How Therapists Can Use AI Responsibly
Therapists and counsellors spend a surprising share of their week on writing: session notes, treatment plans, worksheets, referral letters, invoices, emails. AI can take a real bite out of that admin load — drafting, structuring, and polishing — so more of your energy goes to clients.
But therapy is one of the fields where AI needs the firmest boundaries. Before the prompts, the non-negotiable rules:
Ethics and privacy first. These prompts are for admin and documentation support only. Never type identifiable client information — names, dates of birth, addresses, or anything that could identify a client — into an AI tool. Work with de-identified, anonymised material only. Prefer GDPR-compliant tools hosted in the EU, check your professional body’s guidance on AI use, and remember: AI drafts, the clinician decides. Nothing here replaces your clinical judgement.
With that settled, here are 30 copy-paste prompts, grouped by task. Replace the bracketed parts with your own (anonymised) details.
Session Notes (Prompts 1–7)
- “Turn these rough bullet points into a structured SOAP note (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan). Keep it concise, professional, and free of jargon: [paste anonymised bullets].”
- “Summarise this session into a DAP note (Data, Assessment, Plan) of no more than 150 words, using neutral clinical language: [paste anonymised notes].”
- “Rewrite these session notes to be more objective: remove interpretive language and keep only observable facts and client-reported statements: [paste notes].”
- “Create a brief progress-note template for [CBT / person-centred / psychodynamic] sessions with sections for presenting themes, interventions used, client response, and next steps.”
- “From these anonymised session notes, extract the key themes and list three measurable goals we could set for the next four sessions: [paste notes].”
- “Draft a concise handover summary for a colleague covering: presenting issues, current interventions, progress so far, and risks to be aware of. Base it only on: [paste anonymised summary].”
- “Check this discharge summary for completeness: does it cover reason for referral, interventions, outcomes, and follow-up recommendations? Flag anything missing: [paste draft].”
Treatment Planning (Prompts 8–12)
- “Help me draft a treatment plan outline for a client presenting with [generalised anxiety — no identifying details]. Include: goals, measurable objectives, proposed interventions, and review timeline.”
- “Suggest five evidence-based interventions for [low mood / motivation difficulties] suitable for short-term therapy (8–12 sessions), with a one-line rationale for each.”
- “Turn this broad therapy goal into three SMART objectives with observable indicators: [paste goal].”
- “Draft a relapse-prevention plan template with sections for early warning signs, coping strategies, support contacts, and crisis steps.”
- “Create a simple outcome-measure tracker table (columns: date, measure, score, notes) for monitoring [PHQ-9 / GAD-7 / CORE-10] scores across sessions.”
Worksheets and Client Handouts (Prompts 13–20)
- “Write a one-page client handout explaining what CBT is, in plain language at a 12-year-old reading level, with a short example.”
- “Create a thought-record worksheet with columns: situation, automatic thought, evidence for, evidence against, balanced thought. Add brief instructions at the top.”
- “Design a weekly activity-scheduling worksheet for behavioural activation, with space for planned activity, predicted pleasure (0–10), and actual pleasure (0–10).”
- “Write a grounding-exercise handout (5-4-3-2-1 technique) that a client can keep on their phone, in calm reassuring language.”
- “Create a sleep-hygiene checklist handout: ten practical tips, each one sentence, no medical claims.”
- “Draft a breathing-exercise script (box breathing) I can read aloud in session, about 200 words, slow and gentle in tone.”
- “Write a psychoeducation handout on the window of tolerance, with a simple diagram description and three everyday examples.”
- “Create a values-clarification worksheet: ten life domains with two reflection questions each, suitable for ACT-informed work.”
Client Communication (Prompts 21–25)
- “Draft a warm, professional welcome email for new clients covering: what to expect in the first session, cancellation policy, and confidentiality limits. Tone: reassuring, not clinical.”
- “Write a polite appointment-reminder message template (SMS length) that I can customise per client.”
- “Draft a sensitive email to a client who has missed two sessions, expressing concern without judgement and inviting them to rebook.”
- “Write a referral letter template to a GP: presenting issues, relevant history (anonymised placeholders), interventions tried, and reason for referral.”
- “Draft a brief, professional response to a client asking for advice between sessions by message, with appropriate boundaries.”
Admin, Billing and Practice Growth (Prompts 26–30)
- “Create a monthly admin checklist for a solo therapy practice: invoicing, notes audit, supervision log, CPD tracking, and data-backup reminders.”
- “Draft a clear, GDPR-compliant privacy notice for a therapy practice website covering: data collected, lawful basis, retention, and client rights. (Have it reviewed by a professional.)”
- “Write three invoice-reminder email templates (friendly nudge, firm reminder, final notice) for private-practice billing.”
- “Suggest ten blog-post topics for a therapist’s website that answer common client questions and respect professional advertising rules.”
- “Draft a supervision-prep template: cases to discuss, ethical questions, emotional responses to notice, and learning goals for the month.”
Choosing the Right Tool for the Job
Not every AI tool is appropriate for clinical-adjacent work. A quick decision framework:
- For drafting and brainstorming: a general chatbot is fine, provided everything you paste is anonymised. Never paste anything identifiable — get into the habit of writing “[Client A, 30s, anxiety]” style placeholders before you even open the tool.
- For storage: keep final notes in your proper practice-management system, not in a chatbot’s history. Turn off chat history/training where the tool allows it.
- For EU compliance: prefer tools that offer EU data residency and publish a Data Processing Agreement.
Getting Better Results From Your Prompts
A few habits separate useful AI output from generic filler. First, always give context before the task: one sentence about the setting (“I run a small private practice in Manchester”) steers tone and terminology far better than a bare instruction. Second, iterate rather than accepting the first draft — “shorter”, “warmer”, “more formal” are all valid follow-ups, and the second version is usually the keeper. Third, save prompts that work: keep a personal library document of your ten most-used prompts with the exact wording, so you are not reinventing them each month.
A Final Word on Boundaries
AI is excellent at turning your rough notes into clean documents, your ideas into handouts, and your to-do list into finished admin. It is not a co-therapist. Keep clinical decisions — diagnoses, risk assessments, treatment direction — firmly in human hands, and document your use of AI the way you would document any other practice aid. Used with clear boundaries, these 30 prompts can quietly give you back several hours a week. That is time better spent where it matters: with your clients.