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A group therapy note is the progress note a clinician writes for each member of a group psychotherapy session. It pairs a brief group-level summary of the session's topic and interventions with individualized documentation of that member's participation, response, and progress. Group therapists write one note per member after every session. A typical note runs 100 to 250 words per member.
Group therapists, psychologists, counselors, clinical social workers
Treating clinician, group facilitators, supervisors, payers, auditors
100 to 250 words per member · 5 to 10 minutes per member by hand (clinical team estimate)
Two-layer progress note: group summary plus individual sections (compare: SOAP, DAP)
After each group psychotherapy session, one note per member
No law mandates a group note form; multi-client confidentiality and payer individualization rules shape it
A group therapy note is the progress note a clinician writes for each member of a group psychotherapy session. Unlike SOAP or DAP, it is not a named format with a single origin: no professional body has standardized a group note form, and group treatment itself is older than every charting framework used to document it (Joseph Pratt was running structured tuberculosis classes in Boston by 1905, six decades before the problem-oriented record gave medicine SOAP). What defines the document is a two-layer structure. One layer summarizes the session the whole group attended: topic, curriculum, facilitator interventions. The other documents one member's participation, response, mental status, risk, and progress. Clinicians and payers also call it a group psychotherapy progress note, group session note, or group counseling note.
Two clarifications save a lot of confusion. First, for clinical and payer purposes there is one note per member, filed in that member's record; a narrative about the whole group with no per-member content is an attendance or program record, not clinical documentation of anyone's treatment. Medicare contractor guidance describes exactly this split: a common portion for the session and a second portion for each patient's record. Second, each member's note must stand alone without exposing the other members. Every member can request their own record, so peers appear by role ("another member"), never by name. A group therapy note is a progress note, part of the standard record; it is not a psychotherapy note, the separately protected category of private process notes under HIPAA, a definition that explicitly covers group counseling sessions.
Anyone who runs a therapy group writes them, and that is most of the field: in SAMHSA's national facilities survey, 86 percent of US mental health treatment facilities offered group therapy. Group therapists in outpatient practice, facilitators of CBT and DBT skills groups, process group leaders, and clinicians in IOP and PHP programs, SUD treatment, inpatient units, and community mental health all write one note per member after every session. For a session with one client, use an individual progress note; for partners or families treated together, a family or couple note carries different consent and access rules. Psychoeducational and support groups still deserve documentation, but whether they count as billable group psychotherapy depends on the payer and on whether the session was active treatment.
A group therapy note has two layers. The group summary describes the session everyone attended and can read the same across member notes. The individual sections describe one member's experience of it and must be different in every note. Keeping the layers visibly separate is what makes each note a distinct record of a distinct service.
Group header & attendance. Group name and type, date, session number, facilitator and credentials, the count of members present, and start and stop times. Pitfall: listing other members by name in this member's note; the roster belongs in an attendance log, not in every chart.
Group summary: topic & interventions. The shared layer: the session topic or curriculum item, what you did as facilitator, and group process in general terms. Pitfall: letting the shared summary be the whole note; the individualized sections below are what auditors read for.
Individual participation & response. This member's engagement, the work they did in session, and how they responded to interventions. Describe peer interaction by role ("another member", "a peer"), never by name. Pitfall: quoting or describing another member's disclosure in this member's record.
Mental status & risk. Member-specific observations and a risk statement each session, the same monitoring you would document in individual work. Pitfall: silence on risk; a group setting does not suspend individual monitoring.
Progress toward treatment plan goals. Tie the session to the member's own numbered goal on their treatment plan. Pitfall: substituting the group's purpose for the member's goal; medical necessity is judged member by member.
Plan & next steps. Homework, the next session, and any indicated individual follow-up. Pitfall: a bare "continue group"; say what continuing group is meant to achieve for this member.
Client: [initials] Date: Session #: Group name/type: Facilitator(s)/credentials: Members present (count): Start/stop time: GROUP SUMMARY (may be shared across member notes) Topic / curriculum: Facilitator interventions: INDIVIDUAL (this member only) Participation & response: Mental status & risk: Progress toward plan goal(s): Plan / next steps: Clinician signature/credentials: Date signed:
Free to use and share, no signup. The PDF includes a one-page cheat sheet with section-by-section pitfalls and a pre-sign checklist; the DOCX is the blank template, ready to adapt.
Scenario: adult member of an eight-person CBT skills group for anxiety, session 5 of a planned 10. All details are fictional.
Client: J.R., 41 · Date: 07/14/2026 · Group: Managing Anxiety (CBT skills), session 5 of 10 · Members present: 8 · Facilitator: L. Ortega, LPC · Start/stop: 5:02 pm to 6:00 pm
Group summary: Session topic: cognitive restructuring, identifying and testing anxious predictions. Facilitator reviewed thought-record homework, taught the evidence-for and evidence-against technique with a worked example, and led a paired practice exercise. Group engagement was active; all members participated in at least one exercise.
Participation & response: J.R. arrived on time and volunteered a work-presentation example, identifying "I will freeze and everyone will notice" as the hot thought. With coaching, generated three pieces of disconfirming evidence and re-rated belief in the prediction from 90% to 55%. Offered supportive feedback to another member during paired practice. Affect anxious early in session, settling with task focus; speech and behavior otherwise unremarkable.
Mental status & risk: Alert, oriented, engaged; no abnormal movements; thought process organized. Denies suicidal ideation and self-harm urges; no risk indicators observed; routine monitoring continues.
Progress: Working Goal 2 (reduce avoidance of feared work situations). Reports volunteering to answer one question in a meeting this week, the first time since intake.
Plan: Continue weekly group. Homework: one thought record on a live work situation. Re-administer GAD-7 at session 6. No individual session indicated. Signed: L. Ortega, LPC, 07/14/2026.
This sample is fictional and for educational purposes. It does not describe a real patient. The group summary paragraph may repeat across member notes for the same session; everything after it is individualized.
Writing these after every session? BastionGPT drafts complete notes from bullets, dictation, or a transcript.
Generate a note from bulletsEvery member's note is part of that member's designated record set: the member can request it, payers can audit it, and on a records request the presence of other people in the story does not automatically block access. Under 45 CFR 164.524, denying access because a note references another person requires a licensed professional's judgment that access is reasonably likely to cause that person substantial harm. Write each note assuming it will be read, and keep the group roster in a separate attendance record rather than in every chart. Keep private process material out entirely; it belongs in segregated psychotherapy notes, which Medicare reviewers are instructed not to request. For substance use disorder groups, 42 CFR Part 2 adds a distinctive subpoena rule: a subpoena alone does not permit release, and a Part 2 court order is also required.
For payers, individualization is the requirement and the format is a convention. One Medicare contractor's billing article, CGS A57065, describes an optional two-portion group note: a common portion with the date, session length, and key issues ("Names of the patients in the group should not appear in this group note"), and a per-member portion on that patient's participation and any significant changes. Arizona Medicaid's June 2026 billing guidance is blunter: "Documentation cloning is strictly prohibited," and group progress notes must show each member's response and how members and visits differ. Tie every note to the member's own treatment plan goal, and document session duration even though 90853 is not a timed code, because local policies and other payers still expect the time to be visible.
Group documentation fails audits for individualization problems more than format problems. A national OIG audit of Medicare psychotherapy claims estimated $580 million in improper payments, with 128 of 216 sampled enrollee-days failing at least one requirement, and state payers now name group notes directly: Arizona Medicaid's June 2026 guidance requires exact duration, diagnosis, each member's response to services, and "documentation showing the differences and the needs of the patient for each visit." The BastionGPT Clinical Advisory Board sees the same errors most often in group therapy note reviews:
| Aspect | United States | Canada | Australia |
|---|---|---|---|
| Status | No law mandates a group note form; Medicare contractor billing articles describe an optional common-portion-plus-individual-portion format | College standards bind by profession; Ontario psychologists must keep a separate record per group participant, while registered psychotherapists may keep joint records with controlled access | Psychology Board code of conduct binds registered psychologists; MBS rules govern Better Access group services |
| Terminology | Group therapy note, group psychotherapy note (90853) | Group or joint record, session note | Group psychological therapy service note (MBS group items) |
| What changes | 90853 is untimed nationally and has no national size rule; local policies differ (one contractor caps groups at 12) | No national billing code; provincial programs and college file-architecture rules lead | Better Access groups run 4 to 10 members with set duration tiers, and the provider must record the date, time, and people attending |
| Retention | No universal HIPAA rule for patient charts; state law and payer contracts govern | Ontario colleges expect 10 years from last contact, or 10 years after the client turns 18, whichever is later | Psychology Board: 7 years from last entry for adults; until the 25th birthday for clients under 18 |
The two-layer structure travels well across all three countries. What changes is the payer layer and the file architecture: who may share a record, how attendance is proved, and how long everything is kept.
BastionGPT is specifically trained, tuned, and clinically tested on group therapy notes.
See how clinicians use it day to day on the AI therapy notes page.
Many BastionGPT users report saving more than 90 minutes per day on documentation.
HIPAA-compliant with a signed BAA on every plan. Your data is never used to train models. BastionGPT drafts, you review and sign.
Yes. Each billed member needs their own note, in their own record, documenting their participation and response. A single narrative about the whole group is an attendance or program record, not clinical documentation for anyone. One Medicare contractor's billing article describes the standard architecture: a common portion plus a per-member portion. In Ontario the file structure depends on your college: psychologists must keep a separate record for each group participant, while registered psychotherapists may keep joint records with controlled access.
No. A shared factual paragraph about the session topic and facilitator interventions is acceptable, but everything after it must be individualized. Arizona Medicaid's June 2026 billing guidance states "Documentation cloning is strictly prohibited" and requires notes to show the differences among members and visits. Cloned notes read to a reviewer as one service copied to many charts.
No federal rule bans it, but payer policy can. CGS, the Medicare contractor for Kentucky and Ohio, instructs that "Names of the patients in the group should not appear in this group note," meaning the common portion shared across records. The portable practice: describe peers by role ("another member"), never by name, and keep the roster in a separate attendance record rather than in each member's chart.
90853 is not a time-based code, and Medicare contractor guidance applies its start-and-stop-times rule to the individual psychotherapy codes 90832, 90834, and 90837. Record the session length anyway: the CGS group-note format documents "length of time for the session," Australian MBS group items are duration-tiered, and auditors read missing time as missing support.
No national CMS rule sets either number. The caps you see quoted are local or foreign rules: First Coast's LCD says groups should stay at "maximum 12 people" in its jurisdiction, and Australia's Better Access group items run 4 to 10 members. Check your own contractor and payer before treating any number as the rule.
An individual progress note documents a session that belongs to one client. A group therapy note adds a shared layer describing the session everyone attended, and a constraint individual notes never face: it must document this member's experience without exposing anyone else's. Billing differs too. Individual psychotherapy codes are time-based; 90853 is untimed.
It depends on the payer and on what actually happened. For Medicare, group psychotherapy must be active treatment ordered as part of the member's treatment plan; teaching, recreation, and social activity do not become psychotherapy because a therapist leads them. A diagnosis-linked, clinically active skills group can qualify. Australia's Better Access group services explicitly pair psychoeducation with therapy such as CBT, so the same session can sit differently in different systems.
The member generally gets their own note. A reference to another person does not automatically block access: under 45 CFR 164.524, denial on that ground requires a licensed professional's judgment that access would likely cause the other person substantial harm. For substance use disorder groups under 42 CFR Part 2, a subpoena alone is not enough; a Part 2 court order is also required. Notes written by role, with the roster kept separately, release cleanly.
Yes. Give it the group summary once plus a line or two per member, and it drafts an individualized note for each member for your review. It can also check finished notes for cloned text, missing individualized content, or another member's name before you sign. BastionGPT is HIPAA-compliant with a signed BAA on every plan, and your data is never used to train models.
The compliance claims on this page trace to these authorities, last verified July 2026:
Educational content, not legal or billing advice. Sample notes are fictional. Follow your organization's policies and your board, payer, and jurisdiction requirements.