Free template
Free BIRP note template
A clean, printable BIRP note template (Behavior, Intervention, Response, Plan) with prompts and a worked example. Free, no signup. Print it, or write notes in seconds inside Soap Notes.
BIRP Note
Client: ______________________
Date: ______________________
Session #: ______________________
Clinician: ______________________
Behavior
What the client presented with and reported: observable behavior, mood, affect, and relevant statements. Something a camera could record.
Intervention
What you did in the session, and the technique or approach behind it. Lead with a verb.
Response
How the client responded to each intervention. This is the section reviewers read most closely.
Plan
Next steps, homework, and the focus for the next session.
A filled-in example
B, Behavior
Client arrived tense and tearful; reported a difficult week after a work conflict. Engaged once the session settled.
I, Intervention
Validated the distress; guided a paced-breathing exercise and used cognitive reframing on the recurring thought.
R, Response
Settled during the breathing exercise; identified two balanced alternative thoughts with prompting. Receptive.
P, Plan
Practice reframing before next meeting; continue sleep log. Follow up in one week.
Want the full breakdown? Read: How to write a BIRP note
Using the format well
The Response section is the reason BIRP exists
Behavior, Intervention and Plan all have close equivalents in SOAP. Response does not, and it is the section that makes the format worth using. It records what happened when you tried something: whether the client engaged with it, whether it worked, whether you had to change course mid-session. In SOAP that information gets scattered between Objective and Assessment, or lost entirely. Here it has a box of its own, which is also why it is the section reviewers read first. If your Response is a sentence long while your Intervention runs to a paragraph, the note is the wrong way round.
The line between Intervention and Response
Intervention is what you did. Response is what came back. "Guided a paced-breathing exercise" is Intervention. "Settled within two minutes and was able to name the trigger afterwards" is Response. The most common way BIRP notes go wrong is these two collapsing into one, usually as something like "used breathing exercises which helped". That sentence records neither the technique clearly enough to repeat, nor the response specifically enough to compare with next week.
Choosing between BIRP, SOAP and DAP
All three cover the same session; they differ in what they make you write down. SOAP separates what the client said from what you observed, which suits work where the presentation itself is the subject. DAP merges those into a single Data section and is the quickest of the three. BIRP is built around the intervention and its effect, so it fits structured behavioural work, case management, and any setting where you have to demonstrate to a funder or reviewer that a specific intervention was delivered and had an effect. If nobody outside your practice reads your notes and you are not tracking interventions individually, BIRP will feel like extra work for no return.
Writing a Plan that is worth reading next week
The Plan is where a note stops being a record and starts being useful. Name the next intervention rather than repeating the format, give the frequency, and state what would change your approach. "Continue as before" tells the next session nothing, and a Plan that reappears unchanged for six weeks is a sign nobody is reading it, including you.
More free templates: SOAP Note · Progress Note · Client Intake Form · Treatment Plan · DAP Note · Informed Consent Form · Superbill · Discharge Summary · GIRP Note · PIRP Note
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