How LocalScribe Works with TheraNest

If you use TheraNest in private practice, LocalScribe can fit in two different ways. TheraNest includes standard documentation types like progress notes, treatment plans, and initial assessments, but it also supports dynamic progress-note forms, dynamic case forms, and client intake forms. In practice, that means some clinicians can start with a built-in LocalScribe template, while others will get a better fit by making a LocalScribe custom template that mirrors the structure they already use in TheraNest.

The main setup choice

If you use TheraNest mostly out of the box, start with the closest LocalScribe built-in template. TheraNest includes a Standard Note and SOAP Note for progress notes, and its case workflow is built around structured clinical documents like initial assessments, diagnostic codes, progress notes, and treatment plans. If your practice uses dynamic forms or a more customized documentation setup, build a LocalScribe custom template with the same headers, same order, and same section logic you use in TheraNest.

Progress notes

This can go either way. TheraNest includes built-in progress-note options, including a Standard Note and SOAP Note, so a built-in LocalScribe template may be enough for clinicians using those formats without much modification. But TheraNest also allows custom dynamic progress-note forms to be created for specific appointment types or uses and set as defaults, which makes a matching LocalScribe custom progress-note template the better choice for more customized workflows.

These custom-template examples show the section headers and the instructions you would give the model for each section.

A practical custom progress-note template in LocalScribe might use:

Subjective: Include the client’s reported symptoms, concerns, updates, and relevant self-report since the last session.

Objective: Include observable behavior, mental status findings, participation, affect, speech, and other session-based observations.

Assessment: Summarize the clinical meaning of the session, response to interventions, current functioning, and barriers to progress.

Risk or safety updates: Include any relevant risk findings, protective factors, and meaningful changes in safety status.

Plan: Include homework, follow-up steps, referrals, frequency, and the next clinical focus.

Intake and initial assessment

This is a stronger custom-template category. TheraNest’s EHR workflow separates client details from case-level clinical information, and it supports dynamic client forms that can be used as intake forms through the client portal. Completed intake forms are stored in General Documents, while case-level clinical information such as initial assessments lives in the case workflow. That setup makes it useful to build a LocalScribe intake or initial-assessment template that mirrors the intake sections your practice actually uses.

A practical intake or initial-assessment template might use:

Presenting concern: Summarize why the client is seeking treatment now, including major symptoms and relevant context.

Relevant history: Include psychiatric, medical, family, social, trauma, substance, and prior treatment history relevant to care.

Current functioning: Describe functioning across work, school, relationships, and daily life.

Mental status or clinical observations: Document mental status findings and other clinician-observed information from the intake.

Risk and safety: Document current and relevant historical risk factors, protective factors, and safety-related findings.

Initial formulation and plan: Summarize the initial clinical picture and recommended next steps.

Treatment plans

Treatment plans are another strong custom-template category. TheraNest treats treatment plans as part of case-level clinical documentation, and recent product updates continue to treat initial assessments and treatment plans as distinct note types with their own signature workflow. That is usually a good reason to make a LocalScribe treatment-plan template that matches the structure your practice actually documents against.

A practical treatment-plan template might use:

Diagnosis or problem area: State the diagnosis, presenting problem, or treatment target being addressed.

Goals: Write broad treatment goals in clear clinical language.

Objectives: List measurable or observable objectives that show progress toward the goal.

Interventions: Describe the clinician interventions, treatment approach, or services planned.

Frequency and review plan: Document expected session frequency, coordination needs, and when progress will be reviewed.

Group notes

TheraNest’s case structure explicitly separates individual and group work into different cases when needed. If your practice documents groups in a consistent format, it makes sense to create a LocalScribe group-note template that matches that structure rather than forcing group work into an individual-note template.

A simple group-note template might use:

Group focus: State the theme, intervention focus, or purpose of the session.

Client participation: Describe the client’s engagement, behavior, and level of participation in the group.

Clinical observations: Document relevant affect, interaction style, regulation, and other observed responses.

Progress and plan: Summarize progress related to treatment goals and any follow-up needs.

What to put into LocalScribe

Use the same source material you would normally rely on while writing manually. That can include shorthand notes, typed observations, intake details, assessment content, dictation, ambient recording, and material from intake packets, screeners, referrals, prior documents, or structured forms. LocalScribe is built to turn that source material into a structured draft, and its custom-template and test-reference tools become more useful as documentation gets more specialized.

Bottom line

For TheraNest, built-in LocalScribe templates are a reasonable starting point for standard note types. Once a practice is using dynamic forms, customized progress notes, specialty intake structures, or more tailored treatment-plan workflows, a LocalScribe custom template that mirrors the TheraNest structure is usually the better fit.