A complete guide to SIRP notes
In a regular therapist workday that’s packed with client after client, who has time for clinical documentation?
The current reality for many mental health professionals is waiting until the end of the day or even the weekend to complete clinical notes.
Depending on caseload and private practice vs. agency considerations, this differs, but whether we have time for it or not, each session must be documented for legal, insurance, and clinical purposes to protect both client and therapist.
In this article, we’ll explore what SIRP notes are, when to use them, and how to write them. We’ll also share a SIRP note example from one of our valued clinical team members. Finally, we’ll provide a template that you can download for free.
If you’re not clear which notes to use and when, feel free to start with our article comparing progress notes.
What is a SIRP note?
SIRP notes are a progress note type used by mental health professionals such as psychotherapists, counselors, social workers, psychiatrists, and psychologists.
The SIRP note acronym stands for Situation, Intervention, Response, and Plan. Each of these sections is an essential component of the mental health SIRP note a practitioner has to write when using this particular note format.
The SIRP note components:
- Situation (S): Observations and descriptions of a client’s subjective experience.
- Interventions (I): Actions taken by the clinician in response to the behavior.
- Response (R): Patient's reaction to the intervention.
- Plan (P): Future treatment plan, follow-up actions, and next steps.
The SIRP note – a real-world scenario
Jeff Kashou, therapist and our Senior Clinical Product Lead, has picked the following scenario that’s well-suited to SIRP notes from his years in therapy practice.
The therapist will document the situation first, capturing the client’s current difficulties and desired goals or changes.
They will then choose the most relevant interventions, in this case, open-ended questions and reflective listening as well as a decision-making exercise to guide the client towards autonomously deciding what they’d like to do about the situation, based on their values.
In the response section, the therapist will then capture the client’s thoughts and feelings that arose as a result of the interventions, such as any mixed feelings about reducing drinking in a social setting and how engaged they were.
To conclude, in the plan section, the therapist documents any agreed-upon strategies for reducing alcohol consumption and what future sessions will focus on – in this case, exploring the client’s values and how they relate to their behavior.
Patient SIRP note example – written by a therapist
Why use the SIRP template? 3 benefits
Using the SIRP note template makes it easy to capture the client’s state and situation.
By looking at things as a whole, the therapist may freely note down any aspect of the client’s experience they find relevant, without separating subjective and objective information into separate sections such as in the SOAP note format for instance.
This makes the SIRP note a little faster, allowing the clinician the ability to capture both outward expressions of a client’s state, while also diving into a client’s inner experience (a more Freudian or psychoanalytic aspect).
- Clarity and distinction in client presentation: SIRP notes effectively facilitate a balanced perspective, enabling clinicians to distinguish the client from their presenting issues. This approach helps counter self-judgment and blame, aligning with modalities like narrative therapy. It provides therapists with flexibility in capturing both external observations and self-reported insights.
- Streamlined tracking of interventions and responses: The SIRP note's emphasis on the client's response to interventions provides a streamlined way to capture trends and evaluate treatment changes. This allows for dynamic adjustments to interventions, reducing the tendency towards solely analytical exploration.
- Efficient documentation and treatment plan alignment: The "Situation," "Intervention," "Response," and “Plan” sections offer an organized framework for documenting client problems, interventions, and responses. This structure simplifies note-writing when referencing treatment plans, ensuring modality and goal alignment. This detailed documentation supports a clear clinical rationale, essential for treatment planning and reimbursement.
SIRP note template pdf
Use our free SIRP note template for your client sessions – it’s free to download.
How to write a SIRP note – a step-by-step guide
Here’s our head therapist’s step-by-step guide using the SIRP acronym.💡 It’s a neat way to remember what you’re trying to capture in each section.
Your SIRP notes cheat sheet – the sections step by step
Here’s how to remember and understand SIRP sections in 4 easy steps.
- S: What is the situation the client is facing? What are the physical and emotional aspects?
- I: How did I, the therapist, intervene? What did I do to help the client with their situation?
- R: What was the response to that? How well did it work or not?
- P: What’s the plan going forward in the next session(s)?
Common use cases for the SIRP note template
Use case no.1: Objective and comprehensive treatment documentation
The SIRP format provides a structured method for documenting therapy sessions, ensuring that all essential information is captured objectively and comprehensively. This is particularly crucial for maintaining accurate records, facilitating collaboration with other healthcare professionals, and adhering to legal and ethical standards. The emphasis on behavioral terminology and observable responses ensures that notes are clear, concise, and devoid of subjective interpretations.
Use case no.2: Modality-specific intervention tracking and targeted response documentation
SIRP notes excel at enabling clinicians to be precise about the interventions used and their connection to specific therapeutic modalities. The "Intervention" section allows for detailed specification of techniques (e.g., "cognitive restructuring," "exposure exercises," "mindfulness meditation"). Crucially, the "Response" section then supports the targeted documentation of the client's reaction to each individual intervention. This facilitates a clear, granular understanding of what strategies are effective for the client and allows for data-driven adjustments.
Use case no.3: Coordinated care and case transitions
The organized structure of SIRP notes promotes clear communication and facilitates seamless case transitions and coordinated care. By documenting the client's situation, interventions, and responses in a consistent format, clinicians ensure continuity of care and enable efficient information sharing with other professionals, supervisors, and external providers.
Use case no.4: Situationally contextualized documentation for clinical practice and reimbursement
The SIRP template is adaptable to a wide range of clinical scenarios, including intake sessions, crisis interventions, and ongoing therapy. Its structured approach ensures that essential information is captured efficiently, regardless of the complexity or urgency of the situation. Critically, the SIRP format maintains the note within the context of the client's presenting situation, which is vital for good clinical practice and demonstrating medical necessity for insurance reimbursement. This allows the clinician to efficiently and accurately document sessions, whether a short crisis intervention or a long-term therapeutic relationship.
Additional insights
Although clinical documentation is necessary, it doesn’t necessarily need to be time-consuming. Using a trustworthy automated platform like Upheal can speed up the process greatly.
A drafted progress note is created for you, allowing you to save time by simply reviewing and editing, rather than writing an entire session note from scratch. **Take a look at our AI-powered SIRP note example.**
The SIRP note is flexible and can be used in psychotherapy whether for individual, or group settings such as family therapy. In terms of therapeutic modalities, the SIRP note template can be used across the range, including CBT and psychodynamic therapy.
When compared to other note formats like BIRP or GIRP notes, SIRP notes offer a more holistic view of both the client's situation and the therapist's interventions.
Concluding thoughts
Now that you know all about the SIRP note, you can use it when and if you come across some of the cases and situations described above.
As we explored, the SIRP note is the perfect choice for providing a good balance of both internal and external landscapes. It allows the clinician to be treatment and intervention-focused, while also capturing the client’s internal state and assessment.
Of course, each clinician is free to use whatever progress note style they prefer. However, it’s our experience that clinicians are incredibly busy out of the gate, and some aren’t taught documentation at university! Hopefully, you’ll now have an idea of what the SIRP note is all about, and when appropriate add it to your admin routine and therapeutic care.
Happy writing!
