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Therapy Progress Note Writer, SOAP or DAP
Paste your session shorthand and get a progress note in SOAP, DAP or BIRP format, tied to treatment goals, with any risk gaps flagged.
River's therapy progress note writer turns your session shorthand into a note you can sign. Write a few lines in your own shorthand after the session. It comes back in SOAP, DAP or BIRP format, with the client's report, your interventions, the client's response, progress toward each treatment goal and the plan for next time. Session length and modality are carried exactly as you wrote them. Anything a reviewer would expect that you did not mention is listed for you to confirm.
Generic note generators tend to fill gaps with confident clinical language: engaged well, no safety concerns, good progress. In a therapy note those phrases matter, because the note supports medical necessity and is what a colleague reads in a crisis. This writer only states what you described. If you mention passive thoughts of death without an assessment and plan, it does not smooth that over. It flags the gap at the top for you to complete before signing.
This is for therapists, counselors, social workers and psychologists writing notes for insurance-billed sessions or for their own records. It writes the progress note that belongs in the client's record, not private psychotherapy notes. To audit notes across a whole practice, use the documentation gap review. When the plan itself needs writing or updating, the treatment plan with measurable goals builds it, and each progress note then reports against those goals by number. Handouts for clients come from the patient education handout writer.
Progress notes, psychotherapy notes and session time
HIPAA treats two kinds of therapy notes differently. Psychotherapy notes are a therapist's notes analyzing the conversation, kept separate from the rest of the record. By definition they exclude session start and stop times, treatment modalities and frequency, test results, and any summary of diagnosis, symptoms, treatment plan, functional status, prognosis or progress. Those excluded items belong in the progress note, which is part of the record and is what payers review.
The difference has consequences. Psychotherapy notes need the client's specific authorization for most disclosures and are excluded from the client's general right of access, while progress notes are not. So the progress note should carry what the record needs, such as session time, interventions, response, risk assessment and goal progress, and nothing that belongs only in private analysis. Writing it that way protects the client's privacy and keeps the record complete for anyone who relies on it.
Time shapes the note too. Psychotherapy codes are time-based, and Medicare contractors list 16 to 37 minutes for 90832, 38 to 52 for 90834, and 53 or more for 90837, with the time spent shown in the record. Take an illustrative 50 minute video session for panic disorder. A note recording 50 minutes face to face, the exposure exercise practiced, the client's response, and the drop in weekly panic attacks supports both the time billed and the medical necessity behind the session.
How it works
Paste your session notes
A few lines after the session: what the client reported, what you did, and the plan.
Pick the format
SOAP, DAP or BIRP, or paste your own headings and the note follows them in order.
Check the flags
Missing time, goal progress or risk documentation is listed first, before you sign anything.
Keep going in chat
Ask for a shorter version, an update to the treatment plan, or the next session's note.
What you get
- A progress note in SOAP, DAP or BIRP format, built from a few lines of session shorthand
- Interventions named as you described them, with the client's response to each one
- Progress reported against each treatment goal by number, using the measures you gave
- Session length, start and stop times and modality carried exactly as you wrote them
- Risk statements written only from your assessment, with any gaps flagged at the top
- Nothing added that you did not say, and nothing that belongs in private psychotherapy notes
Common questions
What if the client mentions suicidal thoughts?
The note records exactly what you documented: what the client said, your risk assessment, and the safety plan or steps taken. If your shorthand mentions suicidal or homicidal thoughts without an assessment or plan, River flags it at the top as something to complete before signing. It never writes denies or no safety concerns on your behalf.
Does it choose the billing code?
No. It records the session time you gave, so you or your biller can check it against the time ranges for each psychotherapy code. If the time is missing, the note asks for it rather than guessing, because a time-based code needs the time in the record to support it. Add-on and crisis codes have their own rules.
Is this a psychotherapy note?
No. It writes the progress note that belongs in the client's record: time, modality, interventions, response, risk and goal progress. Psychotherapy notes, your private analysis of what was said, are kept separately under HIPAA with extra protections. If your shorthand includes that kind of material, River leaves it out of the progress note and tells you.
Can it use my practice's note template?
Yes. Choose my own headings and paste them, and the note fills them in order. Headings with nothing behind them are kept and marked for you to complete, so a required section such as risk or goal progress is never quietly dropped from the note before you sign it.
Can I include identifying details?
Follow your practice's policy. River is HIPAA-eligible, and identifiable client information belongs in an account covered by a Business Associate Agreement. Without one, use initials or a client number and leave out names, dates of birth and other identifiers. The note reads the same, and you add identifiers in your own record system.
Does it work for group or family sessions?
Yes. Say who attended and the note records the session type, the participants by role, and the interventions and responses you describe. For a group session, each client's note focuses on that client's participation and progress, without details about other members beyond what you choose to include.
Sources
Built by
Chandler Supple
Co-founder & CEO, River
Chandler has spent the last six years working in AI, building tools for millions of users and Fortune 100 companies. In 2025, he co-founded River to build a new kind of operating system for AI agents.
Therapy Progress Note Writer, SOAP or DAP
Describe what you need, add any files you have, and your workspace opens with the work already underway.