Gathering the right forms is an important part of streamlining your private practice. In this post, we will review the forms needed for your counseling private practice.
How to Find Private Practice Startup Paperwork
When you’re starting out in private practice, having the right paperwork is critical to the success of your practice. There are many resources available to collect the necessary private practice startup paperwork. Here are a few places to look:
Search Google
Google is loaded with different options when it comes to getting the right private practice startup paperwork. You can find free templates or you can pay for templates.
Search Etsy
Etsy has quite a few templates you can purchase for your practice, including some of ours!
Ask Other Mental Health Professionals
Other mental health professionals who have been in practice for years may have adapted forms that fit their needs. These can help you get started, but may be too customized for their practice and may not work for yours. It’s always a good start point to take a look at their forms when you’re looking for private practice startup forms.
Use Our Forms
One of the main ways we fund TherapyByPro is by mental health professionals purchasing our editable private practice forms! Our forms are continually improved by feedback we receive from hundreds of mental health professionals across the country. At the moment of this blog posting (12/13/2021), we are a free directory for mental health professionals, so we’d greatly appreciate your support.
Create your Own Forms
A final options is to create your own forms. This option will be the most time consuming and expensive, but will allow you to get the forms exactly how you want them both aesthetically and content-wise. Some therapists hire graphic designers and lawyers to make it look both beautiful and ethically sound, but again, this option is often very costly.
Most Essential Forms Needed For Counseling
Whether you’re just beginning your private practice or an experienced private practice business owner, having the right forms is essential. It even helps more when those forms can be easily filled in by you or your clients. Some forms may be obvious, while others may not be on the top of your mind. Here’s the most essential counseling forms:
- Counseling Intake Form – Having an effective counseling intake form is a major piece of the health of your practice. It helps you collect initial information such as: demographic info, employer and work status info, emergency contacts, health and medical info, availability, personal and family info, symptoms assessment. These can also include a financial agreement, office policies, telecounseling consent form, consent for treatment, and a health release consent form.
- Informed Consent Form – An informed consent form is an essential document that makes sure you and your client are on the same page about goals, treatment, and what you can expect from each other during your therapeutic relationship. You can obtain these forms as standalone documents or get a counseling intake form that includes an informed consent form (like our counseling intake form above)
- Counseling Treatment Plan – Counseling treatment plans are important documents for medical and mental health professionals to detail information about a client’s disease, goals of treatment, treatment options, expected length of treatment, which provider did what activities on which date, and more.
- Assessment Forms – There are several options when it comes to assessment forms. Here are a few common ones in mental health: Biopsychosocial Assessment, Biopsychosocial Spiritual Assessment, Eating Disorder Assessment, and a Psychiatric Assessment form
Here are a few more essential forms you’ll want to obtain:
- Authorization to release information
- Office Policies
- Termination Summary
- Professional Wil
- Billing or Invoice Forms
Other Helpful Forms to Run an Efficient Practice
Collecting all the forms you need can definitely be a pain. It can be expensive and time consuming to do it on your own. Another option is to purchase templates, which can streamline your private practice. Here are some forms you may need, as well as some of our editable templates we’ve built for mental health professionals:
- ABC Model CBT Template
- ABC Model for REBT Worksheet
- ACT Five Senses Worksheet PDF
- ACT Therapy Worksheets Bundle PDFs
- ACT Values Worksheet PDF
- ACT Values Clarification Worksheet PDF
- Addiction Relapse Triggers Worksheet PDF
- Anger Triggers Worksheet PDF
- Anxiety Triggers Worksheet PDF
- Behavioral Experiment Worksheet PDF
- Binge Eating Disorder Tracker Template
- Biopsychosocial Assessment Template
- Biopsychosocial Spiritual Assessment Template
- Brain Dump Worksheet PDF
- CBT Behavioral Activation Worksheet PDF
- CBT Belief Driven Formulation PDF
- CBT Continuum Worksheet PDF
- CBT Core Beliefs Worksheet PDF
- CBT Decatastrophizing Worksheet PDF
- CBT Problem Solving Worksheet PDF
- CBT Socratic Questions Worksheet
- CBT Thinking Errors Worksheet PDF
- CBT Thought Record Worksheet PDF
- CBT Worksheets Bundle PDF
- Challenging Beliefs Worksheet PDF
- Challenging Cognitive Distortions Worksheet PDF
- Challenging Negative Thoughts Questionnaire
- Challenging Negative Thoughts Worksheet PDF
- Cognitive Distortions Worksheet PDF
- Cognitive Restructuring Worksheet PDF
- Cognitive Triangle Worksheet PDF
- Confidentiality Agreement for Counseling PDF Template
- Coping Skills Worksheet Template Bundle PDFs
- Coping Skills Worksheet PDF
- Counseling Intake Form PDF
- Couples Therapy Worksheets Bundle
- Daily Medication Schedule Template
- Daily Mood Chart Template Tracker PDF
- DBT ABC Please Worksheet PDF
- DBT Check the Facts Worksheet PDF
- DBT Emotional Regulation Worksheets Bundle
- DBT Improve the Moment Worksheet
- DBT Opposite Actions Worksheet
- DBT Problem Solving Worksheet PDF
- DBT Radical Acceptance Worksheet
- DBT Radically Open Worksheet
- DBT Skills Worksheet Bundle
- DBT TIPP Skills Worksheet
- DBT Wise Mind Worksheet
- DBT Worksheets Bundle
- DEARMAN Assertive Communication Worksheet
- Depression Triggers Worksheet PDF
- Distress Tolerance Scale PDF
- Eating Disorder Assessment PDF
- Eating Disorder Worksheets Bundle
- Emotional Triggers Worksheet PDF
- Exposure and Response Prevention Worksheet PDF
- Exposure Hierarchy Worksheet PDF
- Exposure Therapy Worksheets Bundle
- Five Love Languages Worksheet
- Food Log Template PDF
- Group Therapy Consent Form
- Identifying Core Values worksheets
- Identifying Triggers Worksheet PDF
- Imaginal Exposure Script worksheet
- Informed Consent Form PDF
- Habit Tracker Template
- Letting Go Worksheet PDF
- Marriage Boundaries Worksheet
- Marriage Counseling Worksheet Bundle
- Medical Records Release Form
- Medication List Template PDF
- Medication Management Worksheet PDF
- Mental Health Check In PDF
- Mental Health Check In Questions PDF
- Mental Health Daily Check In PDF
- Mental Status Exam PDF
- Mindfulness Worksheets Bundle PDF Templates
- Narrative Therapy Worksheets Bundle PDFs
- New Counseling Practice Forms Bundle
- No Suicide Contract PDF
- Perceived Stress Scale PDF
- Protective Factors Worksheet PDF
- Psychiatric Assessment Template PDF
- Psychiatric Progress Note Template PDF
- Psychiatric Templates Bundle PDFs
- Psychiatric Treatment Plan Template
- Relapse Prevention Plan PDF
- Relationship Assessment Scale
- Relationship Building Worksheet PDF
- Relationship Conflict Resolution Worksheet
- Relationship Gratitude Journal
- Self-Care Assessment Worksheet
- Self-Esteem Worksheets Bundle
- Self-Reflection Worksheet PDF
- Setting Boundaries Worksheet PDF
- Shame Triggers Worksheet PDF
- SOAP Note PDF
- Stages of Change Worksheet PDF
- Stop Think Act Worksheet PDF
- Stress Triggers Worksheet PDF
- Substance Abuse Assessment PDF
- Substance Abuse Treatment Plan
- Substance Abuse Worksheets Bundle
- Suicide Risk Assessment Form Template PDF
- Suicide Safety Plan PDF
- Superbill Template for Mental Health
- Teletherapy Consent Form PDF
- Therapy Progress Notes
- Trauma Narrative Worksheet PDF
- Trauma Triggers Worksheet PDF
- Treatment Plan Template
View all of our mental health forms here
How Will My Clients Fill Out My Forms?
You should consider how you want your clients to fill out your forms. Here are a few options:
- In person – This is an old way and will take more time for you and the client. Documents filled out will also not be digital, so storing and accessing these will not be as easy as other options.
- In a EHR system – EHR systems are a popular choice for getting forms filled out by patients.
- Using a system like DocuSign – With systems like DocuSign, medical professionals can create and send forms to be filled out by clients and patients securely.
It’s a good idea to collect all the necessary forms your practice will need before you start seeing patients.
Final Thoughts on Forms Needed for Your Mental Health Practice
Thank you for reading our blog on the forms you’ll need for your counseling private practice! We hope you found this post to be helpful in knowing the right forms you’ll need for your practice and also where you can find them.
TherapyByPro is an online mental health directory that connects mental health pros with clients in need. If you’re a mental health professional, you can Join our community and add your practice listing here. We have assessments, practice forms, and worksheet templates mental health professionals can use to streamline their practice. View all of our mental health forms, worksheet, and assessments here.
Author: Anthony Bart
Anthony Bart is a huge mental health advocate. He has primarily positioned his marketing expertise to work with mental health professionals so that they can help as many patients as possible. He is currently the owner of BartX, TherapistX, and TherapyByPro.
