How to create a summary of your week to share with your therapist

Decide what the summary is for

Start with the goal. Are you trying to show how the week went overall, flag a few hard days, or make sure a specific topic gets time? Knowing the purpose keeps the summary short and useful.

What to include

Aim for what a person can read in about a minute. These pieces tend to be the most helpful:

1. How your mood, anxiety, and energy moved across the week.
2. How you slept.
3. The days that stood out, and what happened on them.
4. One to three topics you want to talk about.
5. Anything you tried since last time, and how it went.

Keep the wording simple

Write the way you'd say it out loud. "Rough Tuesday after a fight with my brother, slept four hours" tells your therapist more than a paragraph of careful summary.

If something is too private or hard to write down, leave it out and bring it up in the room instead.

Choose which notes to share

Your notes are yours. You can share a number-and-chart summary without any written notes, or include only the ones you're comfortable with. It's fine to change your mind from one week to the next.

Send it before the session

Sending your summary a day ahead, or a few hours before, gives your therapist time to look at it. It can save the first ten minutes of catching up. Ask whether they'd like to receive one, and in what form.

Send it through a channel you trust, and avoid posting links anywhere public.

Make it a habit

A summary is easiest when you've been collecting small pieces all week. A quick daily check-in means the summary mostly builds itself, instead of becoming one more thing to do the night before.