Schema therapy session note template, with a completed example

A schema therapy session note is a short, dated, factual record of one session. It states which early maladaptive schemas were triggered, which modes appeared and how they shifted, which core emotional need was at stake, which technique you used and what it produced, all linked to the case formulation and the treatment plan. Its job is to track the client from one session to the next, not to retell the session.

The vocabulary to use in the note

Notes are clearer when they use the terms of Young's model as the reference texts define them. We follow the Cambridge Guide to Schema Therapy, and we suggest keeping the same labels throughout the record.

Early maladaptive schemas

The Cambridge Guide lists 18 schemas in 5 domains: Disconnection and Rejection, Impaired Autonomy and Performance, Impaired Limits, Other-Directedness, and Overvigilance and Inhibition. Examples include Abandonment/Instability, Defectiveness/Shame, Subjugation, Unrelenting Standards/Hypercriticalness and Punitiveness. In the note, write each schema together with what showed it: something the client said, a reaction, a behaviour.

Coping styles and modes

The three coping styles are surrender, avoidance and overcompensation. Young, Klosko and Weishaar (2003) define a mode as those schemas or schema operations, adaptive or maladaptive, that are currently active for an individual. The Cambridge Guide groups modes into child modes (including Vulnerable Child, Angry Child, Impulsive Child, Happy Child), critic modes (Punitive Critic, Demanding Critic, Guilt-Inducing Critic), coping modes (including Detached Protector, Detached Self-Soother, Compliant Surrenderer, Self-Aggrandiser, Overcontroller modes) and the Healthy Adult.

Core emotional needs

The Cambridge Guide keeps five original needs: secure attachments to others; autonomy, competence and sense of identity; freedom to express valid needs and emotions; spontaneity and play; realistic limits and self-control. Naming the need at stake in each session is what sets a schema therapy note apart from a CBT note.

Techniques

The techniques you will record most often are imagery (including imagery rescripting), chair work and the empty chair, limited reparenting (which the ISST describes as the establishment of a secure attachment through the therapist), empathic confrontation, flashcards, and cognitive and behavioural techniques.

What a schema therapy session note should contain

A schema therapy note keeps the headings of any session note (basics, content, intervention, response, next steps) and adds five of its own: schemas triggered with their evidence, the mode sequence in the session (for example Detached Protector, then Punitive Critic, then Vulnerable Child), the unmet need, the place of the Healthy Adult, and the therapeutic relationship (limited reparenting, empathic confrontation). The mode sequence is the most useful field for tracking change. The template below details each field.

For the general structure of a session note, see our CBT session note template and our ACT therapy session notes, two related approaches whose tools schema therapy partly draws on.

Schema therapy session note template, ready to copy

Copy this template into your software or word processor. Replace the prompts in brackets.

• Client: (initials or internal ID)
• Date, session no., length: (dd/mm/yyyy, no., minutes)
• Phase of treatment: (assessment and formulation / mode work / autonomy and ending)
• Plan goal addressed today: (copy the goal as worded in the plan)
• Events since last session: (key events, between-session task done or not, flashcard used or not)
• Trigger worked on: (specific situation, when, with whom, a short quote from the client)
• Schemas triggered: (schema name, evidence observed; two or three at most)
• Coping style: (surrender / avoidance / overcompensation, and the behaviour that shows it)
• Mode sequence in session: (mode 1, then mode 2, then mode 3; what moved the client from one to the next)
• Mode intensity: (if you use a scale, always the same one, for example 0 to 10, before and after the technique)
• Unmet core need: (secure attachment / autonomy and competence / expressing needs and emotions / spontaneity and play / realistic limits)
• Technique: (imagery, imagery rescripting, chair work, empty chair, empathic confrontation, flashcard, cognitive or behavioural technique; on what material)
• How the technique went: (three to five lines, observable facts)
• Client response: (emotion, relief, resistance, what changed)
• Healthy Adult: (what the client could say or do from that position)
• Therapeutic relationship: (limited reparenting, empathic confrontation, rupture and repair)
• Link to formulation: (confirmed / to revise on a given point)
• Between sessions: (flashcard given, exercise, noticing modes)
• Next session: (topic to pick up, planned technique)

Fully completed fictional example

Fictional client, no real data. Ms L., 34, manager, seen for low mood and harsh self-criticism. Working formulation: Defectiveness/Shame and Unrelenting Standards schemas, strong Punitive Critic, Detached Protector as the main coping mode.

• Client: L. A.
• Date, session no., length: 14/10/2026, session 14, 50 minutes
• Phase of treatment: mode work
• Plan goal addressed today: reduce the hold of the Punitive Critic after a mistake at work
• Events since last session: reread her flashcard three times, she says; cancelled an evening out with a friend
• Trigger worked on: her manager pointed out a typo in a report on Monday. "I told myself I was useless and everyone would see it."
• Schemas triggered: Defectiveness/Shame (intense shame, wish to disappear); Unrelenting Standards (reread the report until 1 am)
• Coping style: avoidance (cancelled the evening, withdrew), then overcompensation (repeated rereading)
• Mode sequence in session: Detached Protector at the start (flat account, "it's no big deal"); Punitive Critic when the therapist returned to the comment ("I deserve to be told"); Vulnerable Child during the empty chair (tears, "I'm scared they won't want me any more")
• Mode intensity: Punitive Critic 8/10 before, 4/10 after; Vulnerable Child 7/10 during, 3/10 at the end (0 to 10 scale agreed with the client in session 6)
• Unmet core need: secure attachment (being accepted despite the mistake)
• Technique: chair work (Punitive Critic chair, Vulnerable Child chair), then a short imagery exercise on the same scene
• How the technique went: the client voiced the critic from one chair. The therapist modelled the Healthy Adult and spoke to the critic to set limits. The client changed chairs and said what the little girl felt. Short imagery: she sees herself as a child with her father correcting her homework; the therapist enters the image and protects the child.
• Client response: tears, then calmer; says she feels "less weight on my chest"
• Healthy Adult: at the end, says unprompted "a typo isn't a serious fault, I can fix it"
• Therapeutic relationship: limited reparenting (validating her fear of rejection); empathic confrontation about the cancelled evening, well received
• Link to formulation: confirmed; the link between the Punitive Critic and her father's corrections is clearer
• Between sessions: new flashcard written together ("When I make a mistake, the critic shouts. What I know as an adult: a mistake can be fixed. What I need: a kind word, not a punishment."); note each day which mode shows up after a mistake
• Next session: return to the imagery of her father; revisit the cancelled evening

Tracking modes from one session to the next

One session note on its own says little. What helps the client, your supervisor and you is seeing how the same mode changes over months. We suggest keeping a short tracking grid in the record, one line per session, always with the same columns. Fictional example for Ms L.:

• Session 6: dominant mode Punitive Critic 9/10; Healthy Adult absent; technique: mode psychoeducation, mode map
• Session 10: Punitive Critic 8/10; Healthy Adult echoing the therapist; technique: imagery
• Session 14: Punitive Critic 8 then 4/10; Healthy Adult voiced unprompted at the end; technique: chair work then imagery
• Session 18: (to complete)

This grid ties the note to your case formulation template and your psychotherapy treatment plan: when the grid stops moving for several sessions, it is time to revisit one or the other. The numbers only mean something if the scale stays the same; write it once at the top of the grid.

What goes in the record, and what stays out

In the UK, the BACP Ethical Framework (paragraph 15) says "We will keep accurate records that:" are "adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the type of service being provided" and "comply with the applicable data protection requirements". Clients can also ask for a copy of their data under data protection law; see our page on subject access requests for therapy notes.

In France, article 23 of the 2021 code of ethics for psychologists requires psychologists to collect, process, file and archive their personal notes in a way that protects people's privacy and professional confidentiality. The CNIL reference framework for medical and allied health practices is addressed to health professionals in private practice and does not name psychologists or psychotherapists; it allows data to be kept for twenty years from the patient's last episode of care. The code of ethics sets no retention period, so we suggest treating twenty years as a benchmark, not an obligation.

In practice, we suggest:

• Write: facts, short quotes, schemas and modes named with their evidence, techniques, client response, tasks, link to the plan.
• Word with care: mode names. "Punitive Critic" or "Vulnerable Child" are working terms the client knows if they have had mode psychoeducation. Write them the way you presented them.
• Keep out of the shared record: your working hypotheses, your own reactions (therapist schemas triggered), details about third parties that do not serve the work. Their place is your supervision notes.
• Do not write: a word-for-word account of the imagery, judgements about the person, details about identifiable third parties.
• United Kingdom: BACP Ethical Framework (paragraph 15), UK GDPR.
• Ireland: GDPR; we suggest following your professional association's guidance.
• France: 2021 code of ethics for psychologists (articles 19 and 23), GDPR, CNIL framework as a benchmark for retention.
• Belgium, Switzerland: their own rules (Belgian Data Protection Authority, Swiss FDPIC); we suggest checking with your authority and your professional body.

Common mistakes

• Listing every schema every session. Two or three, the ones actually worked on, are enough.
• Noting modes without their order. "Detached Protector, Vulnerable Child" does not say what moved the client from one to the other, which is the clinically useful part.
• Leaving out the need. Without a named need, the note reads like a CBT note and reparenting loses its target.
• Retelling the imagery word for word. Three to five lines of facts are enough: the scene, the intervention, the response.
• Changing the intensity scale midway, which makes the grid unreadable.
• Never noting the Healthy Adult, even though it is what shows progress.
• Labelling the person ("manipulative client") instead of describing a mode and what showed it.
• Cutting the note off from the plan. If no session mentions a goal, the plan is no longer being followed.

Checklist before you sign off the note

• Date, session number and phase of treatment are stated.
• The trigger is concrete and dated.
• Each schema mentioned has its evidence.
• The mode sequence is written in order, with what moved the client between modes.
• The unmet need is named.
• The technique and client response fit in a few factual lines.
• The Healthy Adult is mentioned, even if only to say it was absent.
• The plan goal is cited and the tracking grid is updated.
• The flashcard or between-session task is noted.
• Nothing in the note would hurt the client if they read it; your hypotheses are kept elsewhere.

You will find more templates on our clinical document templates page.

Why Delta suits schema therapy

The specific challenge of this approach is following the same modes over months. Delta is the clinical assistant that keeps the memory of every client: it takes your approach into account, generates the report for each session (short summary, detailed summary, topics for next session) and updates the record (care summary, tracked goals). You find how the modes have changed from one session to the next in one place.

You choose how to take notes: during the session, Delta transcribes what is said; after the session, you dictate your observations, and you can add written notes. Data stays in Europe, in France, on infrastructure certified for health data; client names and identifying details are pseudonymised before the AI, no audio file is kept and data is never used to train a model. Delta runs in the browser, with a Mac and Windows app recommended in session. The Free plan includes 10 sessions a month with no card; the Pro plan is EUR 35 a month including VAT with no commitment, or EUR 29 a month including VAT billed annually (EUR 348 a year).

Sources

• BACP Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions, working to professional standards (paragraph 15)
• Cambridge Guide to Schema Therapy, chapter 1: core emotional needs, schemas, coping styles and schema modes
• International Society of Schema Therapy (ISST), Limited Reparenting
• Code de déontologie des psychologues, 2021 (France)
• CNIL reference framework for medical and allied health practices (France)

Pages accessed on 1 November 2026.