General Therapy Session Note Template
Published: 11/6/2025
About this template:
This general therapy session note template is designed for mental health professionals to document routine therapy sessions effectively. It provides a comprehensive structure to capture client presentation, session dynamics, therapeutic interventions, and progress tracking. Therapists can use this template to maintain consistent documentation across sessions, ensuring continuity of care and supporting evidence-based treatment planning. The template includes sections for clinical observations, treatment plan updates, and scheduling, making it an essential tool for maintaining thorough and professional clinical records.
Preview template
Client Presentation:
The client, a 28-year-old graduate student, arrived on time and appeared well-groomed. She presented with a brighter affect compared to the previous session, reporting feeling more hopeful about managing her academic stress. She spoke at a normal pace and maintained appropriate eye contact throughout the session.
Session Content:
The session focused on exploring the client's anxiety triggers related to her upcoming thesis defense. We used cognitive restructuring techniques to challenge catastrophic thinking patterns, particularly her belief that "one mistake will ruin everything." The client identified several cognitive distortions including all-or-nothing thinking and fortune telling. We practiced reframing these thoughts using evidence from her past academic successes. She demonstrated good insight and actively engaged in the exercises, generating more balanced alternative thoughts. The client also discussed improved sleep patterns since implementing the sleep hygiene strategies from our last session.
Progress and Clinical Observations:
The client is making steady progress toward her treatment goals. Her anxiety symptoms have decreased from a self-reported 8/10 to 6/10 over the past two weeks. She has successfully practiced the breathing exercises three times this week when feeling overwhelmed. However, she continues to struggle with perfectionist tendencies that increase her stress levels. The client demonstrated increased self-awareness regarding her thought patterns and showed motivation to continue working on cognitive restructuring skills.
Treatment Plan Updates:
No modifications to the current treatment plan at this time. We will continue focusing on CBT interventions for anxiety management and perfectionism. The client is responding well to cognitive restructuring and relaxation techniques. We will begin incorporating exposure therapy in future sessions to address her avoidance of thesis-related tasks.
Homework and Action Items:
The client agreed to complete a thought record daily, identifying at least one anxious thought and practicing cognitive restructuring. She will also continue her sleep hygiene routine and practice progressive muscle relaxation for 10 minutes before bed. Additionally, she will prepare a list of thesis-related tasks ranked by difficulty level to prepare for exposure work in our next session.
Next Session:
Scheduled for next Wednesday at 2:00 PM. We will review her thought records, assess progress with homework assignments, and begin developing an exposure hierarchy for thesis-related tasks. The client will bring her list of ranked tasks to facilitate this work.
