Most session notes therapists write are useless six months later. Not because the therapist was lazy — they’re often the most conscientious people I know — but because they were written for the wrong reader.
The note you write at 7:42 PM on a Thursday is for one of three audiences. Almost no one is taught the difference.
This post is a short framework I’ve assembled from talking to RCI- registered psychologists, counselling supervisors, and counsellors in private practice. Plus our own experience watching real therapists use the notes feature in MindMaster (and arguing about whether the design choices were right). It’s not a clinical protocol. It’s a practical pattern that holds up.
The three readers
Reader 1: present-you. The therapist five minutes after the session ends. Writing the note while it’s fresh, capturing impressions and decisions before they fade. The note here is partially for offloading — getting the session out of your head before the next one starts.
Reader 2: future-you. The therapist three weeks or six months later, opening the same client’s file before a session. Trying to remember: what did we agree to last time? What’s the longer arc? What did I notice but not address?
Reader 3: someone other than you. A supervisor, an auditor, a court- ordered review, the next clinician in line if you handed over. This is the rarest reader and the one most therapists over-prepare for.
Most notes I’ve seen are written for Reader 3 even though Reader 2 will use them 50 times as often. That’s the mistake.
A four-section note structure
Here’s the structure I’d recommend for a solo or small practice, written explicitly for Reader 2.
1. Presenting (1-2 sentences): what they came in with today
2. Session (3-5 sentences): what we worked on, what shifted, what didn't
3. Plan (1-2 lines): what we'll do next time, or homework given
4. Watch (1 line, optional): a thing I noticed that I might address later
Four sections, no required length per section. The whole note runs five to ten lines in a normal session. Anyone can write this in five minutes after a 50-minute session.
A real-flavoured example
Let me show you what each section looks like for a hypothetical second session with an adult client presenting with work-related anxiety. Names and specifics are illustrative — not a real client.
Presenting: Came in describing a panic-like episode at the office on Wednesday. Said she felt “embarrassed” rather than scared.
Session: Walked through Wednesday’s event in detail. Noticed she described the physical symptoms accurately but defaulted to social-shame framing instead of fear framing. Tried to gently surface the fear underneath; she resisted, then named “I think I’m going to lose this job” near the end. Useful shift.
Plan: Continue with the cognitive map of the episode next session. Possibly introduce a brief grounding technique to use at the desk.
Watch: Mentioned in passing that her father had a similar pattern. May come back to that.
That’s it. Six lines. Six months from now, that note tells future-me everything I need to walk back in.
What to leave out
This is the bigger problem than what to put in.
Verbatim quotes. Tempting in the moment, almost always useless later. Unless a specific phrase is itself the data (“I said I’d kill him” is data), paraphrase.
Your interpretations stated as fact. “Client is avoidant” is an interpretation. “Client deflects when topic shifts to her sister” is an observation. Notes age poorly when interpretations are written as truths. Observations age well.
Identifying details about third parties. The client’s husband’s name, the workplace, the school name. You don’t need these in the note to remember the session. Use initials or roles. This is partly an ethics question and partly a practical one: notes outlive sessions, and the people in them never consented to being in your records.
Diagnostic labels you haven’t formally assigned. Calling someone “BPD-ish” in a note is sloppy and risky. If you’re going to use a diagnostic label, formalise it elsewhere; in the session note, describe the pattern.
The six-month test
A trick that works. After writing the note, glance at the client name and try to predict what the note will look like in six months. Will future- you be able to:
- Recall what was uniquely going on with this client?
- See what was decided?
- Spot what to watch for?
If any of those three would be unclear from your note, fix the note. Not by adding more words — by replacing vague ones with concrete ones.
“Client struggled emotionally today” fails the test. “Client cried twice, both times when describing her brother” passes.
How long should a note actually be?
A real-world distribution from looking at thousands of notes inside MindMaster:
- 70% of notes are between 50 and 200 words.
- 20% are between 200 and 400 words.
- 10% are longer (usually first sessions, crises, or transitions).
If your average note is over 400 words, you’re either over-documenting or doing the equivalent of journaling. Both are real risks. Journaling-style notes are a particular trap — they help you feel like you’ve processed the session, but they’re hard to skim later. Future-you wants brevity, not catharsis.
What about audio recordings and transcripts?
The temptation in 2026 is to record and transcribe. We don’t recommend it for routine notes, for three reasons.
One, consent. Even if the client says yes once, the comfort of being recorded shifts the session. Some shifts are useful (more careful clinician language, perhaps), some aren’t (clients adjust what they say).
Two, storage. Audio files are heavy. They have to be stored securely. They have to be deleted on a schedule. Most practices that start recording without a plan end up with an unsecured pile after a year.
Three, the value isn’t there. The note you write from memory after a session captures what matters — the things you noticed. A transcript captures everything, including the noise. Future-you wants the noticed-things.
Specific cases — supervision review, assessment sessions, research — are different. We’re talking about the default everyday note.
Where notes belong
A practical close. Wherever you take notes, the file should be:
- Searchable by client name.
- Timestamped.
- Accessible to you only (no shared drives, no inbox).
- Backed up.
- Exportable.
Pen and paper passes one of those criteria. Apple Notes passes two. A spreadsheet passes three. Practice-management software is built to pass all five.
We make MindMaster, where the note structure above is the default and the search across a client’s history is a single keystroke. Free 30-day trial at mindmaster.modoware.com.
If you take one thing from this post: write for Reader 2, the future-you who will open the file before the next session. Reader 3 (the auditor) will be satisfied by anything written well for Reader 2. Reader 1 (the present-you offloading) is the one who shouldn’t drive the form.