A CBT session note records a cognitive behavioral therapy session in the order it runs: mood check, bridge, agenda, homework review, the session’s work, summary, new homework, and feedback. Copy the free template, see a depression session with behavioral activation and a social anxiety session with an exposure step, and check what goes in each part.
Blank CBT session note template
FreeCBT SESSION NOTE Client: [Name or ID] Date of session: [Date] Session: [Number in this course of CBT, such as 6 of 16; start and end time] Format: [In person, video, or phone; client's location and privacy if remote] Others present: [Name and role, or none] Clinician: [Name, credentials] Diagnosis and protocol: [Working diagnosis, and the CBT protocol or phase of treatment] Treatment plan goal: [Goal and objective number, with the measure and target] MOOD CHECK AND MEASURES Measures today: [PHQ-9, GAD-7, or a disorder-specific scale: today's score, the last score, and the baseline] Mood: [In the client's words, with a 0 to 10 rating if you use one] Presentation: [Brief mental status: appearance, affect, thought process] Risk check: [Suicidal thoughts, self-harm, harm to others, substance use: what you asked and the answers] BRIDGE FROM LAST SESSION Client's takeaway: [The main point of the last session, in the client's words] Since last session: [Events, changes in symptoms, and anything the client wants to raise] AGENDA Items agreed: [Two or three items in order, and who raised each one] HOMEWORK REVIEW Task set: [The homework agreed at the last session] Completion: [Done, partly done, or not done, and how often] What the client learned: [Ratings, the prediction tested and its result, or what got in the way] SESSION WORK Target: [The situation, thought, or behavior worked on, and the plan goal it serves] Technique: [Thought record, cognitive restructuring, behavioral activation, exposure, behavioral experiment, problem-solving, or skills practice] Thought work: [Automatic thought and belief rating; feelings rated 0 to 100; evidence for and against; balanced thought; ratings after] Behavioral work: [Activities scheduled with mastery and pleasure ratings, or the exposure step with the prediction and SUDS before, at the peak, and after] Formulation update: [What today's work showed about beliefs, rules, avoidance, or safety behaviors] SUMMARY Client's summary: [The key point of the session, in the client's words] Progress on the goal: [Improving, no change, or worse, with the evidence] NEW HOMEWORK Task: [What, when, how often, and how the client will record it] Purpose: [The prediction it tests or the skill it builds] Barriers planned for: [What might get in the way, and the plan for it] FEEDBACK Client feedback: [What helped, what didn't, and anything that bothered the client] Changes for next time: [Adjustments to pace, focus, or the plan] PLAN Next session focus: [The item or step to take up next, and why] Coordination: [Contact with a prescriber, physician, or others, with consent; or none] Next session: [Date, time, and format] Signed: [Clinician name, credentials, date and time]
Use it for
Each one follows the template. Use them to judge how much detail every part needs.
Private practice, individual CBT by video, session 6 of 16, 50 minutes
Session 6 of 16 of individual CBT for depression, by video, 50 minutes. Client at home, alone in his room; location confirmed. 31-year-old man, a lab technician who moved to the city for work 8 months ago. Diagnosis: major depressive disorder, single episode, moderate. Protocol: behavioral activation first, with cognitive work added from session 5. No medication; at intake he chose therapy first, and agreed to discuss medication with his family physician if his PHQ-9 is still 10 or more at session 8. Goal 1: “Feel like myself again,” with a PHQ-9 below 10 by session 12. Objective 1b: at least 3 planned activities with other people a week, for 4 weeks in a row.
PHQ-9 12, from 14 at session 4 and 17 at intake. Item 9 scored 0, as at every check. Mood “a 4 out of 10, better than when I started.” Casually dressed, camera on, good eye contact. Affect constricted, brighter when he talked about climbing. Thought process logical. Risk: denies thoughts of death, suicide, or self-harm, and thoughts of harming others. Two beers on Friday, his usual.
Took away from session 5: “Doing comes before feeling like it.” Since then: a hard Thursday evening after seeing photos in the team chat, and a better weekend. Agenda: the activity schedule, which he asked to take first; the Thursday thought, which the clinician suggested; and planning his weekends, which he says are his lowest days.
Activity schedule for 7 days, with mastery and pleasure rated 0 to 10. Completed 10 of 14 planned activities, from 6 of 12 the week before: dinner cooked on 4 nights, a run on 3 mornings, 2 calls with his sister, and a board game café with a neighbor. Cancelled climbing with a coworker on Wednesday because he “didn’t feel like it.” He spotted the pattern himself: mood averaged 5 out of 10 on the 2 days he spent time with someone, and 3 on the days he went home alone. Activities with other people this week: 2, from 0 at intake. Objective 1b progressing.
Thought record for Thursday at 8 p.m.: coworkers posted photos from a trivia night in the team chat, and he hadn’t known about it. Feelings: sad 80 out of 100, embarrassed 60. Automatic thought: “Nobody likes me.” Belief 90%. Thinking traps he named: overgeneralizing and mind reading. Evidence for: he wasn’t there, and he eats lunch alone most days. Evidence against, found with guided questions: the invite went to a channel he had muted, which he checked during the session; the organizer messaged on Friday to ask where he was; a coworker invited him climbing last week, and he cancelled; his sister and an old friend call every week. Balanced thought: “I’ve said no more often than I’ve been asked. A few people here have reached out, and I can meet them halfway.” Belief in the balanced thought 70%; “nobody likes me” down to 40%. Sad 45, embarrassed 20. Then scheduled next week together: 3 activities with other people, each on a set day and time, with the hardest one on Saturday morning, when his mood is best. Formulation update: pulling back after a social knock leaves him alone, which then seems to prove the belief.
His summary: “When I feel left out, I pull back, and that makes it true.” Goal 1 improving: PHQ-9 12, from 17. Homework: keep the activity schedule with ratings; ask his coworker to reschedule climbing by Monday; unmute the team channel; the Saturday farmers’ market with his neighbor, as planned. A thought record whenever his mood drops 2 points or more. Prediction to test: “She’ll make an excuse,” 70%; he will rate it again after he asks. Barrier planned for: if he wakes up not wanting to go, he goes for 20 minutes and then decides.
Feedback: “The evidence column was annoying, but it changed my mind more than I expected.” Wants more time on weekends, so the next session starts with weekend planning. Next session focus: the climbing prediction, then a second thought record on feeling rejected. No coordination needed. Plan review at session 8, with the PHQ-9 check agreed at intake. Next session in 1 week by video.
The facts of the session, the protocol, and the treatment plan goal the course of CBT is working toward.
Avoid: Leaving out the session number. In a time-limited course, it tells the next reader where the client is in the protocol, and whether progress is on pace.
The scores you took at the start, read against the baseline, with a brief look at presentation and risk.
Avoid: A score with no comparison. A PHQ-9 of 12 says more beside the 17 at intake and the target of under 10.
What the client carried over from last time, and what you agreed to work on today. This is where a CBT note shows the session had a plan.
Avoid: An agenda you set alone. Note what the client put on it; it shows the work is shared, and what mattered to them.
Whether the task was done, and what the client learned from it. In CBT, the work between sessions is much of the treatment.
Avoid: “Homework reviewed.” Say what was done and what the client noticed. If it wasn’t done, record why, without blame.
The main work of the session, specific enough that another CBT clinician could pick up at the next session.
Avoid: “Cognitive restructuring done.” Write the thought, the evidence that shifted it, and the ratings before and after.
How the session closed: the client’s own summary, progress on the goal, and the task until next time.
Avoid: Homework the client didn’t agree to. Set it together, small enough to do, and write how they will record it.
What the client said about the session, what you will change, and what comes next.
Avoid: Skipping feedback when time runs short. One line in the client’s words often explains a dropped homework task or a missed session later.
If a note sets homework, the next note opens with it: done or not, how often, and what the client learned. Homework that is set and never reviewed soon stops getting done.
“Cognitive restructuring” or “exposure” on its own could describe any session. Write the thought or the step, the key evidence or result, and the ratings before and after.
A SUDS of 35 means little alone. Give the scale, and the ratings before, at the peak, and after. Put each measure beside the baseline and the goal.
Structured sessions move fast, and the risk question is easy to drop. Ask at the mood check, especially when a depression score rises or PHQ-9 item 9 is above 0, and record the answer.
Record the lines that matter: the thought, the ratings, and what changed. Keep completed worksheets as your organization’s policy says, and use worksheets you have the right to copy.
Vero Scribe writes the CBT session note in your template from the session, with the client’s consent, or from your dictation afterward. You review and edit every section, then copy it into your record or export it to Word or PDF. Vero works in 60+ languages.
Start with the session number, the protocol, and the plan goal. Record the mood check with today’s score beside the baseline, and the risk question. Note the bridge and the agenda, then the homework: done or not, and what the client learned. For the session’s work, write the thought or step you targeted, the technique, and the ratings before and after. End with the client’s summary, the new homework, their feedback, and the next session.
SOAP and DAP sort a session by kind of information. A CBT session note follows the CBT session itself: mood check, bridge, agenda, homework review, the work, summary, new homework, and feedback. That keeps homework and in-session ratings from getting lost. If your organization requires SOAP or DAP, the same content fits: measures and ratings go in Objective or Data, and the new homework in Plan.
For an individual DBT session, replace the homework review with the diary card: urges, self-harm, substance use, and skills used each day. Work through targets in DBT’s order: life-threatening behaviors first, then behaviors that interfere with therapy, then quality-of-life problems. Record the chain analysis of the main target behavior, from vulnerability and prompting event to consequences, the skills you coached by module, the client’s commitments, and any coaching calls since the last session. For a skills group, note the module and skill taught, then each member’s homework and participation in their own note.
The one your treatment plan uses, given at the start of the session: the PHQ-9 for depression, the GAD-7 for generalized anxiety, or a disorder-specific scale such as the Panic Disorder Severity Scale, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, the Y-BOCS, or the PCL-5. Add the ratings you take in session: belief in a thought from 0 to 100%, feelings from 0 to 100, and SUDS during exposure, before, at the peak, and after.
Yes. Copy it, or download it as a Word or text file. No account needed.
One psychotherapy session: focus, interventions, client response, risk, and progress toward goals.
An EMDR session by phase: target, negative and positive cognitions, SUD and VOC, bilateral sets, closure, and reevaluation.
Data, Assessment, Plan: the three-part session note, with the line between facts and judgment made clear.
Goal, Intervention, Response, Plan: a progress note that opens with the treatment plan goal.
Behavior, Intervention, Response, Plan: a progress note that opens with what the client reported and what you saw.
CBT and progress notes drafted from your sessions, for you to review.
Session examples in three common note formats, side by side.
The nine questions, a scoring calculator, and what each band means.
Questions, scoring, and cutoffs for tracking anxiety from session to session.
Vero writes your notes and letters in the templates you choose, so you review instead of type.
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