Guides
Guides for therapy practices
Notes, consent, retention and how to choose software. Written as information for practices, not as legal advice.
Information, not legal advice. This page is a practical overview for practices. It is not a substitute for advice on your own contracts, insurance or registration.
These guides are practical notes for therapists, counsellors and group practices. They explain how a practice might think about records, consent, note formats and software. They are not legal advice, not a regulator’s rule, and not a substitute for your insurer or your professional body.
Each guide names its sources where a rule is quoted. If a source does not give a number, the guide does not invent one. Examples of notes are fictional.
Start here
GDPR and therapy notes for United Kingdom practices: what a recording and a client file imply, and what we do not decide for you.
POPIA and therapy notes for South African practices. That page stands on its own.
How long to keep therapy records quotes BACP, UKCP and the HPCSA Booklet 9 text we read. It does not pick a single retention period for every profession.
Recording therapy sessions and consent is the checklist before anyone turns a microphone on.
EU hosting and UK GDPR answers whether a UK practice can keep client records with a processor in the EU, and what still has to be in place.
Writing the note
SOAP notes for counselling and DAP notes are two structures, with fictional examples. Use one consistently. The software does not make a format mandatory.
Process notes vs session notes explains the difference, and why both can be personal data under UK GDPR.
Running the practice
How to choose practice management software is a checklist that names other vendors, including cases where they are the better fit.
Running a therapy waiting list is about a next contact date, an honest wait, and the limits of software when someone is in crisis.
Rehabs and treatment centres
Treatment centre admissions checklist runs from the first enquiry to the first 72 hours.
Rehab discharge summary sets out what to include, with a template and a fictional example.
Product pages, if you want to see the system those topics sit in, start at features, security and the demos.
Related reading
About these guides
Are these guides legal advice?
No. They are a practical overview. Your contracts, insurance and registration need advice of their own.
Do the guides invent retention periods?
No. Where a source states a period, the guide quotes that source. Where it does not, the guide does not fill the gap.
Where do the facts come from?
Each guide names the source it quotes, such as a regulator or professional body. Where a source does not give a rule, the guide says so rather than filling the gap.
See the product the guides describe.
Six short demos, recorded with fictional clients. Captions on.