Copyable eating disorder therapy note template
Use this eating disorder therapy note template as a starting point for documenting outpatient therapy sessions involving anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, ARFID, body image distress, disordered eating patterns, or related clinical concerns.
The format below is written for progress notes, not private psychotherapy notes. Adapt each section to your license, setting, payer requirements, treatment approach, and organizational policies. Keep the note clinically specific, objective, and focused on the service provided.
Eating disorder progress note template
Client: [Client initials or name according to your recordkeeping policy]
Date of service: [MM/DD/YYYY]
Session type: [Individual therapy, family therapy, group therapy, telehealth, in person]
Duration: [Start time, stop time, total minutes]
Provider: [Clinician name, credentials]
Diagnosis or clinical focus: [Diagnosis, provisional diagnosis, or presenting concern]
Presenting concerns since last session:
[Document client-reported eating disorder symptoms, body image concerns, mood symptoms, anxiety, compulsive behaviors, avoidance, meal-related distress, interpersonal stressors, or treatment barriers. Use objective, clinically relevant language. Avoid unnecessary detail that could be triggering or unrelated to treatment.]
Risk, safety, and medical considerations:
[Document relevant risk assessment, including suicidal ideation, self-harm, medical concerns, substance use, purging behaviors, restriction, excessive exercise, dizziness, fainting, medication concerns, or need for coordination with medical providers when clinically indicated.]
Interventions provided:
[List therapeutic interventions used during the session, such as CBT-E strategies, DBT skills, motivational interviewing, psychoeducation, exposure planning, meal support processing, relapse prevention, family-based interventions, values clarification, cognitive restructuring, or treatment plan review.]
Client response:
[Describe how the client responded to interventions. Include engagement, insight, ambivalence, emotional response, skill practice, barriers, and ability to identify next steps.]
Progress toward treatment goals:
[Connect the session to the treatment plan. Document movement toward goals, limited progress, worsening symptoms, or maintenance of gains. Be specific about the goal addressed.]
Plan:
[Document homework, between-session practice, referrals, consultation, coordination of care, next session focus, safety planning, or follow-up. Include level-of-care considerations if discussed.]
Clinician signature: [Name, credentials, date signed]
Completed eating disorder therapy note example
This fictional example shows how the template can look once completed. It uses a DAP-style structure with added risk and medical considerations because eating disorder documentation often requires attention to safety, coordination of care, and level-of-care needs.
Sample completed note
Client: A.M.
Date of service: 04/18/2026
Session type: Individual outpatient therapy, telehealth
Duration: 53 minutes
Provider: Licensed clinician
Diagnosis or clinical focus: Bulimia nervosa; body image distress; anxiety related to meals and perceived loss of control around eating
Data:
Client reported two episodes of binge eating followed by compensatory behavior since the previous session. Client described increased urges after work-related stress and conflict with a family member. Client reported feeling “discouraged” and identified body checking as more frequent during the week. Client denied current suicidal ideation, intent, or plan. Client reported no fainting or acute medical symptoms during session. Client stated they attended a recent primary care appointment and agreed to sign a release for coordination if needed.
Assessment:
Client presented as alert, oriented, and engaged. Affect was anxious and congruent with reported content. Clinician used CBT-E-informed cognitive restructuring to identify the link between dietary restraint, stress, body checking, and binge-purge urges. Client was able to name two triggers and recognized that skipping lunch increased vulnerability later in the day. Progress toward treatment goal of reducing compensatory behaviors is mixed this week, with increased awareness of triggers but continued difficulty using coping skills during high-stress periods.
Plan:
Client will complete a brief trigger-and-response log focused on urges, emotions, and coping attempts rather than calorie or weight details. Client will practice one planned grounding skill after work before dinner on at least three days. Next session will review patterns in urges, assess barriers to meal consistency, and continue cognitive work related to body checking. Clinician will revisit coordination with primary care provider if symptoms increase or medical concerns are reported.
When this eating disorder note template fits the session
This template works best for outpatient behavioral health documentation when eating disorder symptoms or body image concerns are part of the clinical focus. It can be used with CBT, DBT, ACT, family-based approaches, motivational interviewing, relapse prevention, and other appropriate therapy models.
Use it when you need to document:
- Individual therapy sessions focused on disordered eating, restriction, binge eating, purging, body image distress, or food-related anxiety.
- Family or caregiver sessions where eating disorder recovery, support, boundaries, or meal-related communication is addressed.
- Sessions involving relapse prevention, treatment plan review, coping skills, motivation, or coordination with other providers.
- Clinical updates where symptoms, safety, medical concerns, or level-of-care needs should be clearly recorded.
The same structure can also be adjusted for SOAP notes. For example, client-reported concerns fit the Subjective section, observed presentation and interventions fit Objective, clinical formulation fits Assessment, and homework or follow-up belongs in Plan.
What to include in eating disorder therapy documentation
Eating disorder notes often need more clinical precision than a general therapy note. A vague statement such as “processed eating issues” may not show what happened in the session, how the client responded, or why the service was medically necessary. A stronger note connects symptoms, interventions, treatment goals, and next steps.
Document clinically relevant symptoms without unnecessary detail
Eating disorder notes should describe symptoms in language that supports care while avoiding details that do not add clinical value. For example, “client reported increased restriction during workdays and heightened anxiety before dinner” is usually more useful than a long narrative about specific foods or body measurements unless those details are necessary for treatment coordination.
Helpful symptom areas may include:
- Restriction, binge eating, purging, compulsive exercise, avoidance, or rigid food rules.
- Body checking, body avoidance, shame, perfectionism, or fear of weight change.
- Mood, anxiety, trauma reminders, interpersonal stress, or obsessive thoughts connected to symptoms.
- Motivation for recovery, ambivalence, insight, and readiness to practice skills.
Include risk and medical considerations when relevant
Therapists are not always the medical provider on the case, but eating disorder documentation should reflect clinically relevant safety and coordination issues. If the client reports dizziness, fainting, chest pain, severe restriction, frequent purging, medication misuse, suicidal ideation, or other concerns, the note should reflect your assessment, consultation, referral, or follow-up plan within your scope of practice.
For many outpatient clinicians, this section is also where you document coordination with a dietitian, physician, psychiatrist, higher level of care program, caregiver, or treatment team member when releases and policies allow.
Connect the session to the treatment plan
A strong progress note makes the treatment plan visible. Instead of writing “continued therapy for eating disorder,” specify the goal addressed and what happened. For example: “Session addressed treatment goal of reducing binge-purge cycle by identifying high-risk times, practicing urge-surfing language, and planning a post-work coping routine.”
This helps the note show clinical direction. It also makes it easier to review progress across sessions without rereading a full chart.
Copy-and-paste phrases for stronger eating disorder notes
Use these phrases as sentence starters, then edit them to match the actual session. They are not meant to replace clinical judgment. They simply give you cleaner wording when you are tired, behind on notes, or trying to keep your documentation consistent.
Presenting concern phrases
- Client reported increased urges to engage in eating disorder behaviors following [trigger/stressor].
- Client described heightened body image distress and increased avoidance of [situation/activity].
- Client reported difficulty maintaining planned meals during [time period/context].
- Client identified shame, anxiety, and all-or-nothing thinking as contributors to symptom use.
These phrases work best when paired with the client’s own report and your clinical observations. Keep the wording neutral and avoid judgmental language.
Intervention phrases
- Clinician provided psychoeducation on the relationship between restriction, emotional distress, and eating disorder urges.
- Clinician used cognitive restructuring to examine beliefs related to body image, control, and self-worth.
- Clinician supported client in identifying high-risk situations and selecting coping responses for the next week.
- Clinician reviewed DBT distress tolerance skills for managing urges without engaging in compensatory behavior.
After documenting the intervention, add the client response. A note that only lists interventions may miss one of the most useful clinical elements: how the client received, rejected, practiced, or modified the intervention.
Client response phrases
- Client was engaged and able to identify connections between stress, food-related anxiety, and symptom urges.
- Client expressed ambivalence about reducing behaviors but was willing to track triggers before next session.
- Client became tearful while discussing body image distress and responded to grounding support.
- Client demonstrated increased insight into how avoidance has maintained anxiety around meals.
Common mistakes in eating disorder therapy notes
Eating disorder documentation can become either too vague or too detailed. The goal is not to write a transcript. The goal is to create a clinically useful record that supports continuity of care, treatment planning, and appropriate follow-up.
Mistake 1: Writing vague progress statements
“Client is doing better” does not say much. Better compared with what? Which goal improved? What evidence supports that statement? A stronger version would be: “Client reported using urge-surfing skill twice this week and delaying compensatory behavior on one occasion, indicating partial progress toward reducing symptom frequency.”
Mistake 2: Leaving out client response
Many notes list interventions but do not document how the client responded. For example, “provided CBT intervention” is incomplete by itself. Add whether the client practiced the skill, challenged the thought, became dysregulated, declined the exercise, or identified a barrier.
Mistake 3: Over-documenting triggering details
Eating disorder notes should be specific, but not every number or food detail belongs in the note. If a detail is needed for clinical care, include it. If it adds risk, shame, or clutter without supporting treatment, consider a more clinically focused description.
Mistake 4: Ignoring coordination and level-of-care questions
If symptoms suggest a need for medical monitoring, nutrition support, psychiatric consultation, caregiver involvement, or a higher level of care, document what was assessed and what was recommended. Your note should show the clinical reasoning behind the plan.
Eating disorder note checklist before you sign
Before finalizing the note, take one minute to review whether it answers the basic clinical questions. This is especially helpful if you are completing documentation after multiple sessions in a row.
- Does the note identify the eating disorder symptoms, body image concerns, or recovery barriers addressed in session?
- Does it name the interventions used and connect them to the treatment plan?
- Does it describe the client’s response, insight, engagement, ambivalence, or barriers?
- Does the plan include next steps, homework, coordination, risk follow-up, or level-of-care considerations when relevant?
If the answer is yes, the note is more likely to be useful when you return to the chart next week. If one answer is missing, add a short sentence before signing.
How AutoNotes helps create eating disorder therapy note drafts faster
AutoNotes helps behavioral health professionals create structured, editable progress note drafts from session details. For eating disorder therapy, that means you can start with a note that already organizes presenting concerns, interventions, client response, progress toward goals, and plan instead of staring at a blank screen after a full clinical day.
The clinician stays in control. AutoNotes does not replace assessment, diagnosis, risk evaluation, medical coordination, or clinical judgment. It gives you a draft that you review, edit, and finalize based on what actually happened in the session.
Why clinicians use AutoNotes for eating disorder documentation
- Service-specific templates: Create drafts for individual therapy, family sessions, group therapy, intakes, assessments, treatment plans, and other behavioral health services.
- Editable clinical language: Adjust the wording so the note reflects your voice, your treatment model, and the client’s presentation.
- More consistent structure: Keep interventions, client response, treatment goals, and plans in the same place across sessions.
- Less after-hours writing: Turn session details into a draft faster so you can spend less time reconstructing notes later.
Generic AI writing tools can produce text, but they are not built around therapy documentation. AutoNotes is designed for behavioral health workflows, including progress notes, assessments, treatment planning, and service-specific documentation patterns used by clinicians.
Start with the template, then build a faster documentation workflow
You can copy the template on this page and use it for your next eating disorder therapy note. Over time, save the phrases and sections that match your clinical style, treatment model, and documentation requirements.
If eating disorder notes are taking too long, AutoNotes can help you create structured drafts faster while keeping you responsible for review and final approval. Start your free trial and test it with your own documentation workflow.
