Copyable ACT Progress Note Template for Therapy Sessions
Use this ACT progress note template to document Acceptance and Commitment Therapy sessions with a clear structure for goals, interventions, client response, progress, and next steps. It is designed for clinicians who want a practical starting point after session, not a rigid script.
You can copy the template into your EHR, practice management system, or secure documentation tool. Edit the wording to match your clinical style, payer requirements, state rules, agency policy, and the client’s treatment plan.
ACT Progress Note Template
Client Name:
Date of Service:
Start/End Time:
Service Type:
Location/Modality:
Provider:
Diagnosis/Presenting Concern:
Treatment Plan Goal Addressed:
Session Focus:
Briefly describe the main focus of the session and how it connects to the treatment plan.
Client Presentation:
Document relevant appearance, mood, affect, behavior, speech, orientation, risk-related observations, and level of engagement.
ACT Intervention(s) Used:
Identify the ACT process or intervention used, such as:
- Present-moment awareness
- Cognitive defusion
- Acceptance/willingness
- Values clarification
- Committed action
- Self-as-context
- Mindfulness exercise
- Experiential exercise
Intervention Details:
Describe what the clinician did during session. Include prompts, exercises, psychoeducation, metaphors, worksheets, practice activities, or behavioral planning.
Client Response:
Describe how the client responded. Include statements, observed reactions, emotional shifts, participation level, insight, barriers, and willingness to practice skills.
Progress Toward Treatment Goal:
Describe progress, lack of progress, or mixed progress using specific examples from the session.
Risk/Safety Considerations:
Document relevant risk assessment, protective factors, safety planning, crisis resources, or state that no current safety concerns were reported or observed, if clinically appropriate.
Plan/Next Steps:
Document homework, between-session practice, planned interventions, referrals, coordination of care, next appointment, or treatment plan updates.
Clinician Signature/Credentials:
This format can be adapted into SOAP, DAP, GIRP, BIRP, or narrative documentation. The main goal is to show medical necessity, clinical reasoning, client participation, and progress connected to the treatment plan.
Completed ACT Progress Note Example
The sample below shows how an ACT note might read for an adult client working on anxiety and avoidance. Details are fictional and should not be copied into a real chart without clinical review and client-specific editing.
ACT Progress Note Example
Client Name: Jordan M.
Date of Service: 04/16/2026
Start/End Time: 2:00 PM–2:53 PM
Service Type: Individual psychotherapy, 53 minutes
Location/Modality: Telehealth
Provider: Licensed clinician
Diagnosis/Presenting Concern: Generalized anxiety symptoms; avoidance of work-related tasks
Treatment Plan Goal Addressed: Reduce avoidance behaviors and increase values-consistent action in professional and personal settings.
Session Focus:
Session focused on anxiety-related avoidance, especially delaying work emails and cancelling planned social activities due to fear of discomfort. Client identified a pattern of attempting to control anxious thoughts before taking action.
Client Presentation:
Client appeared on time and was engaged throughout session. Mood was anxious with congruent affect. Speech was clear and goal-directed. Client was oriented to person, place, time, and situation. No current suicidal or homicidal ideation was reported. Client participated actively in exercises and reflection.
ACT Intervention(s) Used:
Cognitive defusion, values clarification, present-moment awareness, and committed action planning.
Intervention Details:
Clinician provided brief ACT-based psychoeducation on the difference between reducing anxiety and changing the client’s relationship to anxiety. Clinician guided client through a cognitive defusion exercise using the phrase, “I am having the thought that I will fail if I respond to this email.” Clinician supported values clarification by asking client to identify what kind of coworker and friend they want to be, even when anxiety is present. Clinician helped client develop one committed action step for the week.
Client Response:
Client initially stated, “I keep waiting until I feel calm, but that never happens.” During the defusion exercise, client reported the thought felt “less like a command” and more like “something my mind is saying.” Client identified reliability and connection as important values. Client expressed willingness to respond to one delayed work email before the next session while noticing anxious thoughts without trying to eliminate them first.
Progress Toward Treatment Goal:
Client demonstrated increased insight into avoidance patterns and was able to connect behavior change to identified values. Progress is moderate. Client continues to experience anxiety but showed increased willingness to take action while anxiety is present.
Risk/Safety Considerations:
Client denied current suicidal ideation, homicidal ideation, intent, or plan. No acute safety concerns were observed during session.
Plan/Next Steps:
Client will practice naming anxious thoughts using “I am having the thought that...” and complete one values-based action by responding to a delayed work email. Next session will review the committed action step, assess barriers, and continue ACT work on acceptance and willingness.
A strong completed note does more than name the intervention. It shows what happened in the room, how the client responded, and why the next step makes clinical sense.
When to Use an ACT Progress Note Template
An ACT progress note template is most useful when Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is part of the clinical approach used during the session. It helps document the link between the client’s presenting concern, the treatment plan, the intervention, and the client’s movement toward values-based behavior.
Clinicians may use this format for sessions focused on anxiety, depression, trauma-related avoidance, chronic pain adjustment, grief, obsessive thoughts, substance use recovery support, relationship patterns, or other concerns where psychological flexibility is clinically relevant.
- Individual therapy: Document ACT interventions such as defusion, acceptance, mindfulness, and committed action.
- Group therapy: Track the group theme, ACT exercise used, individual participation, and client response.
- Intake follow-up sessions: Connect presenting concerns to values, avoidance patterns, and initial treatment goals.
- Treatment plan reviews: Show how ACT-based work supports measurable goals and future care planning.
This template can also help when sessions include a blend of modalities. For example, a clinician may use ACT alongside CBT skills, motivational interviewing, exposure-based work, or supportive therapy. In that case, the note should accurately reflect the interventions used instead of forcing the entire session into ACT language.
Key Elements to Include in an ACT Therapy Note
ACT documentation should be clinically specific. A note that says “worked on acceptance” may be too vague by itself. A stronger note describes the exact exercise, the client’s response, and how the intervention relates to a goal such as reducing avoidance, increasing emotional tolerance, or taking values-consistent action.
Treatment Plan Goal Addressed
Identify the goal that the session supported. This might involve reducing avoidance, increasing coping capacity, improving emotional awareness, strengthening interpersonal functioning, or practicing values-based behavior. If the goal is too broad, add one concrete detail from the session.
For example, instead of writing “addressed anxiety,” write: “Addressed treatment goal of reducing anxiety-related avoidance by practicing one values-based action plan for responding to work communication.”
ACT Intervention Used
Name the intervention and describe it. ACT progress notes are clearer when they include both the clinical term and the session activity. “Cognitive defusion” is helpful, but “guided client in labeling the thought ‘I am incompetent’ as a thought rather than a fact” gives more useful clinical detail.
Common ACT interventions that may appear in documentation include mindfulness exercises, values card sorts, acceptance and willingness practice, defusion phrases, metaphor-based exercises, committed action planning, and review of experiential avoidance patterns.
Client Response and Participation
The client response section should capture observable participation and reported experience. Include direct client language when it adds clinical value. Short quotes can show insight, ambivalence, willingness, distress, or barriers in a way that generic phrasing cannot.
Examples include: “Client stated the exercise helped create ‘a little distance’ from the thought,” or “Client became tearful when discussing values related to parenting and reported feeling both sadness and motivation.”
Progress and Next Steps
Progress does not need to be dramatic to be clinically meaningful. ACT work often involves small shifts: noticing thoughts, naming avoidance, tolerating discomfort, or taking one action aligned with values.
Document whether progress was made, limited, or mixed. Then connect the plan to what happened in session. If the client struggled with willingness practice, the next session might focus on barriers to acceptance. If the client completed a committed action step, the next session may build on that success.
ACT Note Example in SOAP Format
If your practice uses SOAP notes, you can still document ACT clearly. The structure changes, but the clinical content remains similar.
SOAP ACT Progress Note Example
S - Subjective:
Client reported increased anxiety before work meetings and stated, “My mind tells me I’m going to embarrass myself, so I avoid speaking.” Client reported frustration with avoidance and identified professional growth as an important value.
O - Objective:
Client arrived on time and was engaged. Affect was anxious but appropriate to content. Client participated in a brief mindfulness and cognitive defusion exercise. No acute safety concerns were reported or observed.
A - Assessment:
Client continues to experience anxiety-related avoidance but demonstrated increased ability to observe anxious thoughts without immediately responding with avoidance. Client connected participation in meetings to values of growth and contribution. Progress toward treatment goal is mild to moderate.
P - Plan:
Client will practice silently labeling anxious thoughts during one work meeting and will make one brief verbal contribution if clinically appropriate and aligned with client readiness. Next session will review practice, barriers, and continued ACT work on willingness and committed action.
SOAP works well for clinicians who prefer a concise format. The risk is that ACT-specific details can get lost if the intervention section is too brief. Make sure the assessment and plan still reflect the clinical reasoning behind the intervention.
Common ACT Progress Note Mistakes to Avoid
ACT notes can become vague when clinicians rely on modality terms without enough session detail. The note should make sense to another qualified provider reviewing the chart later.
- Writing only “used ACT techniques”: Name the specific intervention, such as defusion, values clarification, or willingness practice.
- Leaving out client response: Document whether the client engaged, resisted, gained insight, became distressed, or identified barriers.
- Forgetting the treatment plan: Connect the session to a goal, objective, symptom, impairment, or functional target.
- Overstating progress: Avoid saying the client “mastered” a skill after one exercise unless the record clearly supports that statement.
Another common issue is documenting ACT as if the goal is to remove all distress. ACT notes are often stronger when they show the client building willingness, awareness, and values-based action while symptoms may still be present.
Quick Checklist Before You Finalize the Note
Before signing an ACT progress note, review it from the perspective of continuity of care. A future reader should be able to understand the clinical focus, what the clinician did, how the client responded, and what should happen next.
- Does the note identify the treatment plan goal or clinical target addressed?
- Does it name and describe the ACT intervention used during the session?
- Does it include the client’s response, not just the clinician’s action?
- Does the plan follow logically from the session content?
Also review privacy and security requirements within your own setting. A template can support consistency, but it does not make documentation compliant by itself. Clinicians still need to use secure systems, follow applicable policies, limit unnecessary detail, and apply clinical judgment before finalizing the record.
How AutoNotes Helps Create ACT Progress Note Drafts Faster
AutoNotes helps behavioral health professionals turn session details into structured, editable progress note drafts. For ACT sessions, that means you can enter the key clinical details, choose a note format, and get a draft that organizes interventions, client response, progress, and plan in a consistent way.
The clinician stays in control. AutoNotes is designed to create a starting draft, not a final clinical record without review. You can edit the note, add clinical nuance, remove unnecessary details, adjust wording, and confirm that the final version accurately reflects the session.
Where AutoNotes Fits in the Documentation Workflow
After a session, many clinicians already know what happened clinically but still need to turn that information into a complete note. AutoNotes can help reduce the blank-page problem by organizing your session details into a familiar structure.
- Service-specific templates: Create drafts for individual therapy, group therapy, intake, assessment, treatment planning, and other behavioral health services.
- Editable note output: Review and revise the draft before it becomes part of the clinical record.
- Consistent structure: Keep recurring elements such as interventions, response, progress, and plan easier to track across sessions.
- Behavioral health focus: Use templates designed around therapy documentation rather than generic business writing.
This can be especially helpful if you document after hours, switch between SOAP and DAP formats, or work with multiple clients who require different note styles. The benefit is not that AI replaces your judgment. The benefit is a faster, more organized first draft that you can shape into a clinically accurate note.
Start With the Template, Then Build a Better Note Process
The template above gives you a practical structure for ACT progress notes. Use it to document the session focus, ACT intervention, client response, progress toward the treatment plan, risk considerations, and next steps.
If you want a faster way to create structured ACT note drafts, start your free trial with AutoNotes. You can try it with your own documentation style, review every draft before finalizing, and decide whether it fits your clinical workflow.
