Counseling Intake Form
A comprehensive and easy-to-use counseling intake form. Designed to ensure new patients are received seamlessly and their concerns and needs are consistently met.
Fact Checked by Ericka Pingol.
What is a Counseling Intake Form?
Whenever a new patient begins receiving treatment at a counseling practice, they are required to complete what are called intake forms. The exact content of an intake form will differ depending on some specific aspects of the counseling business, but their general components will remain the same. Counseling intake forms aim to provider the business with enough information so they can provide the highest quality care possible to patients when they first come into the practice. Some of this information includes the patient’s personal details (e.g. name, contact details, address), insurance information, past medical history, and what the patient is hoping to get out of counseling. All of this data provides counselors with the kind of insight they need to properly address the patient’s care needs. Although these intake forms are definitely necessary, they can also contribute to the care process being less seamless than desired. To combat this and ensure the intake process is as smooth and efficient as possible, we’ve designed an intuitive . You can access this template easily, before editing and customizing it to suit your professional needs. In this guide we’ll highlight some of the uses and benefits of the counseling intake form template, as well as running you through how you can utilize it effectively within your business.
Printable Counseling Intake Form
Download these templates for counseling intake forms to improve your paperless intake process and HIPAA compliance.
How to Use This Template for Counseling Intake Form
If you are working at a counseling business, you may find it difficult organizing and adhering to the schedule, especially if you are seeing multiple patients. This is one of the reasons why we’ve ensured our counseling intake form template is very easy to implement into your practice – just follow these steps:
Step One: Download the PDF template
Naturally, step one is downloading the PDF template. There is a link to the document a little further down on this page and you simply have to click on it and you’ll be taken directly to the PDF document. From here, you can save the template onto your computer, where it can be edited directly or printed out if you prefer hard copies.
Step Two: Give to patients
When a new patient is coming into your counseling practice, it’s time to give them the intake form. To make this process as seamless as possible, we think it is a good idea to give the intake form to the patient prior to their first appointment. This will allow them to complete the form and deliver it back to the practice, ensuring the counselor is well-informed and prepared for their first session. The other option you have is to request patients fill out the intake form when they are in the waiting room on the day of their appointment. Although this system works, it can be more time-consuming than having your patient fill it out prior to coming in.
Step Three: Upload data to your practice’s system
After a patient has completed the intake form, you need to upload the information into your system. This data will be used to organize and process payments, and insurance claims, verify details, and inform future clinical decisions. As such, it is imperative that it is registered accurately within the platform that your business uses, where it can be accessed by authorized users when necessary.
Step Four: Ensure it is stored securely
When you store your intake forms, you need to ensure they are being properly secured at all times. These documents contain confidential information regarding the patient and their identity, so there need to be physical and electronic safeguards in place protecting them.
Counseling Intake Form Example (Sample)
Utilizing a brand new template in your business may seem like a slightly daunting change, but we’re here to assure you it truly couldn't be easier. To help you visualize what this process looks like and give you an insight into a complete intake form, we’ve created a sample document. While the information included in the document will differ from the forms that you create, the general structure will remain the same.
Download this Counseling Intake Form Example here:
Who Can Use this Printable Counseling Intake Form (PDF)?
Counseling intake forms are reasonably specific in their applicability. They are primarily used the first time that a patient receives a service from a counseling practice. You can choose to give the intake form to the patient prior to their first session or when they arrive on the day of the appointment, but it is necessary that they complete the form before the session actually starts. You may occasionally also find that you have patients in your system whose information you are missing, and you can use the intake form to complete these missing gaps. In terms of the counseling specializations that can utilize this template, its applicability is quite broad. Counselors who specialize in the following will all benefit from utilizing the intake form template:
- Youth Counselling
- Drug and Alcohol Counselling
- Rehabilitative Counselling
- Grief Counselling
- Marriage Counselling
- Family Counselling
Why is This Form Useful for Counselors?
Regardless of whether you work as a solo practitioner or at a counseling practice, it is very likely that your day-to-day schedule is busy. Juggling multiple patients, administrative tasks, scheduling, client management, and general clinical requirements can become exhausting if you aren’t maximizing the available resources – which is exactly where we can help. These are some of the uses of an intake form template:
- Organization: Having an intake form template is undoubtedly going to make you more organized. You don’t have to worry about finding the right document to give to patients, as we’ve done all of the work for you. Additionally, if you choose to send the intake forms to patients online prior to their upcoming appointments, you won’t have to worry about storing tons of spare copies in the clinic.
- Accuracy: The good thing about using a template that someone else has created is that you can trust they have done the research and included all of the necessary elements – which we definitely have. Intake forms are very important for delivering quality care solutions to patients in need and with our template, you can rest assured that you are obtaining all of the necessary data prior to treating a patient.
- Saves time: Any resource or tool that you choose to implement into your business should ideally be saving you either time or money – our template does both. Not only is it free, but it is designed for the patient to complete entirely by themselves, taking some burden away from administrative staff who would otherwise have to chase up missing pieces of information.
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Why Use Carepatron For Counseling Intake Form?
If you are looking to streamline your intake process, then we think you should consider investing in Carepatron’s services. Carepatron is a practice management software that aims to optimize a range of different clinical and administrative processes, including intake. In addition to offering a robust set of various form templates, Carepatron has calendar synchronization tools, and workflow management resources. These features help counseling businesses ensure that their schedule is as uninterrupted as possible, reducing wait times and ensuring patients are satisfied with the services on offer. As a part of optimizing workflow, Carepatron is integrated with sophisticated appointment scheduling features. These allow patients to schedule their own appointments and receive automated booking reminders which reduce no-shows by up to 99%! If you are looking for a platform that manages more than just scheduling then you’ve still come to the right place – Carepatron also assists with billing, patient engagement, mobile health, and clinical documentation.
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Commonly asked questions
Although the specific content or issues that are covered during a counseling session are likely to differ between patients who are receiving couples counseling compared to an individual session. The specific kind of information that should be in a couples counseling intake form includes the patient’s personal details, insurance information, and what they are hoping to achieve during counseling – the same information that is covered by our intake form template.
The main aim of a counseling intake form is to provide the counseling practice with enough data so they have an understanding of the patient’s health and the treatment options that are available. It helps to ensure the patient is being looked after using the best possible resources and that their needs are being met.
In addition to using an intake form, some counseling practices may choose to offer intake interviews. These are essentially an early session with a client that covers similar information to what is included in the intake form. By having this verbal conversation with the client, the counselor can build their understanding of their specific needs and how treatment may proceed.
