How to Create Better Intake Forms for CBT Clients

Intake forms in most therapy practices are an afterthought. The therapist writes a basic form years ago, never updates it, and the new client fills it in vaguely on the morning of session one because they only just remembered it. By the time the form arrives in your hands, half the questions have one-word answers and the other half are blank.

The intake form that saves you a session has six sections, completed digitally a week before the first appointment.

Demographics and contact. Name, date of birth, address, phone, email, emergency contact. Standard fields. Pre-filled where possible if they came through your booking widget.

Presenting concerns in their words. One open-text field, capped at 200 words. “What brings you to therapy now? In your own words.” This is the field where the actual case formulation starts. Read it carefully before session one.

History. Three short fields. Previous therapy (yes/no, brief description if yes). Current medications (free text). Significant past or current medical conditions (free text). Each capped at 100 words.

Symptom screening. A symptom-screening section with brief questions you write yourself for the presentation.

Goals. One open-text field. “By the end of our work together, what would be different in your week?” Capped at 200 words. The goal in their words is the criterion every assignment should serve.

Practical. Fees policy understood (yes/no). Cancellation policy signed (yes/no). Consent for digital communication (yes/no). Insurance details if relevant.

Total time for the client to complete: 15 to 20 minutes. Done a week before session one, when they have time to think rather than rushing through it.

In my-cbt, the intake form can be built once in the worksheet builder with all six sections, including the validated symptom measures. The form sends to the new client immediately after they book through your widget. The submitted intake lives in the case file under the Information tab, ready when you sit down to prep for session one.

What this gives you is twenty minutes of session one back. Without a thorough intake, you spend half of session one on assessment basics. With it, you start session one with a working understanding of the case and the client gets straight into the actual clinical work.

The form can be refined every six months based on what’s been most useful and what’s been ignored. Across a year, the intake becomes specifically tuned to the kinds of cases your practice sees. New clients arrive with a structured record of their presentation already in your file. Treatment starts faster, formulations connect more accurately, and session one is twice as productive.