Can you use ChatGPT for therapy notes? Yes for templates, training, and brainstorming, and no for real client data. The concern isn’t abstract, clients notice. On r/therapy, one client posted:
My therapist is sending me session summaries that are written by chat gpt and it makes me uncomfortable but Im unsure if that’s me being unreasonable. – u/Frequent-Meeting1804 (r/therapy)
This is because the ChatGPT most therapists use is not HIPAA compliant. The use of AI in therapy is an emerging field, and one application that has been discussed among therapists is the use of ChatGPT for therapy notes. While the idea of using AI to assist with the tedious task of writing therapy notes is appealing, there are also concerns about the ethics and legality of using a non-HIPAA-compliant program in therapy. This article explores the potential benefits and limitations of using ChatGPT for psychotherapy documentation and addresses the main questions and concerns that therapists have about this technology.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a language-generation AI model that can generate human-like text based on a given prompt. It has been used in various applications such as content writing, chatbots, and even poetry. However, its potential use in therapy is a relatively new concept. [1]
What is GPT?
OpenAI’s Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) is the language model family behind ChatGPT. It uses deep learning techniques to construct human-like dialogues, answer questions, write stories, and perform a variety of natural language processing tasks.
GPT has an excellent capacity to recognize context and respond appropriately, resulting in extremely precise and polished output. The model uses massive processing capacity to analyze and interpret huge datasets, creating text that properly reflects the patterns and connections inherent within.
How does ChatGPT work?
ChatGPT works by using transformer models to understand the context and meaning of language, as well as relationships between words. This allows it to generate text that is more natural and human-like. For example, if given a prompt about a therapy session, it will understand the context of the conversation and generate a note that is somewhat similar to what a therapist would write. This illustrates how emerging AI tools for therapists can support the documentation process.
However, as it is currently designed, it should not be used as a therapy AI scribe due to ethical and practical considerations. To effectively serve this role, a combination of a fine-tuned GPT model that has been specifically trained in therapeutic language, conversation, and other machine learning algorithms is necessary to ensure accuracy and confidentiality in automated therapy note-taking.
What are Transformer Models?
Transformer-based language models, such as GPT-4o, use statistical patterns learned from large amounts of text data to predict the most likely next word in a given context.
Simply put, ChatGPT launched on GPT-3.5 and has since progressed through GPT-4, GPT-4o, and the GPT-5 family, with GPT-5.5 as the current flagship as of April 2026, and lighter variants like GPT-5.4 mini and GPT-5.4 nano available for faster, lower-cost workloads. Each generation has become more capable. What has not changed with any of those updates is the clinical compliance picture: consumer ChatGPT still carries no BAA, no clinical note templates, and no therapeutic domain training.
When it comes to psychotherapy note-taking, a general-purpose model is only as accurate as the broad text data it was trained on. This is why specialized AI therapy documentation software is required for clinical settings.
ChatGPT is not intended to serve as a therapy AI scribe, and poses clear ethical and practical risks if used that way. To safely support clinicians, an AI note-taking tool for mental health professionals would need to be carefully trained in therapeutic language and built with extra safeguards to ensure accuracy and protect client confidentiality.
That’s exactly what Mentalyc was built for. Unlike general-purpose AI, Mentalyc is specifically designed for therapy documentation. Its AI Note Taker generates progress notes from session audio using clinical templates, therapeutic language models, and compliance-focused safeguards, so the notes are both accurate and audit-ready. With HIPAA-grade security and a workflow tailored to therapists, Mentalyc helps clinicians complete notes quickly and confidently, while ensuring client privacy is always protected.
The Magic of ChatGPT: How AI Is Changing Therapy Note-Taking
And now guess what? That description of ChatGPT above, what it is, how it works, what transformer models are, was written by ChatGPT itself. Let me tell you how.
A friend of mine recently sent me a Reddit thread regarding ChatGPT for therapy notes. I thought it is a great topic to write about considering it’s a very similar type of technology to what we use at Mentalyc. At Mentalyc, we speak with clinics every day about how AI can help therapists take notes, and we discuss the benefits of such technology and its potential risks.
We regularly receive emails from our users offering valuable feedback and suggestions for enhancing the AI-generated therapy notes they use. I also use GPT models to facilitate my work. Like in this article, I got ChatGPT to help me out. I will show you how, but let’s first go over the basics.
The Origin Story of ChatGPT
OpenAI released ChatGPT as a prototype on November 30, 2022, and it quickly gained popularity: 57 million monthly active users in its first month of availability and 100 million users two months after its release. At Mentalyc, we have tested various versions of the GPT models from OpenAI for our AI-based progress notes for therapists. These models come in different sizes, some of which are commercially sold by OpenAI and some are open source and can be used without additional training or can be fine-tuned for specific industries.
ChatGPT’s chat-like interface makes it accessible and easy to interact with, even for non-technical users. The mainstream adoption of ChatGPT became apparent in December when my cousin mentioned using it to generate sales job applications, and discussions among therapists on Reddit further demonstrate its popularity.
ChatGPT in Action: Therapist Concerns About Using AI for Clinical Documentation
To quickly understand what therapists’ beliefs are when it comes to ChatGPT, I copied and pasted a Reddit conversation among therapists on ChatGPT’s interface and asked it to tell me what are the main questions and concerns of therapists from that thread. As simple as that! Let’s see what we got:
ChatGPT summarizing the r/therapists Reddit discussion: the experiment described above, as it appeared on screen.
Output
Main Questions and Concerns:
- Can ChatGPT be used to assist therapists with their workloads in the future, particularly in writing therapy notes?
- Is ChatGPT a HIPAA-compliant program, and if not, what are the obstacles that need to be overcome to make it ethical and legal to use in therapy?
- How does the quality of therapy notes produced by ChatGPT compare to those written by therapists?
- Will AI ever replace human therapists in providing therapy services?
Pretty accurate, isn’t it?
The second part of the task involved creating a summary of this article. ChatGPT did a commendable job, but some modifications and additions were necessary for accuracy. With its assistance, the task was completed much faster than it would have been without its help.
The same applies to therapists who use Mentalyc for writing therapy progress notes. The technology significantly reduces the amount of time spent on each note. On average, therapists using Mentalyc take just 3 minutes to write each progress note, while those who do it manually can take anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes. This shows the power of progress note automation in practice.
I believe this is the future of many fields including mental health, and therapists should understand it well enough to be able to make a conscious choice of which tool they can use in their practice. There is no question that this type of technology, including large language models in psychotherapy, will be used and will become better, so avoiding it is counterproductive. Now let’s see how it can be used safely, highlighting the ChatGPT benefits for therapists.
Benefits vs Limitations of ChatGPT in Therapy Note-Taking
Due to their question-answering, summarization, and analysis capabilities, GPT-based models can be utilized with varied success as an assistant for some tasks in the therapist’s workflow: summarizing the content of a conversation, identifying the main topics, or even writing a passable SOAP note (provided information about the session). Still, there are some major limitations that users have to overcome.
| Benefits of ChatGPT | Limitations of ChatGPT |
|---|---|
| ✅ Saves time by reducing manual note-writing workload | ❌ Not HIPAA compliant, posing privacy and legal risks |
| ✅ Provides consistent structure and formatting for therapy notes | ❌ May generate inaccurate or incomplete notes that need review |
| ✅ Helps non-native English speakers with clear, professional documentation | ❌ Limited ability to capture client nuances, emotions, or therapist insights |
| ✅ Useful for templates, brainstorming, and training purposes | ❌ Raises ethical concerns in psychotherapy since AI cannot replace human empathy |
| ✅ Increases efficiency, allowing more focus on client care | ❌ Cannot securely store or process data |
Benefits of Using ChatGPT for Therapy Notes
According to ChatGPT, using AI for therapy note generation can offer multiple benefits, including:
- Efficient Time Management: Generating therapy notes manually can be a tedious and time-consuming process. ChatGPT can simplify this task, thereby freeing up more time for therapists to focus on their patients.
- Consistent and Comprehensive Documentation: AI-generated notes are more likely to be consistent in terms of format and language, helping to ensure that important information is captured and recorded accurately.
- Bridging the Language Gap: For therapists who are not native English speakers, writing notes in English can be a challenge. ChatGPT provides a solution by assisting in generating notes in clear, concise, and effective English.
Note: The accuracy of the notes generated by ChatGPT is dependent on the quality and completeness of the training data it was trained on, as well as the context of the input provided.
Drawbacks of Using ChatGPT for Therapy Notes
As per the discussion on a Reddit thread [2], ChatGPT faces several limitations when it comes to therapy note generation:
- Lack of HIPAA Compliance: The free and Plus versions of ChatGPT do not come with a BAA, meaning real client data cannot be entered safely. The full picture of where the compliance line sits in 2026, including which ChatGPT tiers do and don’t qualify, is covered in detail in the technical section below.
- Note Quality: While ChatGPT can generate notes that resemble those written by therapists, the quality of the notes may not be up to par. There is a risk of inaccuracies or missing information, requiring therapists to review and edit the notes before they can be used, which limits its utility as a mental health documentation tool.
- Limited Role in Therapy: It’s essential to understand that AI, including ChatGPT, cannot replace human therapists. ChatGPT can assist therapists in writing notes, but it cannot provide the human connection and empathy that are fundamental to the therapeutic process.
How to Use ChatGPT Safely for Therapy Notes
Use ChatGPT safely in a therapy practice by following five rules:
1. Never paste protected health information. No names, dates of birth, session quotes, or any detail that could identify a client. The consumer version of ChatGPT offers no BAA, so entering PHI is a HIPAA violation regardless of how useful the output is.
2. Use it for structure, not content. Ask for note templates (SOAP, DAP, BIRP), section outlines, or example phrasings for common clinical situations. Structure is generic; your client’s story is not.
3. Use it for brainstorming and training. Drafting psychoeducation handouts, practicing case documentation with fully fictional vignettes, and exploring treatment plan ideas are all safe, useful tasks.
4. Review everything it produces. ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect answers, a limitation OpenAI itself documents. [1] You remain the clinician of record; nothing goes into a chart unreviewed.
5. For real session notes, use a purpose-built, HIPAA-compliant tool. When the task involves actual client data, the safe path is software designed for clinical documentation that signs a BAA and is trained on therapeutic language.
Follow those five rules and ChatGPT becomes a harmless productivity aid instead of a compliance risk.
ChatGPT’s Technical Limitations for Clinical Use
Beyond the practical drawbacks above, four technical constraints make raw GPT models a poor fit for clinical documentation: input limits, unpredictable output, missing compliance, and shallow domain knowledge.
Input Form and Session Size in Therapy Notes
The most obvious limitation of all GPT models is that they can only work with raw text data as input: no CSVs, JSONs, Word documents, PDFs, audio, or video files. This restriction complicates the use of the models and results in a substantial overhead for handling different data types.
The maximum input size is also relatively small compared to the average length of a therapy session. Solving this introduces a bunch of technical challenges and makes it unsuitable for the general user.
Unpredictable and Imprecise AI Output
Due to the complexity of GPT models and their “black box” nature [4], it is impossible to consistently get good output without spending significant time figuring out the correct parameters and queries.
Our experience shows that sometimes a single question mark or a couple of words can make a world of difference. The process of finding the right model parameters and prompts is such a challenge that it has spawned a whole new field of study: prompt engineering. [5]
HIPAA Compliance
The ChatGPT most therapists use, the free and Plus consumer versions, is many things but one: HIPAA-compliant. Data submitted to the consumer product can be stored and, by default, used for activities such as training the next iterations of the GPT models.
To be precise about where the line sits in 2026, according to OpenAI’s own help center: BAAs are offered for the API Platform, a BAA for ChatGPT is available only to sales-managed ChatGPT Enterprise or Edu accounts, OpenAI explicitly does not offer a BAA for ChatGPT Business, and eligible individual clinicians can request one through the separate ChatGPT for Clinicians product. [6] None of that covers the free or Plus ChatGPT that opens at chatgpt.com. Even with a BAA in place, a general-purpose model is still not a clinical documentation tool: there are no clinical note templates, no audit-ready structure, and the clinician remains fully responsible for accuracy. For the consumer versions, the missing HIPAA compliance means that sensitive information cannot be uploaded without first removing all Personally Identifiable Information.
OpenAI’s official help center (archived copy, web.archive.org): BAAs cover the API services; consumer ChatGPT is not included. Captured June 10, 2026.
Lack of Deep Domain Knowledge in Psychology
GPT-type models have been trained on huge text-based corpora including a tremendous variety of topics, from children’s books to astrophysics textbooks. Having this variety makes the models extremely capable of knowing a bit about everything. Sadly, it results in an obvious lack of deep understanding of any given topic, especially one as complicated as psychology.
In order to mitigate this, one must fine-tune the model on carefully curated data and design intricate processes to make up for the lacking depth. This is not only difficult but also quite pricey.
Lack of Context
Another thing that GPT models naturally lack is the capability for maintaining long-term context. As there is no inbuilt state or permanent storage, the information contained in previous inputs is unavailable or forgotten over time. The important task of maintaining context, critical for the correct conceptualization of therapy notes, is left to the user.
The good news is that despite all of those challenges, there are ways to successfully utilize GPT-type models. Let us show you how.
AI-Powered Alternative for Psychotherapists
Mentalyc is a specialized AI scribe designed to meet the unique needs of psychotherapists. It uses advanced NLP techniques, including GPT models, to streamline the note-taking process by automatically generating detailed, personalized notes from pre-recorded therapy sessions. With Mentalyc, therapists can focus on their clients rather than manually taking notes, making it one of the most effective AI-based psychotherapy documentation solutions.
But Mentalyc goes far beyond just note-taking. It offers supervision-like feedback through Alliance Genie to help therapists reflect on their sessions, automatically generates intake forms and treatment plans that align with clinical standards, and even tracks client progress over time. With these features, Mentalyc becomes not just a documentation tool, but a partner in improving care quality, supporting compliance, and strengthening therapeutic outcomes.
Mentalyc: Alliance Genie(TM) insight example
How Mentalyc Works for Therapy Session Documentation
Mentalyc has minimal to no setup and works based on recorded audio, which it processes to create notes in a flash. You only have to record the session and upload the file!
In simple words, the Mentalyc AI note-taking method converts your session audio into a verbatim transcript and a fully editable psychotherapy progress note. It ensures complete anonymity and HIPAA compliance, as no client data is required to create the notes.
Here you can learn how to record your sessions.
At Mentalyc, it took us months of research and experimentation to consistently extract clinically relevant information from therapy recordings. We developed various approaches, models, and intricate data pipelines, which combine our in-house solutions with the intelligence provided by different GPTs, enabling a one-of-a-kind solution for generating different types of psychotherapy notes.
Here you can learn more about Mentalyc notes.
Another crucial aspect is the support our sophisticated AI can provide by generating statistics, detecting various symptoms, and even performing OFAID analysis (onset, frequency, and intensity of symptoms). When there is insufficient information, the AI scribe can offer an evaluation of the primary concern and any contributing factors which could be used to investigate further during an upcoming session with the client.
We continuously analyze and improve our system by rigorously tracking changes therapists make to their notes and measuring their satisfaction levels. Our system improves daily as a result of this ongoing research. We have also launched EMDR and couples therapy notes, with many more in the pipeline, all specifically tailored to the needs of psychotherapists’ different note-taking templates.
Benefits of Mentalyc for Therapy Documentation, As Reported by Therapists
These themes come up consistently in reviews from mental health professionals using Mentalyc:
- Streamlined Insurance Compliance: Mentalyc generates notes that are well-structured and customized to each therapy session, reducing the risk of messy notes or duplication of information. The AI system ensures that all the necessary information is captured to meet insurance requirements to prove medical necessity, freeing therapists from the added worry.
- Improved Case Formulation: Consistent and comprehensive notes generated by Mentalyc make it easier for therapists to track client progress and maintain a clear understanding of their story.
- Augmented Therapy Experience: Mentalyc provides therapists with different perspectives and insights, enhancing their awareness and overall therapy experience.
- Increased Focus on the Client: Mentalyc’s AI-powered therapy documentation solution allows therapists to stay fully present with their clients, without having to switch tabs or interrupt the session to document notes.
- Accommodating for Disabilities: Users with disabilities, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, have reported finding Mentalyc to be a lifesaver, reducing the strain on their hands while generating notes.
- Empowering for Neurodiverse Therapists: Mentalyc has received positive feedback from therapists with neurodiverse conditions, such as ADHD, who appreciate the assistive technology and the improved therapy experience it provides.
Mentalyc vs ChatGPT for Therapy Notes: Comparison
| Feature | ChatGPT | Mentalyc |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | ❌ General-purpose AI text generator | ✅ Specialized AI-based psychotherapy documentation solution |
| HIPAA Compliance | ❌ Not compliant on free/Plus; no BAA for consumer tiers | ✅ Fully compliant, BAA included |
| Accuracy | ⚠️ May miss clinical details; requires therapist edits | ✅ Designed for therapy; generates clinically accurate, structured notes |
| Progress Note Automation | ⚠️ Partial; needs therapist input and review | ✅ Full automation from transcripts/audio |
| Security | ❌ No healthcare safeguards on consumer tiers; data may be used for model training by default | ✅ Secure, encrypted, healthcare-grade compliance; recordings auto-deleted after note creation |
| Ease of Use | ⚠️ Flexible for general tasks, but not tailored for therapy | ✅ Built for therapists; intuitive, tailored note-taking |
| Ethical AI Use | ❌ Risky due to privacy and legal/ethical risks | ✅ Aligned with clinical standards |
| Best For | Drafting templates, training, brainstorming ideas | Clinical documentation, progress notes, and insurance compliance |
- Mentalyc operates in a similar manner to ChatGPT, converting therapy transcripts into notes, but with a key distinction: Mentalyc is specifically designed for therapy and therefore performs this task with greater accuracy and efficiency compared to the general-purpose ChatGPT.
- Mentalyc is fully HIPAA compliant, ensuring secure handling of sensitive client information, something that is critical in the field of psychotherapy.
- Mentalyc also processes audio recordings of the therapy sessions without having the therapist independently generate session transcripts as is the case with using ChatGPT.
- The distinction matters: ChatGPT templates and chatbot drafts are a manual workflow, not purpose-built AI therapy notes generated from session audio. Mentalyc fully automates notes from a session recording, dictation, or typed summary, supports all major note formats for individual, couples, family, and group sessions, adds golden-thread treatment planning and Alliance Genie insights, and works alongside any EHR (ChatGPT has no EHR workflow at all).
ChatGPT capability and compliance details verified against OpenAI’s official documentation on June 10, 2026.
EHR Integration with Mentalyc for Mental Health Practices
Integration of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is a critical component in providing connected healthcare services. Mentalyc recognizes the need of connecting with existing EHR systems in order to provide a complete solution for healthcare professionals. That is why we have made our notes API-accessible, allowing for rapid and easy integration with other EHRs.
Healthcare practitioners may access and use Mentalyc’s notes inside their existing systems with just a few clicks, expediting the process and removing the need for manual data entry. This integration keeps all patient information in one place, allowing for a full and structured picture of each patient’s health history. Integration of Mentalyc’s notes with other EHRs results in better patient care, more productivity, and less administrative stress for clinicians.
Is Mentalyc Secure?
Yes. Mentalyc is SOC 2 Type II certified, stores all data in fully encrypted, HIPAA-compliant databases, and automatically deletes session recordings once the note has been created. At Mentalyc, we understand the importance of data security and have made it a top priority when developing our tool. To ensure the safety and confidentiality of our users’ information, we store all data entered into Mentalyc in HIPAA-compliant databases that are fully encrypted, making it inaccessible to even our own team.
Here you can learn more about how Mentalyc handles security.
Before starting to use Mentalyc in your practice, please note that the client’s consent is required to be able to use session recordings. To make it easier for therapists, we have created a downloadable document you can send to your clients to gain their consent before using Mentalyc.
Here you can learn more about Client Consent.
Who Gets the Most Out of Mentalyc?
For tech-enabled providers and private practices alike, Mentalyc removes the need to build your own solution. Replicating it from scratch would require a team of ML engineers, psychotherapists, data scientists, and a legally collected dataset of therapy recordings, on top of full HIPAA infrastructure. Mentalyc has already done that work. With it, you drag and drop your recording and the note is ready. Running a team? See Mentalyc for group practices.
Mentalyc AI Pricing & Plans
| Plan | Price | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| 14-Day Free Trial | $0 | 14 days of full PRO access, including 15 notes. No credit card required. |
| Mini | $14.99 /month | Record in-person sessions, upload audio files, use voice-to-text, or type notes directly, etc. |
| Basic | $29.99 /month | Everything in Mini, plus: Alliance Genie(TM) NEW! (limited access), Smart TP(TM) |
| Pro | $59.99 /month | EMDR, Play and Psychiatry modalities, 100+ custom templates incl. BIRP, PIRP, GIRP, PIE, and SIRP, auto-computed CPT codes |
| Super | $99.99 /month | Everything in Pro, plus: Group therapy notes for each group member, priority onboarding and support |
For more details, visit the pricing page on our website.
Conclusion: The Future of AI Therapy Notes and HIPAA-Compliant Documentation
ChatGPT may seem useful for speeding up therapy note-taking and making documentation more consistent. However, the consumer version’s non-compliance with HIPAA regulations [3] is a significant concern. Beyond privacy risks, it lacks the clinical training needed to produce accurate, audit-ready notes, struggles with therapeutic terminology, and cannot guarantee the confidentiality standards required in mental health care. In addition, its general-purpose design means it often generates vague or inaccurate language, leaving clinicians responsible for heavy editing and potential liability.
To address these limitations, therapists need tools created specifically for psychotherapy, like Mentalyc. It’s fully HIPAA-compliant, built for clinical documentation, and trained in therapeutic language. Unlike general AI, Mentalyc produces structured, audit-ready notes that meet insurance requirements and ease documentation stress. By turning session recordings into clear, accurate notes, it saves hours each week while keeping client data secure. AI can’t replace human therapists, but with Mentalyc it can take care of the paperwork so clinicians can focus on their clients. This points toward the future of AI in mental health care.
As ethical AI use in therapy continues to evolve, it is crucial to consider both ethical and legal implications. If you have any further questions or concerns regarding ChatGPT, Mentalyc, and concepts about AI and therapy notes, please don’t hesitate to reach out here.
Benjamen Saenz, Licensed Professional Counselor:
“The accuracy and the clinical way that the notes are written are just… fantastic. The quality still shocks me to this day. Like the names of certain disorders, the names of pharmaceuticals that people are taking get them perfect almost every single time. … Mentalyc takes the guesswork out of that and has just allowed me to enjoy my job way more.”
Sophia Bakker, Temp Licensed Professional Counselor:
“Before I was working with Mentalyc, I had severe problems with keeping up with my notes. (…) The notes give me insights that help me conceptualize my clients better. I kind of feel like I have a little mini supervisor going with me everywhere I go.”
Disclaimer: All examples of mental health documentation are fictional and for informational purposes only.
Frequently Asked Questions
Glossary
- CSV: Comma Separated Values
- EHR: Electronic Health Records
- EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
- SOAP: Subjective, Objective, Assessment, and Plan
- PHI: Protected Health Information
References
[1] OpenAI. Introducing ChatGPT. https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt
[2] Reddit, r/therapists. ChatGPT for therapy notes. https://www.reddit.com/r/therapists/comments/10b48rc/chatgpt_for_therapy_notes/
[3] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. HIPAA. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/index.html
[4] AIthority. The Black Box Problem. https://aithority.com/natural-language/machine-storytelling/the-black-box-problem-a-convenient-scapegoat/
[5] Medium. Prompt Engineering: The Career of Future. https://medium.com/nerd-for-tech/prompt-engineering-the-career-of-future-2fb93f90f117
[6] OpenAI. Enterprise Privacy at OpenAI. https://openai.com/enterprise-privacy/
Why other mental health professionals love Mentalyc
“It’s so quick and easy to do notes now … I used to stay late two hours to finish my notes. Now it’s a breeze.”
Licensed Professional Counselor
“By the end of the day, usually by the end of the session, I have my documentation done. I have a thorough, comprehensive note … It’s just saving me hours every week.”
CDCII
“A lot of my clients love the functionality where I can send them a summary of what we addressed during the session, and they find it very helpful and enlightening.”
Therapist
“It takes me less than 5 minutes to complete notes … it’s a huge time saver, a huge stress reliever.”
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
