If you are here, you are probably like me and struggle to do progress notes. I have spent the last couple of years redefining my relationship with progress notes for the better. Progress notes are an essential part of therapeutic practice, and your clients deserve a therapist who does them well.

Here is a collection of my greatest progress notes completion tips.

Documentation takes an escalating priority in the ever-developing therapy world. I hear many therapists say they spend just as much time writing documentation as they spend with clients. And yet, most also tell me they received little to no training in documentation during graduate school, especially in proportion to how important it is to their work. This is a shame, as documentation serves a key place in crystalizing therapeutic care. We learn how to listen well but not how to document our listening, and we miss this essential skill.

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes an integral part of industries worldwide, it’s increasingly finding its place in the mental health field. From administrative support to deeper clinical insights, AI has the potential to revolutionize therapy tools. At Therapy Shelf, we see AI not just as a tool for innovation, but as a way to meaningfully assist therapists in their daily tasks—helping them reclaim time and focus on what matters most: client care. This approach is at the heart of Chronicler, our AI-assisted note-typing service. In this article, we’ll walk you through our philosophy of involving AI and how it’s designed to support, rather than replace, the vital work of therapists.

As you might expect, we’re serious about documentation at Therapy Shelf. Our goal is to make writing accurate notes for therapists easy and quick. We also want to keep this experience as cost friendly as possible. Because of that, we need a brief discussion about CPT codes.

Every therapist knows that feeling of joy when a client expands their awareness or makes a sudden, emotional change. It is an exhilarating feeling but requires the utmost skill and trust in not only the psychotherapy relationship but also therapeutic interventions.