SOAP note examples
SOAP notes for play therapy sessions
Play therapy notes ask you to do something counterintuitive: treat play as clinical data without pretending you can read a child's mind. The observable belongs in the note — what the child chose, how the play was organized, how themes shifted across sessions — while interpretation stays tentative and clearly labeled as yours. Two other things set these notes apart: the Subjective section often comes from a caregiver rather than the client, so attribution matters; and progress must be framed developmentally, because "limited verbal processing" is a finding in an adult note and a Tuesday in a six-year-old's.
Fictional example: a 6-year-old client, seventh session of child-centered play therapy, referred for anxiety and clinginess following a household move and parental separation. All details are invented for illustration.
Example note
Subjective
Caregiver (mother) reported by collateral contact before session that bedtime resistance has eased from nightly to "two hard nights this week," and that client separated at school drop-off without crying three of five days. Client, in session, announced "the babies are safe in this house now" during dollhouse play. Caregiver reported no changes in appetite and one episode of bedwetting, down from three the prior week. No new stressors reported in the home.
Objective
Client separated from caregiver in the waiting room without protest, a change from sessions one through four. Selected dollhouse and animal figures for the third consecutive session. Play themes: containment and protection (placing baby figures inside fenced areas), with a new repair element — rebuilding a knocked-over wall rather than abandoning the scene, observed twice. Play was organized and sustained for the full session. Affect bright to neutral; brief frustration when a fence piece fell, self-recovered within a minute without adult assistance.
Assessment
Thematic progression across sessions — from chaotic crash play in early sessions toward organized containment and now repair — is consistent with the working formulation of adjustment-related anxiety beginning to resolve, and is corroborated by caregiver-reported gains in separation and sleep. Self-recovery from in-session frustration suggests improving affect regulation, age-expected for 6 but absent at intake. These remain inferences from play pattern and collateral report, not client statements. Functioning is tracking toward Goal 1 (separation without distress at school and bedtime). Risk: no safety concerns reported by caregiver or observed in session.
Plan
Continue weekly child-centered play therapy. Next session: maintain nondirective stance; track whether repair themes persist without prompting. Caregiver collateral session scheduled in two weeks to review the bedtime routine plan and update on co-parenting schedule changes. Caregiver to continue the brief goodbye ritual at drop-off and log hard nights. Coordinate with school counselor per existing release if separation difficulties recur. Next appointment scheduled.
Tips for play therapy notes
- Document play as observable data — materials chosen, themes (containment, repair, nurturing), organization, and shifts across sessions — the trajectory of themes is your progress measure.
- Attribute every Subjective statement to its source: 'caregiver reported' and 'client stated in session' are different kinds of evidence, and the note should say which is which.
- Frame findings against developmental norms ('age-expected,' 'absent at intake') so a reviewer can tell clinical change from ordinary maturation.
- Log caregiver collateral contacts as part of the record — who, when, what was reported, and what was recommended — they are clinical content in child work, not administrative noise.
Pitfalls to avoid
- Over-interpreting a single session ('the buried tiger represents the father') — write the observation, keep conclusions tentative, and let patterns across sessions carry the inference.
- Letting the caregiver's agenda become the note — the mother's report is data about the home, not an objective account of the child's interior state.
- Forgetting who holds the record: a parent in a custody dispute may have access rights, so write every line as if both households will read it.
- Documenting 'played with dollhouse' with no thematic content — that tells a reviewer nothing about why this is treatment rather than supervised recess.
Notes like this, drafted on your Mac.
CouchNotes turns your session — recorded, dictated, or imported — into a structured draft in this format, entirely on your device. Free SOAP/DAP/BIRP templates meanwhile.