Guide

DAP notes for therapy sessions

Data, assessment and plan. A shorter sibling of SOAP, with a fictional example and no claim that one format fits every modality.

Updated 4 October 2026.

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.

DAP is a session-note format used in counselling and therapy: Data, Assessment, Plan. It is shorter than SOAP. Teams choose it when they want one narrative of what happened, a clear clinical impression, and a next step, without splitting the client’s words from the counsellor’s observations into two headings.

BACP and UKCP do not require DAP. They require records that are accurate and adequate for the work. DAP is a tool for that, not a rule. This page uses a fictional example. The client is not real.

The three headings

Data is the account of the session: what the client reported, what you observed, and any fact that would matter to the next person who opens the file. Include attendance, the focus the client brought, relevant risk information, and any measure you actually completed. Keep opinion out of this section. “Said they argued with their sister and left the house” is data. “Is dramatic” is not.

Assessment is your formulation today. Link it to the agreed work. Note change, stuckness, or risk. Mark uncertainty as uncertainty. A good assessment can be three sentences.

Plan is the next contact, any task the client agreed, any action you will take (a letter, a referral, a supervision item), and when you will review. If the work is ending, the plan says how the ending was discussed and what the client knows about the record.

A worked example

Jordan, 41, is a fictional client seen for bereavement. This is session 3. Jordan agreed to a written note and did not agree to recording.

Data. Jordan attended. They said the week had included their brother’s birthday, which they had forgotten until a cousin sent a message. They described a short period of panic in a shop and then “carrying on”. Sleep was broken on two nights. They denied wanting to die, and said they had not used the alcohol they had been worried about. Affect was sad and contained. They made eye contact and could talk about the brother by name, which they could not do in session 1.

Assessment. Grief remains the focus. Jordan is beginning to speak about the brother directly, which fits the aim agreed at the start. Panic in public happened once and passed without them leaving the plan for the day. No current risk of harm to self identified. The work is still early. I am not treating this as depression requiring a different service on today’s account, and I will revisit that if sleep and daily function worsen.

Plan. Next session in one week. Jordan will keep a brief note of moments they could remember their brother without shutting down, if that feels possible, and will not force it. I will take the question of when to involve their GP to supervision if low mood deepens. Note signed the same day. No recording was made.

When to use DAP instead of SOAP

Use DAP when the client’s story and your observations are one piece of narrative and splitting them feels artificial. Use SOAP when a team wants the client’s report and the observable facts under separate headings, for example in a service where notes are read by a duty clinician. Neither format is more ethical. Inconsistent formats are the problem, because the next reader cannot find the risk line.

A side-by-side of the same fictional hour written as SOAP is in SOAP notes for counselling. Pick one for the practice and teach it to anyone who writes in the file, including trainees.

What to leave out

Leave out speculation about people who are not your client. Leave out insults. Leave out a diagnosis you are not qualified or contracted to make. If you are a counsellor and the client may need a medical review, the plan can say you discussed seeing their GP. That is not the same as you assigning a psychiatric label.

If Assist drafts a DAP note from a consented recording, treat the draft as a suggestion. Read the Data section against your memory of the hour. Sign only after you have edited. The product page AI session notes describes that sequence. The note then lives on the clinical record, next to the booking, which is the point of clinical notes software rather than a separate diary and a separate document folder.

DAP notes are also a fair format for a group practice handover: the covering clinician can read Data and Plan in under a minute. That only works if the note was signed before you left the building. An unsigned draft in a notebook does not help the person who is on call.

Risk, ending, and a missed session

Risk belongs in Data as what was said or seen, and in Assessment as what you make of it. “Denied thoughts of suicide” is data. “I am not currently concerned about imminent harm, and I will ask again next week because sleep has worsened” is an assessment plus a plan. Do not hide a risk sentence in the middle of a story about a holiday.

A missed session is still a note. Data: did not attend, no message, or sent a message at 08:10. Assessment: one missed session, or a pattern. Plan: the text or call you actually made, and when you will close the file if you hear nothing. The waiting-list guide, running a therapy waiting list fairly, uses the same habit for people you have not yet taken on. Different stage, same discipline: write what you did.

An ending note in DAP can be short. Data: agreed ending today after 16 sessions, client said the original aim (returning to work) has happened. Assessment: goals met on the client’s account; no outstanding risk identified today. Plan: client knows notes are kept as described in the contract; they know how to ask for a copy; no further session booked. Sign it. Future you, and future them, will need that page.

Using DAP with a drafted note

A consented recording can be turned into a draft. Ask for Data, Assessment and Plan specifically, then delete anything the transcript overstated. If the client cried and the draft says they were “in crisis”, and that is not your assessment, change it before you sign. The draft is a clerical aid. The signature is the clinical act. That is the standard described on AI session notes.

Store the signed note on the same client as the invoice. Copying the DAP text into a billing email leaks the clinical record to whoever sees the books. A PA can invoice “session, 50 minutes” without the Data paragraph. Group practice software is doing its job when that separation is the default, not a favour a busy owner remembers.

What “adequate” means here

Adequate does not mean long. A DAP note that a colleague can act on is adequate. A page of adjectives is not. If you are tired and can only write six lines, write the risk line, the focus, and the next appointment. You can add a sentence after supervision if the contract allows additions that are marked as later. Silent edits to yesterday’s assessment are how records lose credibility. The UK GDPR guide is the place to read about correction and access, if a client asks to see this note.