Claude for Therapists & Counselors: Notes + Free Plugin

Therapists and counselors use Claude to turn their own post-session shorthand into SOAP, DAP or BIRP note drafts, build treatment plans with measurable objectives, and write pre-authorization and progress letters, then review and sign everything themselves. Claude doesn't diagnose, assess risk or make clinical decisions, and it should only ever see de-identified client information.

Looking for occupational therapy? This guide is for mental-health therapists, counselors, psychotherapists, clinical social workers and marriage and family therapists. Occupational therapists should read Claude for occupational therapists, and physical therapists Claude for physical therapists.

Below: one note drafted start to finish, the free Therapist plugin and its seven commands, five more documentation tasks, and straight answers on HIPAA, risk documentation and ChatGPT.

Worked example: a DAP note from five lines of shorthand

You've just finished a 53-minute individual session. In Claude, type /session-note, pick it from the menu, then paste your shorthand. The client is labeled "Client A", with no name or initials:

DAP note. Client A, 41, session 9, individual, 53 min. Dx on file: F41.1.
Reported: worry about work deadlines; 2 panic episodes this week (4 last week); sleeping about 6 hrs.
In session: reviewed thought record; practiced paced breathing; anxiety 7/10 at start, 4/10 at end.
Risk: screened for SI, denied ideation, plan and intent. GAD-7 today 12 (15 at intake).
Plan: weekly; add worry-postponement exercise; repeat GAD-7 in 4 weeks.

Claude returns a structured draft (shortened here):

PSYCHOTHERAPY SESSION NOTE (DRAFT, FOR CLINICIAN REVIEW)
Client: Client A | Session type: Individual | Duration: 53 min | CPT: [confirm for payer]

DATA
Client reported ongoing worry about work deadlines and two panic episodes in the past
week, down from four the week before, with about six hours of sleep per night. Clinician
reviewed the completed thought record and guided paced-breathing practice. Self-rated
anxiety fell from 7/10 at the start of session to 4/10 at the end. Suicidal ideation
screened: client denied ideation, plan and intent. GAD-7: 12 (intake: 15).

ASSESSMENT
Panic frequency and GAD-7 score have decreased since intake. Client engaged with
in-session skills practice. Work-related worry remains the main driver of symptoms.
[Clinician to confirm risk level and add clinical formulation.]

PLAN
Continue weekly individual CBT. Assign worry-postponement exercise as homework.
Re-administer GAD-7 in four weeks.
Clinician signature: [To be signed]

What's left for you: confirm the risk level, delete anything the draft states that you didn't observe, add your formulation, and enter the final note in your EHR yourself. If you prefer SOAP or BIRP, say so in the first line and the same details come back in that structure.

The free Therapist plugin: seven commands

The Therapist plugin is free. It adds these commands to Claude. Type the command and pick it from the menu; if you paste it, Claude treats it as plain text.

Command	What it drafts
`/session-note`	A SOAP, DAP or BIRP note from your session details
`/treatment-plan`	Goals, measurable objectives, interventions and timelines
`/pre-auth`	Pre-authorization and medical-necessity letters
`/client-letter`	Progress letters, discharge summaries and referral letters
`/hipaa-check`	A pass over a draft that flags identifiers you may have missed
`/measure-therapy-outcomes`	A summary of PHQ-9, GAD-7, PCL-5 and other scores across sessions
`/treatment-plan-versioning`	A record of what changed in a treatment plan, and why

Four skills switch on by themselves when they're relevant: Clinical Mental Health, Therapeutic Communication, Suicide Risk Assessment Protocol, and Trauma-Informed Language Guardrails.

To install it in the Claude desktop app: Customize → Plugins → Add → Add marketplace → Add from a repository, paste alexclowe/awesome-claude-cowork-plugins, click Sync, then click Add next to Therapist under Discover. Plugins need a paid Claude plan. In Claude Code: run /plugin marketplace add alexclowe/awesome-claude-cowork-plugins, then /plugin install therapist@awesome-claude-cowork-plugins. Full steps are on the plugin page.

Set up a Claude Project for your practice

The key to getting consistently useful output from Claude is using Claude Projects. A Project lets you set custom instructions that persist across every conversation, so you are not re-explaining your clinical practice every time.

Step 1: Create a Clinical Practice Project. In Claude, click "Projects" and create one called something like "My Clinical Practice."

Step 2: Set your custom instructions. In the Project settings, add instructions like:

You are my clinical documentation assistant. Here is my context:

<business-profile>
- Name: [Your Name], [Credentials — LCSW / LPC / LMFT / PsyD / etc.]
- Practice type: [Solo private practice / Group practice / Agency]
- Specialties: [Anxiety and depression / Trauma / Couples / Children and adolescents]
- Therapeutic orientation: [CBT / EMDR / Psychodynamic / Integrative / etc.]
- Preferred note format: [SOAP / DAP / BIRP]
- Insurance panels: [List primary payers]
- EHR system: [SimplePractice / TherapyNotes / Jane App / etc.]
</business-profile>

<rules>
- Never use client names, initials, dates of birth, or other identifying details. Refer to clients as "Client A", "Client B", and so on.
- All clinical language must be professional and consistent with DSM-5-TR terminology.
- Output is always a draft for clinician review. Include: "DRAFT — FOR CLINICIAN REVIEW."
- When writing treatment plans, align goals with the client's presenting concerns and stated objectives.
</rules>

Step 3: Upload reference documents. Add your preferred note templates, sample treatment plans, insurance pre-authorization forms, or your practice's documentation guidelines to the Project knowledge base. Claude will reference these when generating content.

Step 4: Start every session inside this Project. This ensures Claude always has your context loaded.

Five more therapy tasks to hand Claude

1. Session Notes (SOAP/DAP/BIRP)

Documentation after back-to-back sessions is the most time-consuming part of clinical work. Give Claude the key points and let it structure the note.

<task>Write a SOAP note for today's individual therapy session.</task>

<context>Client A, 34F, Dx: GAD (F41.1). Session 8, weekly CBT. Focus: cognitive restructuring around catastrophic thinking at work.</context>

<instructions>
- Subjective: Increased worry about performance review, sleep disrupted 3/7 nights, anxiety 7/10
- Objective: Engaged, completed thought record homework, identified 3 distortions (catastrophizing, mind-reading, fortune-telling)
- Assessment: Improved distortion identification, struggling with balanced alternatives independently
- Plan: Continue weekly CBT, introduce behavioral experiments, assign daily thought record
</instructions>

<avoid>Any identifying details; overly vague language</avoid>

2. Treatment Plans

Treatment plans require structured goals, objectives, and interventions aligned with the diagnosis. Claude can build the framework from your clinical assessment.

<task>Draft a treatment plan for a new client.</task>

<context>Client B, 28M. Dx: MDD recurrent moderate (F33.1), Social Anxiety (F40.10). Presenting: low mood, social withdrawal, missing work 2-3 days/month. Client goal: "feel like myself again and stop avoiding people." Approach: CBT + behavioral activation.</context>

<instructions>
- 3 treatment goals with measurable objectives and target dates
- Specific interventions per goal (behavioral activation, exposure hierarchy, cognitive restructuring)
- Align with client's stated objectives; include frequency and modality
- Use insurance-appropriate language
</instructions>

<avoid>Vague goals ("feel better"); interventions misaligned with stated approach</avoid>

3. Pre-Authorization Letters

Insurance pre-authorization requests require specific clinical language to justify continued care. Claude can structure these persuasively.

<task>Draft a pre-authorization letter requesting 12 additional sessions.</task>

<context>Client C, 42F. Dx: PTSD (F43.10) s/p MVA. Weekly EMDR, 16 sessions completed. Progress: flashbacks daily to 2x/week, PCL-5 from 62 to 44. Remaining: driving avoidance, hypervigilance, disrupted sleep.</context>

<instructions>
- Address to utilization review; include diagnosis, modality, and medical necessity
- Cite measurable progress; explain why additional sessions are needed
- Reference clinical guidelines supporting EMDR duration for PTSD
- Under 400 words, professional and concise
</instructions>

<avoid>Client's full name, DOB, or SSN; outcome guarantees</avoid>

4. Client Letters and Summaries

Whether it is a discharge summary, a referral letter, or a letter to a client's attorney, Claude can draft professional clinical correspondence.

<task>Draft a clinical summary letter for a client's attorney in a personal injury case.</task>

<context>Client D, 55M. Dx: Adjustment Disorder, mixed anxiety/depressed mood (F43.23). Onset: workplace injury 6 months ago. Treatment: 20 CBT sessions. Status: improved but ongoing occupational functioning difficulty.</context>

<instructions>
- Include diagnosis, onset, treatment dates, session count, presenting symptoms, progress, and prognosis
- Note causal relationship to reported workplace incident
- Professional and objective tone
</instructions>

<avoid>Legal conclusions on liability; information beyond clinical scope</avoid>

5. Psychoeducation Materials

Creating handouts and worksheets for clients takes time away from clinical work. Claude can draft materials aligned with your therapeutic approach.

<task>Create a psychoeducation handout on sleep hygiene for clients with anxiety.</task>

<context>Audience: adult therapy clients with anxiety disorders. Reading level: 8th-10th grade. Orientation: CBT.</context>

<instructions>
- Explain the anxiety-sleep connection in 2-3 sentences
- List 8-10 practical sleep hygiene recommendations
- Include a CBT-framed section on managing anxious thoughts at bedtime
- Under 400 words; warm, supportive tone
</instructions>

<avoid>Medical advice about sleep medications; overly clinical language</avoid>

Prompting tips for therapy documentation

1. Always specify the note format. "Write a SOAP note" produces a very different structure than "Write a DAP note" or "Write a BIRP note." Be explicit about the format your practice or EHR requires.

2. Include the diagnosis code. Providing the ICD-10 code alongside the diagnosis name ensures Claude uses precise clinical terminology and aligns the documentation with billing requirements.

3. State the therapeutic orientation. "Using a CBT framework" guides Claude to reference appropriate interventions like thought records and behavioral experiments rather than generic suggestions.

4. Use de-identified summaries, not real records. Describe the clinical picture in general terms. Instead of pasting actual session recordings or notes, summarize the key clinical observations you want documented.

5. Ask Claude to match your documentation style. Paste a previous note you wrote and say "Match this level of detail and clinical tone." This calibrates Claude to your preferences quickly.

6. Request measurable language. Add "Use measurable, observable language for goals and objectives" to treatment plan prompts. This produces documentation that meets insurance requirements and stands up to audits.

Can Claude write SOAP, DAP and BIRP notes for therapists?

Yes. Claude can turn the details you give it after a session into a SOAP, DAP or BIRP draft, and the plugin's session-note command asks which format you want if you don't say. It only knows what you tell it, so the result is a draft: you check every statement against what happened in session, complete the risk section yourself, and sign it.

Is Claude HIPAA compliant for therapists?

Not by default, and not on the plans most solo therapists use. As of October 2026, Anthropic's Privacy Center says it signs a business associate agreement (BAA) for its HIPAA-ready services, such as its own API, Claude in Microsoft Foundry, and Enterprise plans where the Primary Owner turns HIPAA on. Free, Pro and Max are consumer plans and aren't among them.

There's a second catch. Even on a HIPAA-ready Enterprise plan, Anthropic's help center lists plugins, skills, connectors and MCP servers as not covered by the BAA. That includes this free plugin. So whatever plan you're on, give it de-identified information only: no names, initials, exact dates, addresses, phone numbers or insurance IDs. Anthropic's own wording is that "compliance remains your organization's responsibility". Check with your compliance lead or attorney before any client information goes into an AI tool.

Sources: Business Associate Agreements for Commercial Customers and Use Claude Code and Cowork on a HIPAA-ready Enterprise plan (both checked October 2026).

Does Claude assess suicide risk in session notes?

No. It prompts for risk documentation but doesn't assess risk. The plugin's note template always includes a risk section, and its Suicide Risk Assessment Protocol skill asks for a structured review (C-SSRS or SAFE-T style) when your notes mention warning signs. The risk level and any safety plan come from your clinical judgment; Claude only formats what you've decided.

Can Claude replace a therapist?

No. Claude here is a writing assistant for the clinician, and the plugin is built for a therapist's paperwork, not for clients. If a client tells you they lean on an AI chatbot between sessions, that's a clinical conversation for you to have. Anyone in the US who is in crisis can call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Is Claude or ChatGPT better for therapy notes?

Either one can draft a note from your shorthand. The differences that matter more are which tool your plan and compliance setup allow, and whether you want reusable commands with fixed note formats, which is what the Therapist plugin adds on the Claude side.

We compare the two side by side in ChatGPT vs Claude for therapists.

What do licensing boards say about using AI for therapy documentation?

It depends on your state and your license, and the rules are changing quickly. Before you rely on AI-drafted notes, check your state licensing board, your professional association's ethics code, and your own informed-consent paperwork. Your clinical judgment and your regulator's rules govern what goes in the chart, whatever a tool drafts.