AI Scribe for Psychologists
DAP, BIRP, GIRP, or SOAP — pick your format and PatientNotes writes the progress note from the session. Treatment plan goals carry across weeks. Testing reports drafted from your dictated narrative. No medication content.
Documentation for Every Psychology Session
From a 90-minute biopsychosocial intake to a 50-minute weekly check-in, with the right CPT code attached and a goal progress line in every entry.
Intake / Biopsychosocial
60-90 minute first session covering presenting problem, developmental history, family of origin, education, work, relationships, substance use, prior treatment, and DSM-5-TR formulation. Bills as 90791.
Individual Therapy (45-60 min)
Weekly progress sessions in DAP, BIRP, GIRP, or SOAP. Captures CBT/DBT/EMDR/ACT interventions, client response, and movement on treatment plan goals. Bills 90834 or 90837.
Couples / Family Therapy
Multi-participant sessions with separate observation, intervention, and goal sections per identified client. Bills 90847 (with patient present).
Psychological Testing
Battery administration and report drafting: cognitive (WAIS-IV, WISC-V), academic (WJ-IV), personality (MMPI-3, PAI), and ADHD (Conners-4). Bills 96130/96131 + 96136/96137.
Treatment Plan Review
Quarterly or six-monthly review with measurable goals, objectives, interventions, target dates, and progress ratings required by most commercial and Medicaid payors.
Group Therapy
Per-member progress documentation generated from a single recorded session. Each member gets their own note with shared themes plus individualized response and plan. Bills 90853.
Built for Psychotherapy — Not Adapted From a Medical Scribe
Psychologists do not prescribe and their notes are structurally different from medical SOAP. PatientNotes reflects that out of the box.
DAP, BIRP, GIRP, and SOAP
Pick the format per client. The model writes the appropriate sections for each: DAP separates Data from Assessment; BIRP foregrounds the therapist intervention; GIRP starts from session goal; SOAP fits supervisors trained medically.
No medication content
PatientNotes recognises you are a psychologist and suppresses medication recommendations or dose adjustments. Medications appear only as documented current regimen, never as a plan item.
Treatment plan goal tracking
Goals you set in the intake auto-populate weekly progress notes with a one-line progress rating, so the chart shows movement (or stagnation) across weeks without manual carry-forward.
Neuropsych testing reports
Drafts the structured testing report: referral question, instruments administered, behavioral observations, results table, interpretation, diagnostic impressions, and recommendations.
Risk language detection
Flags suicidal, homicidal, and abuse-disclosure language during the session so you do not accidentally end before completing the safety plan and Tarasoff/duty-to-warn documentation.
Psychotherapy note segregation
Optional separate psychotherapy notes per 45 CFR 164.524(a)(1)(i), kept out of the main encounter chart and excluded from standard insurance and ROI requests.
A typical week for a private-practice psychologist
Monday morning is intake day. A new client arrives for a 90-minute biopsychosocial and PatientNotes records the session via a phone on the desk (or via Zoom for telehealth). The model knows the structure: developmental, family of origin, educational, occupational, relational, substance, prior treatment, current functioning. By the end of the session the intake document is 90% finished, with the diagnostic impression auto-populated based on what the client described.
Tuesday through Thursday are full of 50-minute progress sessions. The therapist picks DAP for most clients, BIRP for two who are managed-care heavy, and GIRP for an EAP client whose payer requires goal-first formatting. The model handles all three. Treatment plan goals from each client’s most recent quarterly review auto-carry into the new note, with a one-line progress rating that the therapist edits in five seconds.
Friday is admin and assessment day. She runs a WAIS-IV and an MMPI-3 on a referral for ADHD evaluation, dictates her observations during scoring, and PatientNotes drafts the testing report sections she always writes by hand: instruments administered, behavioral observations, results table headers, and the recommendations boilerplate she has refined over a decade. The interpretation she still writes herself — that’s the work she went to graduate school for.
Last updated April 2026 by the PatientNotes Clinical Team.
Sample AI-Generated DAP Progress Note
A real weekly individual session in DAP format. CBT intervention, treatment plan goal progress, scale tracking, and CPT 90834 time documented at the bottom.
INDIVIDUAL THERAPY PROGRESS NOTE — DAP FORMAT Client: J.M. (initials) DOB: 04/02/1992 Session: #14 Date: 04/28/2026 Time: 10:00–10:50 Duration: 50 min Modality: In-person CPT: 90834 Diagnoses: F33.1, F41.1 DATA: Client arrived on time, casually dressed, alert and oriented. Reported a "better but bumpy" week. Returned to morning runs three days; described one crying spell on Tuesday after a difficult call with father. Sleep latency improved to ~30 minutes (was 60-90 last session). PHQ-9 self-administered at start of session: 8 (down from 11 last week, 16 at intake). GAD-7: 6 (down from 9). Denies SI/HI. No self-harm urges. Continued attendance at weekly running club Saturdays — explicitly named as a values-based behavioral activation goal. Client described session focus area: difficulty asserting needs at work without "spiraling into guilt." Discussed Monday meeting where she was volunteered for an extra project and agreed despite already being at capacity. Identified the underlying cognition: "If I say no they'll think I'm not committed." Affect tearful when discussing father's call, otherwise full and reactive. ASSESSMENT: Client demonstrates continued progress in mood and anxiety symptoms, consistent with measurable scale improvement (PHQ-9 16→8, GAD-7 14→6 since intake). Behavioral activation goals are being met. Core schema work — overdeveloped responsibility / underdeveloped self-advocacy — remains the limiting growth edge and is the right next focus. Therapeutic alliance strong; client uses session time efficiently and brings completed homework. No acute risk: no SI, no HI, no self-harm, supportive marriage, intact protective factors. Continues to meet criteria for MDD recurrent moderate (F33.1) and GAD (F41.1), both partially remitted. Treatment plan goal progress (per 02/14/26 plan): - Goal 1: Reduce PHQ-9 to <5 by 06/30/26 — on track (currently 8) - Goal 2: Initiate one self-care behavior weekly — met x6 weeks - Goal 3: Identify and challenge 3 maladaptive cognitions per week — partially met (averaging 1-2) - Goal 4: Resume one social activity outside spouse — met (running club) INTERVENTION (used this session): - Cognitive restructuring on the "they'll think I'm not committed" thought; identified cognitive distortion (mind reading + fortune telling). - Generated three balanced alternative thoughts and rated belief in each pre/post (original 90% → 40%; balanced 30% → 70%). - Behavioral rehearsal of an assertive script for Tuesday's stand-up: "I'm at capacity this sprint, can we revisit next cycle?" - Discussed values clarification: client identifies "being a thoughtful contributor" as a value, distinct from "being available 24/7." PLAN: 1. Continue weekly individual therapy. Next session 05/05/26. 2. Homework: deliver assertive script in Tuesday stand-up; record three-column thought log when guilt activates afterward. 3. Continue running club attendance and morning runs. 4. Re-administer PHQ-9 and GAD-7 next session. 5. Treatment plan formal review at session #18 (6/9/26). 6. Coordinate with prescribing psychiatrist (Dr. Shah) at 12-week medication checkpoint per existing release. 7. Crisis plan reviewed and unchanged: 988 hotline, partner contact, text line. Means restriction (firearm out of home) verified. Time in face-to-face psychotherapy: 50 minutes. CPT 90834 supported. Clinician: Dr. K. Patel, PhD, Licensed Psychologist Signed electronically: 04/28/2026 11:02
Templates and guides referenced in this note:
Common ICD-10 Codes in Psychology
The eight F-codes most psychologists use, plus the CPT codes you bill against them.
F32.1Major depressive disorder, single episode, moderateF33.1Major depressive disorder, recurrent, moderateF41.1Generalized anxiety disorderF43.10Post-traumatic stress disorder, unspecifiedF43.21Adjustment disorder with depressed moodF43.23Adjustment disorder, mixed anxiety and depressed moodF90.0ADHD, predominantly inattentive typeF60.3Borderline personality disorderCPT codes commonly billed: 90791 (intake), 90832/90834/90837 (individual psychotherapy by length), 90847 (couples/family with patient), 90853 (group), 96130/96131 (psych testing eval), 96136/96137 (test administration units).
How psychologists use PatientNotes
Three composites — solo private practice, mid-sized CBT group, and hospital-employed neuropsych.
Dr. Karen Patel, PhD
Solo private practice, telehealth-only, Brooklyn NY — 28 sessions/week
Was using Mentalyc and a SimplePractice template; consolidated to PatientNotes after a colleague showed how the same recording could produce a DAP note for the chart and a separate progress summary for the supervising psychiatrist. She now finishes documentation by Friday at 4 PM and has stopped working on Sunday evenings to clear her note backlog. Saved roughly $40/month moving from Mentalyc unlimited.
Dr. Diego Marin, PsyD
Eight-clinician CBT-focused group practice, Denver CO
Adopted PatientNotes after a payer audit flagged three of his clinicians for missing measurable goal language. The platform now writes the goal-progress lines into every weekly note automatically, pulling from the intake treatment plan. Audit response rate moved from 70% to 100% on subsequent reviews. The practice manager especially likes the per-clinician pricing without per-session caps.
Dr. Heather Tan, PhD
Hospital-employed pediatric neuropsychologist, regional academic system
Uses PatientNotes for the long-form testing report drafting after batteries (WISC-V, WJ-IV, BASC-3, Conners-4). She still hand-edits interpretation, but the behavioral observations, instruments-administered table, and recommendations sections come out 80% complete from her dictated narrative during scoring. Cut average report turnaround from 14 days to 6.
Coming from Microsoft Dragon Medical One?
Many clinical psychologists still dictate testing reports through Dragon Medical One because the genre is long and structured. Dragon does this fast if you know exactly what you want to say. Ambient scribing is different: it writes therapy progress notes from the actual session conversation, which most therapists find more useful than dictation because they cannot dictate during a 50-minute therapy hour.
Cost comparison
Dragon Medical One
$99-200/month per user (Dragon Medical One Direct, varies by reseller)
Dictation. You speak the note in your own voice; you cannot dictate during a live therapy hour.
PatientNotes
$50/month per user on the annual plan, $79/month-to-month
Ambient. The session conversation becomes the note; you review and sign.
Three-step migration
- 1
Keep Dragon for testing report dictation through the end of the month while you onboard PatientNotes for therapy notes.
- 2
Import your DAP/BIRP intake and weekly templates into PatientNotes during the seven-day trial. Map Dragon macros to ambient prompts.
- 3
After two weeks, decide: most psychologists fully replace Dragon (PatientNotes drafts testing reports too) or keep Dragon only for a small subset of long-form dictation. Either path is supported.
Full migration guide: PatientNotes vs Dragon Medical One
PatientNotes vs Heidi for psychology
Heidi is the most-asked-about ambient scribe in mental health and works for therapy as well as for medical visits. Mentalyc is therapist-specific and cheaper at the entry tier but capped on volume. Here is how PatientNotes lines up against Heidi for psychology workflows.
| Feature | PatientNotes | Heidi |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing (annual) | $50/user/mo | ~$99/user/mo |
| DAP / BIRP / GIRP / SOAP | All four, switchable per session | Mostly SOAP-style with format toggle |
| Treatment plan goal tracking | Auto-carries from intake into weekly notes | Manual |
| Neuropsych testing report drafting | Yes | Limited |
| Couples / family / group support | Yes (per-member notes) | Yes |
| No-medication mode | Yes (suppresses Rx content) | Manual prompt |
| Psychotherapy note segregation | Yes (45 CFR 164.524) | Limited |
| BAA included | Yes | Yes |
Full breakdown: PatientNotes vs Heidi · PatientNotes vs Freed
Frequently Asked Questions
Eight things psychologists ask before signing up.
Does PatientNotes work for psychologists?
Yes. PatientNotes supports DAP (Data, Assessment, Plan), BIRP (Behavior, Intervention, Response, Plan), GIRP, SOAP, and free-form psychotherapy progress notes. It also handles intake biopsychosocials, treatment plans with measurable goals, and neuropsychological testing report drafting. The model does not prescribe medication or generate medication content because psychologists do not prescribe.
How much does an AI scribe cost for therapy practices?
PatientNotes is $50/clinician/month on the annual plan with unlimited sessions. Mentalyc starts around $39 for a small bundle but jumps to $89 for unlimited; Heidi is roughly $99/month. For a full-time therapist seeing 25 clients a week, ten saved minutes per session adds up to about four hours of recovered weekly time.
Is Mentalyc better than PatientNotes for therapy notes?
Mentalyc is therapist-only and produces reasonable DAP/BIRP output. PatientNotes is multi-specialty so it understands medical comorbidities (which matter for biopsychosocial intakes), supports neuropsych testing reports, and is roughly half the price at $50 vs $89 for unlimited. For a pure private-practice CBT/DBT therapist Mentalyc is competent; for psychologists doing assessment, supervision, or multidisciplinary work, PatientNotes covers more.
Can therapy progress notes be auto-generated in DAP or BIRP format?
Yes. You pick the format per-client or per-session. DAP separates objective Data from subjective Assessment and forward Plan; BIRP captures the client Behavior observed, the therapist Intervention, the client Response, and the Plan for next session. PatientNotes handles either, plus GIRP and SOAP, and you can switch formats mid-treatment without losing prior content.
Does it integrate with SimplePractice or TherapyNotes?
Yes. SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, TheraNest, and Headway are the most common psychology EHRs and PatientNotes works with all four via copy-paste, browser extension, and API where the platform exposes one. Most clinicians paste a finished note in a single click; SimplePractice users can use our Chrome extension to push directly into the encounter chart.
Will it help me bill psychotherapy CPT codes correctly?
PatientNotes captures session length so it can suggest 90832 (30 min), 90834 (45 min), or 90837 (60 min) psychotherapy codes. For psychological and neuropsych testing it tracks 96130/96131 (psych testing eval) and 96136/96137 (test administration), with units calculated from administration time. 90791 covers diagnostic intakes.
How do I switch from Dragon Medical One or my current scribe?
Three steps. First export your existing templates as text. Second import your most-used note formats (typically DAP intake, weekly progress, and treatment plan review) during the seven-day trial. Third run both tools in parallel for a week. Most therapists complete the migration in three to five business days because therapy templates are simpler than medical SOAP notes.
Is it HIPAA compliant for psychotherapy notes?
Yes. PatientNotes signs a Business Associate Agreement with every practice, encrypts data at rest with AES-256 and in transit with TLS 1.3, and supports the separate-storage requirement for psychotherapy notes under 45 CFR 164.524(a)(1)(i). Audio is purged within 24 hours by default and you can shorten that to immediate deletion if your liability insurer requires it.
Be present with your client. Let the note write itself.
Psychologists using PatientNotes finish their week’s notes by Friday at 4 PM instead of Sunday at 10. Try it on five sessions, free for seven days.
No credit card required. $50/clinician/month after trial (annual).