GIRP note: Template, examples, and how to write one

Key takeaways

GIRP stands for Goals, Interventions, Response, and Plan, a progress note format built around what the client is working toward.

Each section has one job. Goals names the target, Interventions records what you did, Response reports what changed, and Plan sets the next step.

Payers read the note for medical necessity, so a note that ties every intervention back to a goal is much harder to deny.

Write the note within 24 hours of the session, while the detail is still accurate.

Practice management software like Pabau puts the four fields inside the client record, so the note never starts on a blank page.

GIRP stands for Goals, Interventions, Response, and Plan.

It’s a progress note format that organizes a therapy session around what the client is working toward, rather than around their symptoms.

A full caseload produces hundreds of these notes a year. A fixed shape keeps them consistent and quick to write. It also keeps them defensible when a payer asks why the session was necessary.

Below you’ll find what belongs in each of the four sections, three worked examples across different presentations, and a free template to download.

What is a GIRP note?

A GIRP note is a structured progress note used in mental health and behavioral health settings to document a therapy session. Each of the four parts captures one aspect of the encounter, and the four have to agree with each other.

The format grew out of the limits of SOAP notes, which are built around subjective and objective symptom description. GIRP starts from the client’s treatment goals instead. That suits evidence-based models where progress is measured against specific, stated objectives.

It also travels well. The same four sections work whether the session runs 30 minutes or 60. They hold up across CBT, DBT, and motivational interviewing.

What goes in each section

Each section answers a different question, and the four answers have to line up. If the intervention doesn’t point back to a goal, the note stops explaining itself. The panel below shows what each section records, with one line taken from the anxiety example further down this guide.

Goals (G)

The Goals section records the client’s treatment objectives as they’re written in the care plan. Name the specific, measurable target, then say briefly where this session left it.

• State the goal in measurable terms, for example reducing social anxiety symptoms by half over 12 weeks.
• Reference the goal number or name from the treatment plan if your practice numbers its goals.
• Record any change to the goal itself, since goals shift as therapy progresses.
• Note whether the session worked on one goal or several.

Interventions (I)

Interventions record what you did. Name the technique, modality, or approach with enough precision that another clinician could picture the session.

• Name the technique or modality, for example cognitive restructuring, behavioral exposure, or motivational interviewing.
• Describe briefly what happened, such as challenging catastrophic thinking about public speaking.
• Tie the intervention to a goal, so the note shows why you chose it.
• Document any homework or between-session work you assigned.

Response (R)

Response records how the client met the intervention and what shifted. Affect, insight, engagement, and any movement in symptoms all belong here.

• Describe engagement and affect, for example tearful early in the session and steadier by the end.
• Note breakthroughs and resistance, such as a client connecting avoidance to anxiety for the first time.
• Record symptom change observed in the room, like a 3-point drop on a 10-point anxiety scale.
• Document any safety concern or clinical development that came up.

Plan (P)

Plan records what happens next. Follow-up appointments, homework, referrals, treatment plan changes, and any other decision made in the session go here.

• Confirm the date and time of the next appointment.
• State homework precisely, for example completing the exposure hierarchy worksheet before the next session.
• Record changes to the treatment plan, the goals, or medication where relevant.
• Note referrals to other services or providers.
• Document safety planning or crisis contacts if they were needed.

Three worked examples

Detail is the hardest part to calibrate. These three notes show the level that satisfies a supervisor and a payer without turning into a transcript.

Example 1: Anxiety

• Goals: Reduce generalized anxiety to a level that doesn’t interfere with daily functioning. Current GAD-7 score is 18. Target is 7 or below within 12 weeks.
• Interventions: Introduced progressive muscle relaxation. Client practiced tensing and releasing muscle groups to tell tension from relaxation. Discussed common worry triggers and introduced a thought-stopping technique.
• Response: Engaged well and reported feeling noticeably calmer after the relaxation exercise. Recognized that much of the worry is anticipatory rather than about the present moment. Willing to practice daily.
• Plan: Practice relaxation daily and log any time anxiety rises above 5 out of 10. Bring the log to the next session. Introduce cognitive restructuring in session 4. Review in one week.

Example 2: Depression

• Goals: Increase engagement in valued activities to at least three a week. Improve mood from a PHQ-9 baseline of 22. Reduce isolation.
• Interventions: Reviewed the link between activity and mood. Used behavioral activation to identify five small activities the client enjoys or finds meaningful. Agreed in writing to complete at least two this week.
• Response: Initial resistance softened after we explored past activities that brought pleasure. Client became more animated when planning to garden and call a friend. Agreed the activities were worth trying.
• Plan: Activity log for one week. Continue psychoeducation about depression next session. Screen sleep and nutrition. Next appointment in one week. If suicidal ideation worsens, call the crisis line.

Example 3: Substance use disorder

• Goals: Abstinence from alcohol. Build relapse prevention skills. Increase attendance at support groups.
• Interventions: Reviewed the triggers for the last relapse, which were stress and isolation. Built a relapse prevention plan naming high-risk situations and coping strategies. Role-played refusing a drink and discussed an AA schedule.
• Response: Client identified stress management as the piece missing from previous attempts at abstinence. Committed to contacting the AA sponsor twice a week and attending three meetings. Reported more confidence handling peer pressure.
• Plan: Provide the AA meeting schedule and crisis contact information. Client to text a checkpoint summary twice a week. Next session in four days, because this is a high-risk period. Discuss psychiatric consultation for co-occurring anxiety if needed.

Who uses this format?

GIRP is the working format across several disciplines, though it’s most common in mental health and behavioral health.

• Licensed therapists, counselors, and psychologists in private practice and agency settings.
• Psychiatrists and nurse practitioners in mental health clinics and integrated primary care.
• Substance use disorder counselors and addiction specialists, where treatment is already organized around goals.
• Clinical social workers, especially in community mental health centers.
• Occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists, when documentation follows client goals rather than diagnosis.

What these disciplines share is a caseload measured against stated goals. If you run a therapy practice, GIRP gives every clinician on the team the same four questions to answer.

GIRP covers the session, not the intake. Pair it with a psychiatric evaluation template when a client is new or a diagnosis is being revisited.

How to write sharper notes

A weak note is usually vague rather than short. It describes an activity without naming the technique, or reports effort without reporting change.

• Tie every intervention to a goal. A technique described on its own leaves the reader guessing why you chose it.
• Replace generic language. Instead of “discussed coping strategies”, name them. Say you introduced three grounding techniques and that the client picked one to practice at home.
• Report change, not effort. “Client tried to reframe thoughts” says less than “client generated three alternative explanations and rated their anxiety 40% lower afterward”.
• Define your scales once. Spell out GAD-7 or PHQ-9 on first use, then abbreviate consistently through the chart.
• Write within 24 hours. Detail decays fast, and a late note is the one a reviewer will question.

What payers look for in your documentation

Insurance reviewers aren’t reading for prose quality. They’re checking that the session was medically necessary and that the treatment matched the diagnosis.

That’s where a loose note fails. When the diagnosis, the goals, the intervention, and the response don’t connect, a reviewer has nothing to approve.

Four things make a note easier to pay:

• Goals that match the diagnosis on the claim. An anxiety claim needs anxiety-specific goals.
• Interventions named against an evidence-based model. “Cognitive restructuring for panic disorder” is easier to justify than “counseling”.
• Response written as observable change. A PHQ-9 moving from 22 to 20 carries more weight than “client felt better”.
• A plan that moves. Reviewers expect to see treatment progress from one session to the next.

Notes written this way do more than clear an audit. They give you the record you need on appeal and in supervision. They also give the next clinician somewhere to start.

GIRP vs SOAP vs DAP: Which format fits?

Three formats dominate mental health documentation. The choice comes down to what your setting has to prove.

DAP is the lightest of the three, and it works where diagnosis isn’t the organizing question. If that describes your caseload, a DAP note removes a section you weren’t using.

SOAP is the opposite trade. It carries more diagnostic reasoning, which is what an integrated primary care team usually needs. A SOAP note template adapted for therapy keeps that reasoning without the medical framing.

Most practices land on GIRP or SOAP. GIRP wins where success is measured against client goals. SOAP wins where differential diagnosis and medical necessity carry the weight.

How Pabau keeps GIRP notes off your evening

Most therapists write the note after the client leaves, from memory and a few scribbles. It’s the work that keeps a full day going after the last session ends.

Practice management software like Pabau puts the GIRP structure inside the client record itself. The four fields are already there when you open the note, so it never starts on a blank page.

Because the note sits with the appointment and the invoice, billing staff can check the documentation before the claim goes out. Supervisors can review notes for quality in the same place, without asking anyone to export a file.

Pabau Scribe, our AI scribe, drafts the note from the session audio and lays it out in your GIRP fields. You review and edit it, so the clinical judgment stays yours. Our mental health EMR includes it in every subscription, along with the note templates.

Write the note before the client leaves

Pabau keeps the GIRP fields, the treatment plan, and the invoice in one client record. Pabau Scribe, our AI scribe, drafts the note from your session audio, so you review instead of type.

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Conclusion

The template does the structuring. It can’t make you specific, and specificity is what separates a note that gets paid from one that gets queried.

So use the same four sections every time, name your techniques, and write down what changed rather than what you attempted. Six months in, the chart reads as one continuous piece of clinical reasoning rather than a pile of separate afternoons.

Download the GIRP note template above and use it on your next session. Book a demo if you’d rather have those four fields waiting inside the client record, with the note already drafted for you.

Continue your research

Documenting a behavior-first session? BIRP note template swaps Goals for Behavior, which suits sessions led by what the clinician observed.

Working a problem-focused caseload? PIRP note template opens on the presenting problem instead of the treatment goal.

Want the formats side by side? Therapy progress notes cheat sheet puts the common note structures on one page.

Need language for longer-term work? Psychotherapy progress notes covers phrasing for open-ended therapy where goals move slowly.

Frequently asked questions