TEMPLATE FOR THERAPISTS
Annual Update & Return-to-Care Questionnaire— Individual Therapy
Your long-term clients don't need to fill out a full intake every year. But a lot can change in twelve months—new medications, new stressors, new goals, a loss that hasn't come up in session yet. And returning clients need more than a blank calendar invite.
This form covers what actually needs updating—without making clients feel like they're starting over.
This is an annual update and return-to-care questionnaire for active long-term clients and clients returning after a break. It replaces the full intake for clients who are already known to the practice and focuses on what matters: what's changed, what's current, and what the clinician needs to know heading into a new year of work together.
It covers two situations in one document. For active clients, it's a brief annual renewal—confirming contact and insurance information, checking in on current wellbeing, flagging any changes in health, safety, relationships, daily life, or identity, and naming goals for the year ahead. For returning clients, there's an optional section specifically written for people coming back after a pause—asking what brought them back, what's shifted, and what they'd like to do differently this time.
The wellbeing and stress scales give the clinician an immediate baseline. The safety section is direct but warm—written to be asked every year, not just at intake, because things change. The goals section includes prompts for clients who aren't sure how to articulate where they are in the work. And the session format preference section asks a question most annual updates skip entirely: does the way we're meeting still work for you?
Throughout, the tone respects the existing relationship. Clients who have been in therapy for a while don't need to be asked everything again—they need to be met where they are.
Every placeholder is marked in red. Teal clinician notes explain each section and flag which sections are optional based on your use case.You've been sending the same full intake every year—or nothing at all—and neither one is quite right, and especially if any of these sound familiar:
You want a way to capture what's changed in a long-term client's health, safety, and life without making them repeat their whole story
You need a return-to-care process for clients coming back after a break that feels like a welcome, not an interrogation
You want an annual safety check built into your documentation—one that's warm enough that clients will actually answer honestly
Your practice offers both in-person and telehealth and you want to check in on format preferences without waiting for it to come up organically
You're scaling to a group practice and need a consistent annual update process across clinicians
You believe that how you check in with a long-term client every year says something about the kind of practice you run
1. Download and open—The template is a .docx file. Open it in Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
2. Replace the red brackets—Fill in your practice name, year, contact details, and any practice-specific language before sharing with clients.
3. Review the teal notes—Throughout the document, teal clinician notes explain the purpose of each section and flag decisions to make. The return-to-care section and the identity section are both optional—keep them if relevant, remove them if not. Delete all notes before finalizing.
4. Remove the clinician instruction page—This must be removed before sending to clients.
5. Send annually or at return to care—Send to active clients at the start of each year, and to returning clients before their first session back. Most clients can complete it in under fifteen minutes.
6. Save as a PDF—When your edits are complete, save a final version as a PDF before sending to clients or uploading to your EHR.
7. Have it reviewed—Before distributing to clients, have your final version reviewed by your licensing board, malpractice carrier, and/or a licensed attorney. Requirements vary by state.
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