If you write progress notes, you have almost certainly run into three acronyms: SOAP, DAP, and BIRP. They are the most common formats for documenting a session, and the honest truth is that none of them is "best" in the abstract. They are different shapes for the same job, and the right one depends on the kind of work you do and how you think.
This guide breaks down all three in plain language, shows the same session written in each format so you can see the difference, and gives you a simple way to choose.
What a progress note is actually for
Before the formats, it helps to remember why the note exists at all. A good progress note does three things: it records what happened in the session, it shows your clinical reasoning, and it makes the next session easier to pick up. It is also a legal and professional record, so it needs to be clear enough that another practitioner, or you in six months, can understand it.
Every format below is just a structured way to hit those goals without staring at a blank page.
SOAP notes
SOAP is the oldest and most widely used format, borrowed from general healthcare. The four letters stand for:
- Subjective — what the client reports in their own words. How they say they are feeling, what they bring up, what they are worried about.
- Objective — what you observed. Appearance, mood, behavior, and any measurable data. Facts, not interpretation.
- Assessment — your clinical read. How you interpret the subjective and objective information together, progress toward goals, any change in the picture.
- Plan — what happens next. Interventions, homework, referrals, and when you will see them again.
Short example:
S: Client reports feeling "less on edge" this week but still struggling to sleep before big meetings.
O: Calm affect, engaged throughout. Completed the breathing exercise from last session.
A: Reduced daytime anxiety; anticipatory anxiety around work performance persists. Progressing toward stated goal.
P: Introduced cognitive reframing for pre-meeting thoughts. Continue sleep log. Next session in one week.
SOAP works well when you want a clear separation between what the client said, what you saw, and what you concluded. That separation is one reason it holds up so well for insurance and audits.
DAP notes
DAP is a leaner cousin of SOAP. It collapses the "subjective" and "objective" into a single Data section:
- Data — everything that happened in the session. Both what the client reported and what you observed, together.
- Assessment — your interpretation of that data and progress toward goals.
- Plan — next steps, interventions, and follow-up.
Short example:
D: Client reports less daytime anxiety but ongoing sleep trouble before meetings. Calm affect, engaged, completed breathing exercise.
A: Daytime anxiety improving; anticipatory work anxiety remains. On track with goals.
P: Introduced cognitive reframing. Continue sleep log. Follow up in one week.
DAP works well when separating subjective from objective feels artificial for your work, which is common in talk therapy and coaching. It is faster to write and still captures the same clinical reasoning.
BIRP notes
BIRP puts the focus on the intervention and the client's response to it, which makes it popular in behavioral health, case management, and goal-driven work:
- Behavior — what the client presented with, reported, and did. Similar to SOAP's subjective and objective combined.
- Intervention — what you, the practitioner, did in the session. The specific technique or approach you used.
- Response — how the client responded to that intervention.
- Plan — next steps and follow-up.
Short example:
B: Client reports less daytime anxiety, ongoing pre-meeting sleep trouble. Calm, engaged.
I: Guided client through cognitive reframing of anticipatory thoughts; reviewed sleep log.
R: Client identified two recurring thoughts and reframed them with minimal prompting. Receptive.
P: Practice reframing before next meeting. Continue sleep log. Follow up in one week.
BIRP works well when the story of the session is really about what you did and how the client responded, for example structured behavioral work, skills training, or anything where you need to clearly show the intervention for funding or oversight.
Seeing them side by side
The same session, three formats:
- Client's report — SOAP: Subjective. DAP: Data. BIRP: Behavior.
- Your observations — SOAP: Objective. DAP: Data. BIRP: Behavior.
- What you did — SOAP: in Plan. DAP: in Plan. BIRP: Intervention.
- Client's response — SOAP: in Assessment. DAP: Assessment. BIRP: Response.
- Your interpretation — SOAP: Assessment. DAP: Assessment. BIRP: in Response/Plan.
- Next steps — SOAP: Plan. DAP: Plan. BIRP: Plan.
Notice they cover the same ground. The difference is only what gets its own labeled box, and that changes what the format nudges you to focus on.
How to choose
You do not need to overthink this. A few honest guidelines:
- Want the cleanest separation for insurance and audits? Use SOAP. The split between subjective and objective is the most defensible.
- Find that split artificial and want to write faster? Use DAP. Most common in talk therapy and coaching.
- Need to clearly show your intervention and the client's response for behavioral work or funding? Use BIRP.
- Not sure? Start with SOAP. It is the most widely recognized, and every other format is easy to move to once you are comfortable documenting.
One more piece of advice: whichever you pick, be consistent. A practice where every note follows the same structure is far easier to review, hand off, and defend than one where the format changes session to session. Pick a format, build a template around it, and let the template carry the structure so you are just filling in the content.
Make the format automatic
The fastest documentation is the kind where you are not rebuilding the structure every time. In Soap Notes, you can work from a reusable SOAP note template or a more general progress note template, so the sections are already there and you just write the session. Notes attach to the client record alongside scheduling and billing, so the next session picks up where the last one left off. It is built for therapists in private practice and other session-based practitioners who want documentation to take minutes, not evenings.
Whatever format you land on, the goal is the same: a clear record, written quickly, that makes your next session easier.
