How to document a 50-minute therapy session with AI

The short answer: a 50-minute therapy session can be documented through three calm stages. Before the meeting, confirm the correct person and session, inform them and obtain appropriate consent, choose the in-person or online mode, and review only the context you need. During the meeting, Clara accompanies from the browser while you remain present and can write your own notes. Afterwards, check the transcript, correct the editable clinical draft or add your own notes where needed, and mark the session as reviewed when appropriate.

The 50 minutes do not need to become a technical script. The documentation workflow should fit around the therapeutic meeting, not ask the meeting to fit around it.

Before: prepare consent, setup, and context

Begin by confirming that you have opened the right person's record and the intended session. This simple check keeps one person's context from entering another record and locates the meeting within the correct therapeutic process.

Explain the workflow in language the person can understand and obtain the appropriate consent. Opening the technology in the room does not make consent implicit. The person needs to know what will be recorded, why it is being used, and how the information will be handled.

Then choose the setting that matches the meeting:

• In person: open Clara in the browser and confirm microphone permission before the session begins.
• Online: confirm microphone permission first, choose the correct video-call tab, and turn on the option to share that tab's audio.

Resolve a blocked permission or incorrect tab before your attention is fully engaged in the meeting. Once the person begins speaking, the setup should be able to recede.

Review the pre-session context with restraint. You may see the session number, previous-session date, an at-a-glance summary, your notes, key people, and relevant timeline events. You do not need to reread the whole history. The guide to preparing for a session with previous clinical records shows how to recover the thread without turning preparation into a fixed agenda.

Before moving on, check three things: the person is correct, consent is clear, and you remember enough context to listen afresh.

During: quiet accompaniment

During the session, Clara remains in the background. The clinician is still the person listening, observing, asking, and deciding how to hold the work. Clinical presence cannot be delegated.

You can add your own notes when you want to preserve a phrase, observation, or reminder in your language. There is no need to summarise the meeting while it is happening. Your notes can later help you compare the generated synthesis with what you noticed and remember.

For an in-person session, keep the device stable and avoid changing browser permissions during the meeting. For an online session, the video call remains in its tab while Clara uses the browser-tab audio workflow. In both settings, the conversation remains central.

If the recording is interrupted

An interruption should not disappear into the background. If the browser reports a problem, note approximately when it happened and follow the recovery guidance when the clinical moment allows. Do not assume that the entire passage was preserved.

After the meeting, inspect the transcript carefully around that point. If clinically relevant material is missing, add only what you can reconstruct confidently from your own notes and memory. A technical gap should not be filled with uncertain detail.

An interrupted browser recording may leave a local recovery copy on the clinician's device for up to 7 days. It can be removed sooner after recovery or through manual deletion. The copy supports recovery of the workflow, but it does not remove the need to check the resulting text.

After: review two different outputs

Clara prepares a transcript and a separate clinical note draft. They are different documents and can contain different kinds of error.

Check the transcript first

The transcript is automatically prepared from the audio. It can contain errors and should not be treated as an infallible account. Check:

• Names, dates, medication, and clinical terms.
• Speaker attribution where it changes the meaning.
• Missing words, broken sentences, or wording that shifts the sense.
• The section around any interruption or audio problem.

This pass helps you identify whether a later problem began in the transcript or was introduced by the synthesis.

The transcript is read-only. If you spot an error, account for it when correcting the editable clinical draft or completing your own notes.

Then review the clinical draft

The clinical note selects and organises material. A clear draft can still omit, add, or overinterpret. Check:

• Whether facts and chronology are accurate.
• Whether it separates what the person said, what you observed, and what you considered as a hypothesis.
• Whether important material is missing or unnecessary intimate detail has been retained.
• Whether an open formulation has been written with more certainty than the session supported.
• Whether risk, protective factors, agreements, and follow-up are complete and contextualised.
• Whether the wording reflects your therapeutic orientation and way of thinking about the case.

The guide to reviewing generated notes without losing clinical judgment offers a more detailed sequence. You can also read what AI-assisted notes can and cannot do safely.

Make the changes the record needs. Mark the session as reviewed only when it represents your work appropriately. This status records that the review has taken place. Generated synthesis can support continuity, but it cannot replace formulation or professional judgment.

Audio retention and data handling

Session audio may be retained securely on the server for up to 14 days after processing and is then deleted. A local recovery copy from an interrupted browser recording may remain on the device for up to 7 days, or be removed sooner after recovery or manual deletion.

Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Contracted providers process only what is needed to deliver the service, and clinical data is not used to train models. The GDPR guide for psychologists places these details within the wider responsibilities of clinical practice.

A before, during, and after checklist

Before

• I have confirmed the correct person and session.
• I have informed the person and obtained appropriate consent.
• I have chosen in-person or online mode and checked browser permissions.
• I have reviewed only the context needed to arrive oriented.

During

• My attention remains with the person.
• I write my own brief notes only when they support the work.
• If an interruption appears, I locate the point and do not assume the record is complete.

After

• I check transcription errors first.
• I then check synthesis errors, omissions, and unsupported inferences.
• I adjust facts, attribution, hypotheses, risk, protection, and level of detail.
• I mark the session as reviewed when the record is appropriate.
• I leave enough context to return to the process next time.

The therapy session transcription page shows this workflow inside Clara. The product can accompany the documentation quietly while presence, review, and clinical decisions remain with you.

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