Prepare for therapy or a mental-health appointment with a few useful notes: examples, daily-life impact, questions, and what you hope will change.
Before therapy or a mental-health appointment, note what has been difficult, when it happens, how it affects daily life, and what you would like help with. Bring a few examples and your questions. You do not need a diagnosis, a complete mood chart, or a polished account of your life to begin.
Enough to begin
The NIMH recommends preparing questions and a medication list before a healthcare visit. For therapy, it can also help to bring an example of what you want to work on. You are preparing a starting point for a conversation, not a case you have to prove.
Use this original one-page outline. Leave anything blank that you do not know or do not feel ready to discuss.
| Section | Prompt | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Main concern | What led me to book? | Worry is taking over my evenings |
| Time course | When did I notice a change? | Gradually over the last few months |
| Daily-life impact | What is harder now? | Sleep, replying to friends, concentrating |
| One specific example | What happened, and what did I do? | Avoided a meeting after worrying all morning |
| Context | What else might be relevant? | New shift pattern; recent illness |
| Hope for support | What would I like to be able to do? | Attend meetings without spending hours preparing |
| Questions | What do I need to understand? | How will we decide whether this is helping? |
A clinician may ask about medicines, supplements, substance use, health history, and previous care. It is fine to bring a separate list rather than fitting every detail into your mood journal. Do not stop treatment or change medication in preparation for an appointment unless the prescriber tells you to.
Put one concern at the top of the page, followed by an example and a question. You can stop there. Preparing is useful when it helps you speak; it has become another burden if you feel you must explain your entire history before being allowed to attend.
A Cochrane review of interventions before healthcare consultations found small improvements in question asking and satisfaction, but limited benefits overall. It studied a range of healthcare settings, not a requirement to journal before psychotherapy. A short question list is an aid, not a proven way to guarantee a better therapeutic outcome.
The American Psychological Association's guide to psychotherapy describes an initial conversation about concerns, background, and how the work might proceed. You can arrive unsure of what matters most. “I keep minimizing this when I talk about it” or “I do not know where to start” is already useful information.
Include medicines, supplements, relevant previous care, and any changes you noticed after a treatment change. NIMH's medication guidance emphasizes working with a professional because effects and interactions vary. Do not stop medication to see what your “real mood” is before the appointment. If a medicine seems to be causing problems, contact the prescriber and describe the concern.
None is required. If you already have notes, bring what seems useful. If you want to start, a handful of short entries before the appointment can help you remember examples. Do not postpone seeking help to build a longer record.
For each entry, consider the situation, your feelings, what you noticed in your body, what you did next, and the effect on the day. You can use words rather than numbers. The important part is that the record makes sense to you.
A personal five-point mood score is not the same as a validated symptom questionnaire. If your therapist uses a formal measure, complete it as instructed and discuss how it will be interpreted. Keep your everyday notes alongside it rather than treating the two as interchangeable.
Measures such as the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 have been studied using specific questions, response options, and time frames. Your daily mood score is a different kind of information. It cannot be converted into a clinical score by averaging or multiplying it.
Ask what the questionnaire is for, who will see it, and how the results will be discussed. A score can help track symptoms without capturing the whole person. If the answer options miss something important, complete the measure as instructed and explain the missing context in your own words. Do not try to choose answers that make you seem “ill enough” or reassure the clinician.
For example, a symptom score may improve while a side effect, housing problem, or relationship difficulty remains important. That is a reason to broaden the conversation, not to argue that either the score or your experience must be wrong.
Compare “Tuesday was awful” with this fictional entry:
“Before the team meeting I felt anxious and had a tight stomach. I spent 40 minutes rereading my notes, then stayed quiet. Afterward I felt relieved but disappointed. I would like help participating even when I feel anxious.”
The second entry preserves a sequence and a goal. It does not claim that the meeting caused a disorder or that preparation is always harmful. It gives you and the therapist a concrete situation to explore.
Include a contrasting day if you can: “Thursday's smaller meeting felt easier; I asked one question.” What differed may be useful, and the better day does not invalidate the difficult one. A therapist does not need you to feel equally bad every day to take the concern seriously.
Choose one main concern, two or three representative examples, and a question. Add the time span and any gaps in the record. Avoid presenting a precise average as if it captures every part of your experience.
A summary might read: “Across the notes I kept this month, I often worried before meetings. I recorded six workdays and several days off, so the picture is incomplete. On two days I avoided speaking; on one I participated. I want to understand the avoidance.”
That is clearer than “My anxiety increased 30%,” especially if your personal rating scale was never designed to support that calculation. You can still show a chart if you find it useful; just explain what it measures and what is missing.
Agree on a purpose before adding fields. You might track a situation you want to approach, an avoidance pattern, the effect of a practice exercise, or whether a goal is becoming easier in everyday life. The most useful record is the one the two of you can actually discuss.
A meta-analysis of progress feedback in psychological treatment found small average benefits when information was fed back into care. A review of routine outcome monitoring emphasizes that collecting standardized data and actively using feedback are part of a clinical process. These findings do not show that filling in an app without discussion improves therapy.
Ask: “What would make these notes useful at our next session?” If an exercise was confusing, impossible, or distressing, record that. It is information about the plan, not evidence that you failed therapy. Include helpful moments too, especially when they suggest something you want more of.
Start by saying exactly that: “I go blank when I try to explain this, so I brought a few notes.” You can read a sentence aloud, point to an entry, or ask the clinician to help you work through the summary.
You can also put the most important concern at the top of the page. If something feels difficult to say, write “There is another issue I want help mentioning.” The note can be a bridge; it does not have to contain the full story.
For a medical appointment, a trusted person may help you remember information if you want their support. Agree what role you want them to have, and ask for private time with the clinician when needed.
A meta-analysis of client preferences found that accommodating preferences was associated with better outcomes and fewer dropouts. Study designs varied, so this is not a guarantee that every preference will produce a better result. It is a good reason to discuss what helps you participate.
Examples include needing an interpreter, written instructions, more time to answer, a quieter setting, or an explanation before an exercise. You can also name what did not work in previous care. “I found homework confusing because I did not understand the purpose” gives the therapist something concrete to address.
You do not need to know the ideal treatment in advance to describe what helps you participate. The therapist can explain the options and their rationale; you can explain what is feasible in your life.
The NIMH suggests asking about the approach, goals, progress, and confidentiality. You can make those questions personal:
Practical questions matter too: fees, appointment frequency, cancellations, accessibility, and how communication between sessions works. Ask rather than assuming a message or diary upload is continuously monitored.
A large meta-analysis of the therapeutic alliance found a consistent relationship between the quality of collaboration and outcomes. This is an association, not proof that a good relationship alone causes recovery. It does support talking about shared goals, whether the tasks make sense, and whether you feel able to speak honestly.
NICE's shared decision-making guideline recommends discussing options, benefits, risks, and what matters to the person. Its adult depression guideline also addresses preferences, review, and monitoring. These are clinical recommendations from the UK; your care setting may organize the process differently, but you can still ask how decisions will be made together.
Useful goals are observable and personal: “I want to attend a meeting without avoiding it,” “I want to sleep more consistently,” or “I want to ask for help before I reach a crisis.” Ask when you will review progress and what happens if the current approach is not helping.
You can raise a concern directly: “I understand the exercise, but I do not see how it relates to the goal we agreed.” A difficult conversation about the work can itself be useful information. You do not need to praise a treatment to be a cooperative participant.
You can choose selected entries or prepare a brief summary from them. Decide together what format is useful and which communication channel is appropriate. Ask whether the therapist would prefer to discuss the notes during a session or receive them beforehand.
You do not have to share the whole journal. It can remain a private place for thoughts you are not ready to discuss. Moodflow is a recording tool; keeping entries there does not mean a clinician is watching them or will respond in an emergency.
If you are starting from scratch, our mood-journal template gives a simple structure. For a specific sleep concern, the sleep-and-mood diary may be more useful than a general daily rating.
The APA's confidentiality guidance explains that therapy has privacy protections and limits. Rules depend on the setting and jurisdiction. Ask who can access records, what information might be shared, and what circumstances limit confidentiality before sending sensitive material. An ordinary wellness app is not automatically covered by the same arrangements as your clinician's record system.
For a video appointment, US HHS guidance on telebehavioral health highlights practical preparation and an emergency plan. Check privacy, the connection, how to reconnect if it fails, and how the clinician will confirm your location if urgent help is needed. If home is not private, tell the service beforehand so you can discuss alternatives.
Before sharing an entry, read it once for names, images, and unrelated information about other people. A selected paragraph may do the job. Ask how notes are reviewed and what response time to expect. Uploading a diary does not mean it is being watched continuously.
Contact the service to explain that your situation has changed and ask what support is available sooner. If you feel unable to stay safe or face immediate danger, seek urgent local mental-health or emergency care. Do not rely on an unread journal entry or wait for the next scheduled session.
A diary is an optional aid unless you have agreed on a particular task together. Tell your therapist if recording feels burdensome or difficult so you can find a workable approach.
No. Describe what you notice, what has changed, and what you need help with. You can mention a concern about a diagnosis without deciding that it is the answer.
Yes. One sentence, a few questions, or a single example can be enough to start. You do not need to present a complete explanation of why you feel this way.
Editorial note: These are educational guides, not medically reviewed treatment advice. Templates and fictional examples are editorial tools, not validated diagnostic instruments. Research findings do not establish the effectiveness of Moodflow. Original source titles are retained below.
Sources and further reading
Moodflow Editorial
Practical guides to mood tracking and journaling from the Moodflow team.
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