In short: Good session notes are short, factual, and written so that someone could easily understand what happened and why, including you in a year. The three common structures, SOAP, DAP and BIRP, are just different ways of ordering the same information. Pick one and use it consistently. Write the note as if the client might one day read it, because under UK GDPR they can ask to. This guide gives you a copy-ready template and a worked UK example for each format, and the handful of rules that keep a note useful and defensible.
In this guide
- What a session note is for, and the one test that tells you if it is good enough
- Progress notes versus private process notes, and why the difference matters in the UK
- The three formats, with a copy-ready template and a UK example for each
- What goes in, what stays out, and the mistakes that cause real problems
- How long a note should take, and when to write it
- A note on client access, retention and where notes live
What a note is actually for
A session note has three jobs. Mainly, it helps you carry the work forward from one session to the next. It gives a coherent record if the client themselves asks to see it (Subject Access Request), if there is a complaint, or if a court demands it. And it evidences your clinical reasoning, which the BACP framework increasingly expects you to be able to show.
That gives you one simple test for whether a note is good enough. Could another person, reading only this note, understand what happened in the session, what you made of it, and what you plan to do next. If yes, the note works. If it only makes sense because you were in the room and remember the rest, it does not.
Everything below serves that test. The structures are not the point. The point is a clear, factual, reasoned record that holds up on its own.
Progress notes and private notes are not the same thing
This trips up many UK practitioners, so it is worth thirty seconds to consider before moving to the templates.
Most guidance, especially the American kind, blurs two different things. There is the clinical record, the factual account of the session that forms part of the client's file. And there are your own private process notes, the musings, hypotheses and personal reactions you jot for your own thinking and supervision.
In the UK this distinction has real consequences, because a client can make a subject access request under UK GDPR and ask for what you hold about them. The safest working assumption is that your clinical record is disclosable, so write it to be read. Keep genuinely private reflections separate and minimal, and know that the line between the two is not as clean as people hope. The detail of what is and is not disclosable sits in our guide to UK GDPR for therapists. For this guide, the rule is simple: write the session note as if the client will read it, because they might.
The three formats
SOAP, DAP and BIRP order the same material differently. None is more correct than the others. SOAP is the most widely recognised. DAP is the quickest. BIRP puts the emphasis on what you did and how the client responded. Pick one, and use it consistently, because consistency is what makes a file readable over time.
A word on each section before the templates. Keep the client's own words in quotation marks where they matter. Keep what you observed separate from what you concluded. And make the plan specific enough that next week you know exactly what you said you would do.
SOAP: Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan
The most common structure. Subjective is what is reported or experienced. Objective is what is factual, observable or measurable. Assessment is your clinical interpretation. Plan is what happens next.
Copy-ready template
Client: [initials or ID] Date: [date] Session: [number, modality, length]
S (Subjective): What the client reported since last session, in their words where it matters. Mood, concerns, significant events, homework if set.
O (Objective): What you observed, factual. Presentation, affect, engagement, any measure scores (for example PHQ-9, GAD-7, read our guide on outcome measures to learn more).
A (Assessment): Your clinical thinking. Progress toward goals, your current understanding, any risk considered.
P (Plan): What happens next. Focus for next session, anything agreed with the client, any task set, date of next session.
Worked UK example
Client: J.M. Date: 14 July 2026 Session: 6, in person, 50 min
S: Reports a harder week. "I managed two days and then it all came back." Describes broken sleep and avoiding a work meeting on Tuesday. Completed the thought record twice of a planned five.
O: Arrived on time, spoke less, gave shorter answers, longer pauses. GAD-7 completed at start, score 12 (down from 15 at session 2).
A: Generalised anxiety continues to affect work functioning, but the GAD-7 trend and partial homework completion suggest some movement. Avoidance of the meeting fits the pattern we have been working on.
P: Next session, review the two completed thought records and look at the avoided meeting as a worked example. Agreed J. will attempt the thought record once before Tuesday.
Next session 21 July.
DAP: Data, Assessment, Plan
The same content as SOAP, with the subjective and objective folded into one Data section. Faster to write once you are comfortable with it.
Copy-ready template
Client: [initials or ID] Date: [date] Session: [number, modality, length]
D (Data): What the client reported and what you observed, together. Events, mood, presentation, engagement, any measure scores.
A (Assessment): Your clinical interpretation. Progress, current understanding, any risk considerations.
P (Plan): Next steps, anything agreed, task set, date of next session.
Worked UK example
Client: J.M. Date: 14 July 2026 Session: 6, in person, 50 min
D: Reports a harder week. "I managed two days and then it all came back." Describes broken sleep and avoiding a work meeting on Tuesday. Completed the thought record twice of a planned five. Arrived on time, spoke less, gave shorter answers, longer pauses. GAD-7 completed at start, score 12 (down from 15 at session 2).
A: Generalised anxiety continues to affect work functioning, but the GAD-7 trend and partial homework completion suggest some movement. Avoidance of the meeting fits the pattern we have been working on.
P: Next session, review the two completed thought records and look at the avoided meeting as a worked example. Agreed J. will attempt the thought record once before Tuesday.
Next session 21 July.
BIRP: Behaviour, Intervention, Response, Plan
Puts the therapeutic action at the centre. Behaviour is what the client presented. Intervention is what you did. Response is how they responded. Plan is what is next.
Copy-ready template
Client: [initials or ID] Date: [date] Session: [number, modality, length]
B (Behaviour): What the client said and did. Presentation, mood, significant reports, engagement.
I (Intervention): What you did in session. Approach or techniques used.
R (Response): How the client responded to the intervention.
P (Plan): Next steps, anything agreed, task set, date of next session.
Worked UK example
Client: J.M. Date: 14 July 2026 Session: 6, in person, 50 min
B: Reports a harder week. "I managed two days and then it all came back." Describes broken sleep and avoiding a work meeting on Tuesday. Arrived on time, spoke less, gave shorter answers, longer pauses. Completed two of five planned thought records. GAD-7 score 12 (down from 15 at session 2).
I: Reviewed the partially completed thought records together. Used the avoided Tuesday meeting as a worked example to walk through the anxious thoughts and test them.
R: Engaged with the thought record review, though quieter than usual. Able to name the thought behind the avoidance by the end, and agreed it was worth another attempt.
P: Next session, build on the meeting example and review the next thought record. Agreed J. will attempt the thought record once before Tuesday.
Next session 21 July.
What goes in, and what stays out
Keep in: the facts of the session, the client's own significant words, what you observed, your clinical reasoning, any risk you considered and what you did about it, and a clear plan. If you considered risk and judged it low, write that you considered it. A note that is silent on risk reads, later, as if risk was never checked.
Keep out: detail that is not clinically relevant, your personal opinions about the client as a person, information about third parties that does not need to be there, and anything you would not be able to stand behind if the client read it. Avoid vague labels doing the work of description. "Difficult" tells a future reader nothing. What the client did and said tells them everything.
The mistakes that cause real problems, in order of how often they bite: notes written so long after the session that the detail is gone, assessment sections that just restate the facts instead of interpreting them, plans too vague to act on, risk left unmentioned, and copy-paste notes where every session reads identically, which is worse than useless if the file is ever examined.
How long a note should take, and when to write it
A good session note is short. A few focused sentences per section is plenty. If you are writing an essay, you are recording too much, and a long note is not a safer note, it is a harder one to defend because there is more in it to be inconsistent.
Write it as soon after the session as you can, ideally before the next client, while the detail is fresh. The single biggest driver of note quality is not the format, it is the gap between the session and the writing. A plain note written straight away beats a polished one written three days later from memory.
Where notes live, client access, and retention
Three things sit just outside this guide but matter to it.
A client can ask to see their notes, which is the practical reason to write them to be read. How to handle that request sits in the GDPR guide. How long to keep notes after the work ends is a separate question, also covered there and in your professional body's guidance. And which system you keep them in, with the security and access controls that implies, is the subject of our clinical notes software guide.
For the writing itself, the practical point is that a note written in a structured template, stored against the client record with the date and session attached, is easier to keep consistent and far easier to produce if it is ever asked for. That is true whether your template lives in a document you reuse or in practice software that gives you the structure each time.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to use SOAP or DAP at all?
No. A structured format makes notes more consistent and easier to read over time, which is why most practitioners use one, but there is no rule requiring a particular format in UK private practice. A clear narrative note that covers what happened, your assessment, and the plan can be perfectly adequate.
What is the best format for therapy session notes?
There is no single best format. SOAP, DAP and BIRP order the same information differently. SOAP is the most widely recognised, DAP is the fastest, and BIRP foregrounds the intervention and the client's response. The format matters far less than picking one and using it consistently.
Can clients in the UK ask to see their therapy notes?
Yes. Under UK GDPR a client can make a subject access request for the personal data you hold about them, which generally includes their clinical notes. This is the practical reason to keep notes factual and written so they could be read by the client. The detail of how to respond is in our GDPR guide.
How long should a session note be?
Short. A few focused sentences per section. A long note is not a safer note. What makes a note defensible is that it is clear, factual, interprets what happened, and names any risk considered, not that it is long.
How soon after a session should I write my notes?
As soon as you can, ideally before your next client while the detail is fresh. The gap between the session and the writing is the single biggest driver of note quality, more than which format you use.
About this guide
Written by the team at My-Therapy-Suite, a UK practice management platform for therapists. The templates are a starting point to adapt to your own practice and modality, not a clinical or legal standard. Nothing here is legal advice, and record-keeping expectations are set by your professional body, so check their current guidance. Last updated October 2026.