Confidant writes notes in six clinical formats. They cover the same ground; they differ in what the note leads with and how it is sectioned. Pick one as your default in Settings › Notes › Note style › Format, and set a different one for any client on their page.
SOAP
Four sections:
Subjective — what the client said, reported, or expressed (their words and experience)
Objective — what the therapist observed and the interventions used (your work)
Assessment — clinical synthesis, trajectory, diagnosis if relevant
Plan — what was agreed for between-session work and the next steps
SOAP is the standard most therapy training programs teach. It separates client experience from therapist work, which makes it easier for an outside reader (supervisor, payer, attorney) to see who said what.
DAP
Three sections:
Data — combined subjective + objective in one paragraph
Assessment — clinical synthesis
Plan — what's next
DAP collapses Subjective and Objective into one Data section. Less structure, less duplication, faster to read. Common in agency settings where caseloads are heavy.
BIRP
Four sections:
Behavior — what the client presented: what they reported and what you observed
Intervention — what you did: modalities, techniques, psychoeducation
Response — how the client responded to the interventions, and progress toward goals
Plan — what's next
BIRP leads with what the client presented, then what you did and how they responded. Common in agency and community settings.
GIRP
Four sections:
Goal — the treatment goal or goals this session worked on
Intervention — what you did
Response — how the client responded
Plan — what's next
GIRP leads with the treatment goal the session worked on. It suits goal-driven and insurance-facing documentation, and it pairs naturally with the treatment goals you keep on the client page: on the Standard model, the goals the session worked on are listed at the end of the Goal section.
PIRP
Four sections:
Problem — the presenting problem the session focused on
Intervention — what you did
Response — how the client responded
Plan — what's next
PIRP leads with the presenting problem.
SIRP
Four sections:
Situation — the client's presenting condition at this session
Intervention — what you did
Response — how the client responded
Plan — what's next
SIRP leads with the client's situation at this session.
Which to pick
Pick SOAP if your training, supervisor, or payer expects it. SOAP is the safer default for billing audits and forensic contexts.
Pick DAP if you find SOAP redundant for your practice and you don't have an external requirement to use SOAP.
Pick BIRP, GIRP, PIRP or SIRP if your agency, payer or EHR charts in that format. GIRP is the natural choice if you document against treatment goals.
Whatever you choose, the Settings page lists the sections each format writes under the picker, and the client page shows the sections for the format a client is set to.
You can change the default any time in Settings › Notes › Note style › Format, and set a different format per client on the client detail page (e.g. you mostly write SOAP but one specific case is charted in BIRP).
Every format includes a Recap
Whichever you pick, Confidant also generates a Session Recap — a chronological bulleted list designed to be a fast pre-session re-orient. The recap is for your eyes only; it's not part of the formal note and isn't included when you copy the note out to your EHR.
See The session recap field for more on how to use it.
Imported notes keep their format
When you import a note written in another system, Confidant reads its section labels and stores it in the matching format (SOAP, DAP, BIRP, GIRP, PIRP or SIRP), so it sits alongside your generated notes with the right sections.
Switching formats on existing notes
Change the format in Settings › Notes › Note style, or for one client on their page. Then open the note and click Regenerate note. If the note was written in a different format, Confidant asks what to do. For example: "This note is SOAP, but this client's notes now use BIRP." The buttons show the formats for that note:
Switch to [new format]: the AI writes a new note in the new format from the same transcript and replaces the old one. Every section is rewritten, so edits you made to the old note don't carry over.
Keep [current format]: regenerates the note in its original format and keeps your edited sections.
Cancel: changes nothing.
Regenerating a single section always keeps the note's original format.