Insights for mental health professionals
Posted on October 7, 2025
Honoring Survivors: Domestic Violence Awareness Month
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month: A Time to Acknowledge, Educate, and Support Every October, we come together to recognize Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM) and to honor survivors, amplify their voices, and renew our commitment to ending violence in all its forms. First declared in 1989, this month invites us to reflect on the […]
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Posted on October 6, 2025
ICD-10 Codes Therapists Should Know About: A Practical Guide
ICD-10 Codes in Mental Health Settings Accurate ICD‑10 coding is essential for clinical documentation, treatment justification, and insurance reimbursement. With countless codes to choose from, it’s helpful to have on hand some of the ones we tend to use most frequently in mental health settings. Below you will find a list of some of the […]
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Posted on September 29, 2025
How to Write a GIRP Note: A focused format for goal oriented therapy
The GIRP note format—short for Goal, Intervention, Response, Plan—is a concise, goal-focused approach to psychotherapy documentation. It’s especially well-suited for structured treatments, time-limited therapy models, and clinical settings where progress toward clearly defined goals needs to be tracked consistently. The GIRP format keeps the therapeutic focus front and center at all times. Each section invites […]
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Posted on September 24, 2025
How to Write a BIRP Note: A clear and clinically meaningful approach
BIRP notes have steadily gained popularity as a structured, yet flexible format for psychotherapy documentation (preferred by many mental health providers, including myself). The acronym — Behavior, Intervention, Response, Plan — guides clinicians to capture the key elements of a session in a way that supports clinical thinking, treatment continuity, and professional accountability. Unlike more […]
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Posted on September 16, 2025
When Caring Hurts: Recognizing and Preventing Compassion Fatigue
I came across an important article on the American Psychological Association (APA) website today that I wanted to share with my fellow clinicians. It explores the growing recognition of compassion fatigue—the emotional, physical, and psychological toll that helping professionals can experience when working with trauma survivors over time. Here is a quick summary of the […]
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Posted on September 12, 2025
APA’s AI Technology Checklist: Note Designer has you Covered
The American Psychological Association (APA) has recently issued a Companion Checklist for the Evaluation of an AI-Enabled Clinical or Administrative Tool. We are very pleased to see such an initiative and are hopeful that this will help clinicians as they navigate the use of AI technology in their practice. Here is how Note Designer’s Ethical […]
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Posted on September 10, 2025
How to Write a DAP Note: A thoughtful and structured approach to therapy documentation
The DAP note is a widely used format in psychotherapy settings, valued for its clarity and focus. Short for Data, Assessment, and Plan, the DAP note simplifies documentation without sacrificing clinical depth. With fewer sections than formats like SOAP or BIRP, each part carries more weight — encouraging careful attention to content, clinical reasoning, and […]
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Posted on September 5, 2025
How to Write a SOAP Note: A practical guide for mental health providers
The SOAP note format remains one of the most widely used methods for documenting therapy sessions, offering a clear structure that supports clinical reasoning, continuity of care, and administrative compliance. Originally developed in medical settings, the format translates effectively into mental health practice and helps organize complex clinical information in a concise and meaningful way. […]
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Posted on September 3, 2025
How to Write a Basic Therapy Progress Note: A practical guide
Mental health professionals are required to maintain accurate and timely documentation of psychotherapy sessions. Progress notes serve as an official clinical record of each encounter, supporting continuity of care, supervision or consultation, and—where applicable—third-party billing or insurance compliance. In this guide I outline the key elements of a well-structured progress note, using a format that […]
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Posted on September 1, 2025
How to Ensure Your Progress Notes Meet Medical Necessity Standards
When it comes to psychotherapy progress notes, one important question is: Will my documentation hold up if an insurance company reviews it? Payers — whether Medicare, Medicaid, or commercial insurers like UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, Aetna, or Blue Cross — require that notes demonstrate medical necessity. This isn’t just bureaucratic language. It’s about showing that the services […]
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Posted on August 29, 2025
How Does Note Designer Differ from Other AI Note Programs?
There are now many AI note-writing tools out there for therapists, but Note Designer was built by clinicians with special attention to the ethics (not just the legalities) involved in using AI in mental health documentation. Note Designer has been helping clinicians complete their documentation well before AI ever entered the scene and we are […]
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Posted on August 28, 2025
The Complete Guide to Writing Progress Notes Quickly
If you’re reading this, you probably know the struggle of progress notes. They can feel time-consuming and overwhelming, especially after a full day of sessions. Sadly, this can contribute to our feeling burnt out and also creates anxiety as our unfinished notes pile up. We know that documentation is an essential part of therapy as […]
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Posted on August 1, 2025
How to Write a Treatment Plan: A guide for therapists
Creating a treatment plan is one of the most essential, and often overlooked, parts of the therapeutic process. When done well, it is far more than a bureaucratic requirement. A thoughtful treatment plan helps orient the clinician, honors the client’s goals, and documents the clinical reasoning that supports the work ahead. Whether integrated into your […]
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Posted on July 18, 2025
Working with Survivors of Sexual Abuse in the Context of the Epstein File Controversy: Conflict, Collusion, and Coverups
Trigger Warning: This post discusses sexual abuse, trauma, suicide, and systemic betrayal. Please read with care. Many therapists are themselves survivors of abuse, and this content may evoke strong emotional responses. Working with Survivors of Sexual Abuse in the Context of the Epstein File Controversy: Conflict, Collusion, and Coverups As therapists we are trained to […]
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Posted on July 9, 2025
Therapists Need a Break Too! – The Therapeutic Benefits of a Vacation
Why Mental Health Providers Need to Take Vacations Too The season of summer holidays is upon us – a time that usually brings rest, play, and long-awaited moments in the sun. For many, it’s an opportunity to step away and recharge. But for therapists, taking time off can come with mixed feelings. Alongside the desire […]
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Posted on June 27, 2025
APA’s New Ethical Guidance for Using AI in Clinical Practice: What we need to know
The American Psychological Association (APA) has released an important and timely resource: Ethical Guidance for AI in the Professional Practice of Health Service Psychology (APA, June 2025). As artificial intelligence becomes more common in clinical work, psychologists and other mental health providers are being asked to balance innovation with ethics. This new guidance helps clarify […]
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Posted on June 25, 2025
How to write a Therapy Intake Report: A practical guide for clinicians
When we sit down to document a new client’s story, we’re not just filling out forms, we’re shaping the clinical frame that will support our work together. The intake report is often the first structured reflection of this process. It documents essential information, articulates treatment goals and clinical formulations, supports continuity of care, and establishes […]
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Posted on June 18, 2025
Why “Medical Necessity” Matters in Therapy Documentation
If you’ve ever felt a little uncertain about what “medical necessity” really means in the context of therapy notes, you’re not alone. Even as seasoned clinicians, we don’t always receive formal training on how to translate the rich, nuanced work we do with clients into the kind of language that meets the expectations of insurance […]
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Posted on May 17, 2025
What We Lose When We Outsource Our Minds: The hidden cost of AI scribes in therapy documentation
What We Lose When We Outsource Our Minds: The Hidden Cost of AI Scribes in Therapy Documentation Let’s talk about AI Scribes – software systems that record your therapy session, produce a transcript and create a summary or progress note based on its transcription. AI scribes are currently being offered as part of many EHRs […]
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Posted on April 14, 2025
Note Designer’s Ethical AI
Our Commitment to Ethical AI An Official Statement from Note Designer Inc. At Note Designer Inc., we believe that the use of artificial intelligence in clinical practice demands more than just technological innovation—it demands ethical responsibility. As a company founded, owned, and operated by licensed clinicians with decades of experience in psychotherapy and healthcare, we […]
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Posted on March 6, 2025
False Comfort: The Dangerous Rise of AI “Therapists”
I recently came across an excellent article in The New York Times by Ellen Barry titled “Psychologists Warn of Chatbots Masquerading as Therapists” (Feb. 24, 2025), which highlights a troubling development in the mental health space: the rise of AI chatbots falsely claiming to be licensed therapists. This is clearly something we should all be […]
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Posted on March 1, 2025
The Silent Third Party: Ethical Dilemmas of AI-Powered Transcription-Based Documentation and its Potential Threat to the Therapeutic Process
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence has led to the emergence of documentation software that “listens in” on therapy sessions, automatically transcribes them, and then generates clinical notes, progress reports, treatment plans and more. While this may seem like an innovative solution to reduce the administrative burden on therapists, I believe it raises some profound […]
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Posted on March 23, 2024
Stress-Awareness: Insights and perspectives from Psychoneuroimmunology
Stress – A challenge for mind and body In recognition of stress awareness month, here is a short summary of a recent podcast featuring an interview with Dr. George Slavich, a prominent figure in stress research. He is a professor and the director of the laboratory for stress assessment and research at the University of […]
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Posted on December 6, 2023
Understanding Protected Health Information (PHI): What we need to know 🔎
As a fellow clinician and co-founder of Note Designer software, I take data privacy issues and concerns very seriously and have been working to find a balance between easing clinical burden while safeguarding the confidentiality of our work. Protected Health Information (PHI) is a critical concept for mental health professionals to understand, as it is […]
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Posted on October 16, 2023
Reflections on Using Artificial Intelligence in Therapy Documentation: Benefits, concerns, and solutions
Unless one has been living on a deserted island with no internet connection or cell towers (which certainly has its appeal), most of us have heard of Chat GPT – an artificial intelligence (AI) technology that can generate human-like text based on the input it receives. The GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) and […]
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Posted on June 7, 2023
Prioritizing Mental Health Supports in the LGBTQ+ Community: Toward greater inclusivity and awareness
In celebration of Pride month, I thought we should take a moment to consider the ongoing challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community in accessing and receiving appropriate mental health supports and services. As mental health professionals (whether we ourselves identify as LGBTQ+ or not), we have an important role to play in advocating for this […]
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Posted on March 25, 2023
Therapist Self-Care: A Professional Responsibility (to be enjoyed)
As mental health professionals we dedicate our lives to helping others foster their own emotional wellbeing and mental health, confront and accept their human vulnerabilities, cope with life’s inevitable pains and anxieties, mourn losses throughout life, and metabolize traumatic experiences. For such a role to be sustainable, therapists (and all mental health professionals) also need […]
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Posted on March 24, 2023
The Importance of Clinical Supervision for Psychotherapists
Though our work with clients involves the emotional intimacy and privacy of a one-on-one clinical encounter, this is not work that can be done in isolation or without external supports. After many years of providing supervision to colleagues and student therapists, and after receiving a great deal of supervision myself, I thought I would share […]
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Posted on March 23, 2023
The Importance of Therapy Documentation
Documentation is an essential part of mental health practice and is important for several reasons. Let’s take a moment to consider, or remind ourselves, why this is such an essential part of our work as mental health professionals. Legal and Ethical Requirements Mental health professionals have an ethical obligation (and in some regions a legal […]
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Posted on March 22, 2023
Comparing Types of Progress Notes: SOAP, BIRP, DAP and BASIC notes
There are several different approaches that mental health professionals can use to document their clinical work. Three of the most common types of therapy progress notes are SOAP, BIRP, and DAP. Note Designer has also created an additional note type that many clinicians find helpful referred to as the Basic Note. All four note types […]
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