Therapists often write many notes every day. These notes help track how clients are doing and what happens in each session. But writing them can take a lot of time and energy. That’s why using a good note-taking app is very helpful. It makes the job faster, easier, and more organized. With the right app, therapists can spend less time on paperwork and more time helping people. In this blog, we will look at some of the best hipaa-compliant AI note-taking apps for therapists. These apps are made for mental health professionals, and many come with useful tools like AI, templates, automatic suggestions, and secure storage. We picked the top apps that are simple to use, save time, and keep client data safe. Whether you work alone or in a big clinic, you will find an app here that fits your needs.
The best AI note-taking apps for therapists are as following:
Upheal
Upheal is an AI-assisted note-taking platform built specifically for mental health professionals. During sessions, it uses AI to capture key topics, client symptoms, goals, and other themes so that therapists can draft progress notes more efficiently. It supports a wide range of therapy note formats, including common ones like SOAP and DAP as well as GIRP, BIRP, EMDR, and intake assessments, which makes it adaptable to different documentation styles. Upheal also integrates with tools like Google Calendar and Zoom to automatically link session recordings or meetings, helping clinicians streamline scheduling and session management. This focus on comprehensive session analytics means Upheal not only transcribes sessions but also provides insights (e.g. speaking time ratios or sentiment) that can inform clinical practice. The interface is designed for clinical use, so the tone remains professional and HIPAA-compliant while notes are generated.
Mentalyc
Mentalyc is another AI-powered documentation tool designed to write therapy notes automatically from your sessions. It transcribes session audio or takes your dictated/typed inputs and produces well-structured psychotherapy notes, saving clinicians significant time on paperwork. Mentalyc stands out for its versatility: it supports a broad spectrum of note formats used in mental health, including SOAP, DAP, PIRP, SIRP, GIRP, BIRP, PIE and more. This means whether you are writing a standard progress note, a couples therapy note, an intake assessment, or even an EMDR session note, the platform can generate the appropriate format.
It’s also adaptable to different client types (individuals, couples, families, children) by allowing various template options. Mentalyc’s AI is tuned to pick up clinical details like symptoms, interventions, and goals from a session recording and incorporate them into the note, which helps ensure the notes meet documentation standards for therapy. In practice, therapists find they can devote more attention to clients during sessions and rely on Mentalyc to produce a first draft of the notes afterward, requiring only minor edits. The overall tone of notes remains professional and compliant, and therapists retain the final control to edit for accuracy.
Blueprint AI
Blueprint is an AI clinical assistant that not only writes therapy notes but also supports the entire therapy workflow from preparation to follow-up. In a session, Blueprint’s AI can listen (via a secure integration or recording), produce a near-real-time transcript, and automatically generate a comprehensive progress note within about 30 seconds after the session. The notes it produces are designed to meet clinical documentation standards and can be customized to formats like BIRP or SOAP as needed (Blueprint was initially known as Blueprint Health, and it’s tailored for mental health documentation).
What sets Blueprint apart is that it goes beyond just note transcription, it provides pre-session, in-session, and post-session tools for therapists. For example, before a session, Blueprint can present pre-session insights by analyzing client data or previous notes to highlight progress or issues that might need attention. During the session, it offers in-session guidance: the AI can surface suggestions for interventions or questions in real time, based on what it hears (though therapists remain in control of whether to use these prompts). After the session, Blueprint generates not only the progress note but also post-session recommendations, such as suggesting homework exercises, worksheets, or standardized assessments that could help the client between visits.
It even includes an AI-driven treatment planner that can draft or update treatment plans aligned with the content of the session and the client’s goals. Additionally, Blueprint provides a client-facing mobile app where clients can complete surveys or assignments and track their own progress, feeding data back to the therapist, this is part of its larger “therapeutic toolkit” which aims to enhance outcomes outside of sessions. All these features make Blueprint a kind of all-in-one digital assistant for therapy, helping with documentation, care planning, and client engagement. The tone and style remain clinical and data-driven; for instance, notes are written to be clinically accurate and insurance-compliant, and any AI suggestions for interventions are grounded in established therapeutic practices.
Freed AI
Freed AI is a comprehensive AI-scribe that documents therapy sessions automatically. It listens to the conversation during sessions and produces a detailed clinical note without the therapist needing to type anything. The system accurately captures medical and therapeutic terminology and organizes the content into a coherent progress note that is ready for review as soon as the session ends. Freed works on any device and can integrate with existing electronic health record systems, fitting smoothly into different clinic workflows.
HEIDI
Heidi (often stylized as HEIDI) is a AI clinical scribe developed for healthcare providers, including mental health therapists. It transcribes therapy sessions and intelligently filters out the non-essential small talk, focusing only on the clinically meaningful details for documentation. The platform then formats these notes according to the therapist’s preferred template, whether it’s a SOAP note, DAP note, or another style, to ensure the output matches the clinician’s usual documentation practice.
Heidi offers several features that streamline a therapist’s workflow beyond just note-taking. It integrates with popular electronic record systems used in private practices, so therapists can quickly transfer their completed notes into software like TherapyNotes, SimplePractice, or TheraNest. The system can also auto-generate professional referral letters to other providers (for example, to a psychiatrist or primary care physician) using information from the session notes. Additionally, Heidi supports multiple languages, meaning therapists can produce notes in a client’s preferred language if needed.
AutoNotes AI
AutoNotes AI takes a unique approach to generating therapy notes. It is an AI-driven progress note tool, but instead of transcribing session audio, it guides the therapist through an interactive questionnaire. After a session, the clinician can click through a series of checkboxes, drop-downs, and prompts about what happened in the session, for example, selecting the client’s mood, interventions used, progress made, etc. Based on those inputs, AutoNotes automatically composes a coherent progress note in a professional tone. This design is helpful for therapists who prefer not to record sessions or dictate notes aloud; it provides a structured way to input session details manually and still get an AI-generated narrative.
AutoNotes supports common note formats like SOAP and DAP notes, and it also can generate treatment plans and other documentation, functioning as a “complete clinical documentation system” rather than just a transcription tool. The emphasis is on speeding up writing by using AI to turn the therapist’s selections into full sentences and paragraphs. Therapists maintain control by reviewing and editing the output, ensuring the final note accurately reflects the session. The system is HIPAA-compliant and does not store any actual client names in the AI (it avoids proper nouns for privacy). Overall, AutoNotes offers a more active, guided note-taking experience (sometimes likened to “TurboTax for therapy notes”), which some clinicians find straightforward and less intrusive than having an AI listen to the session audio.
Quill Therapy Notes
A therapist verbally dictating notes after a session. Quill Therapy Notes is an AI tool that helps clinicians write their therapy notes more efficiently. After each session, the therapist records a brief verbal summary of what happened, instead of typing a full note. Quill’s AI then converts this spoken summary into a well-structured progress note, formatted in the clinician’s preferred style (such as a SOAP or DAP note). The resulting note can be easily copied and pasted into any electronic health record system the therapist already uses.
NuIQ
NuIQ provides templates for different types of therapy notes (such as SOAP or DAP) before generating the documentation. NuIQ also helps therapists by automating their session notes. It can capture information from sessions in several ways. For example, a therapist can have NuIQ listen live during an in-person or telehealth session through a device’s microphone, so notes are created in real time. Alternatively, the therapist can upload an audio recording of a session or dictate a summary after the session, and NuIQ will transcribe and process that input into a note. Once the data is captured, the system generates a structured therapy note that the clinician can review and then paste into any EHR system. The software even supports group and family sessions, consolidating multiple participants’ contributions into one comprehensive note.
NuIQ places a strong emphasis on privacy and compliance. It is fully HIPAA-compliant and does not store any session data (audio, transcriptions, or generated notes) on its servers after processing. In practice, once the therapist has copied the finished note out of NuIQ and ends the session, all of that session’s information is wiped from the platform. This ensures that sensitive client details are not retained in the system after documentation is completed.
Conclusion:
Choosing the best note-taking app for therapy work depends on your needs as a mental health professional. Some therapists want an app that can write notes from audio recordings, while others prefer simple tools that guide them step by step. All the apps listed make the job of writing clinical notes easier and faster. They save time, reduce paperwork stress, and help you focus more on your clients.
If you work alone or see just a few clients a week, a free or low-cost app might be enough for you. Tools like Quill, Mentalyc, or NuIQ offer affordable plans with basic features. For busier therapists or group practices, apps like Upheal, Blueprint AI or Freed AI offer more advanced tools like treatment planning, client progress tracking, or built-in telehealth. These may cost more, but they can give extra support in running your practice smoothly.
Most of these tools are also HIPAA-compliant, meaning they keep your client data private and secure. You still have control, each app lets you review and edit the notes before finalizing them.
No one app is perfect for everyone. It’s best to try a few of them, especially if they offer free trials. Use what works best for your style of therapy and your client load. A good note-taking app should make your work easier, not harder. It should help you spend less time writing and more time helping people heal.
