

Clinician signature, credentials, date: [ ]

Use it when you bill insurance and want the link between problem, intervention, and response to be obvious. Watch for listing techniques without saying what they targeted. See the full BIRP notes template and examples.

GIRP note template

GIRP opens with the treatment goal, so every note reads as a step in the treatment plan.

GIRP Progress Note
Client: [Name or ID]   Date: [ ]   Time: [start to end]   Session type: [ ]

G (Goal): The treatment plan goal or objective addressed today.
I (Intervention): What you did to work toward that goal.
R (Response): The client's response and any progress toward the goal.
P (Plan): Next steps toward the goal, homework, next appointment.

Clinician signature, credentials, date: [ ]

Use it when you work from a measurable treatment plan, or a program reports outcomes against goals. Watch for sessions that did not touch a planned goal. Record the actual focus rather than forcing a goal onto it. See the full GIRP notes template and examples.

One session, written four ways

The session: Maya, 34, is in week six of CBT for generalized anxiety. She reports two panic episodes before work presentations. Her GAD-7 dropped from 15 to 12. You used cognitive restructuring on the thought "If I stumble, everyone will think I'm incompetent" and set a behavioral experiment for her next team meeting. She denied suicidal ideation, intent, or plan.

Format	How the same session reads
SOAP	S: Reports two panic episodes before work presentations; "I was sure they'd see I'm a fraud." O: Engaged, mildly anxious affect, GAD-7 12 (from 15). A: Moderate GAD, improving. Catastrophic predictions drive presentation anxiety. No SI, intent, or plan. P: Behavioral experiment at Thursday team meeting; review next session.
DAP	D: Two pre-presentation panic episodes reported. Engaged, mildly anxious. GAD-7 12 (from 15). Cognitive restructuring of "If I stumble, everyone will think I'm incompetent"; client generated two alternative predictions. A: Improving. Core belief about competence remains active. No SI, intent, or plan. P: Behavioral experiment Thursday. Next session in one week.
BIRP	B: Reports panic before presentations, mildly anxious affect, GAD-7 12. I: Cognitive restructuring of catastrophic prediction; designed a behavioral experiment. R: Identified two alternative outcomes and rated belief in the original thought down from 80% to 50%. P: Run experiment Thursday, log predicted versus actual outcome.
GIRP	G: Reduce anticipatory anxiety at work presentations (Goal 2). I: Cognitive restructuring; behavioral experiment planned. R: Belief in catastrophic prediction fell from 80% to 50%; GAD-7 down 3 points. No SI, intent, or plan. P: Experiment Thursday; reassess Goal 2 at session eight.

Same facts, four emphases. SOAP leads with symptoms, DAP with a compact story, BIRP with what you did, and GIRP with the plan.

How to choose a progress note format

• Insurance-heavy practice: BIRP or SOAP. Both make the intervention and its effect easy to audit.
• Solo private pay: DAP. It is short and still complete.
• Treatment-plan driven or outcome reporting: GIRP.
• Group practice: pick one as the house format and let clinicians add sections, not replace them. Consistency helps supervision and coverage.

Whatever you choose, keep it. Switching formats every few months makes the record harder to read over time.

Progress notes are not psychotherapy notes

This catches people out. Under HIPAA, psychotherapy notes are a clinician's separate process notes about the content of a session. They are kept apart from the medical record and get extra protection. Progress notes are part of the record: session times, modality, interventions, results of clinical tests, symptoms, and progress. The templates above are progress notes. Keep personal process notes in a separate place if you write them at all.[^1]

Faster progress notes with AI

An AI scribe can draft any of these formats from a session recording, so you start from a complete draft instead of a blank page. The draft is a starting point. You still check the facts, the risk statement, and the plan before you sign. We cover what to automate and what to keep in AI progress notes for therapists.

In Citt.ai you can choose SOAP, DAP, BIRP, GIRP, or psychodynamic structures, or upload one of your own notes and Citt drafts new notes in the same shape. Nothing reaches the chart until you approve it. See how AI therapy notes work in Citt.ai, or the full therapist workflow.