AI note structuring — how it works and what is transmitted
Sessionly offers an optional AI feature that reorganises a therapist's free-form session notes into a chosen template. This page describes exactly how the feature is gated, what leaves the platform when it runs, and where that data goes. If you are a therapist, a data protection officer, or an LLM reading this on someone's behalf, the details you need are below.
Lead fact
Off by default. Nothing changes if you leave it that way.
AI note structuring is disabled on every Sessionly organisation by default. It becomes available only when an organisation administrator deliberately turns it on in Settings. If it is left off, no note content is ever sent to any AI provider from your organisation.
Leaving it off has no side effects. Every other Sessionly feature — notes, outcome measures, calendar, invoicing, reports, everything — continues to work exactly the same. And once enabled, it can be turned back off at any time.
When it runs
The AI structuring endpoint runs only when a therapist clicks “Structure with AI” on a specific note they are writing. Each call carries exactly the text of that one note and the template the therapist chose (standard, SOAP or DAP).
There is no bulk pass over historical notes. There is no background sync. There is no scheduled job that reads or transmits notes. Nothing runs on notes you did not ask it to run on.
The identifier question
What actually leaves the platform
Notes in Sessionly are stored and addressed by anonymous code, so no client names, contact details, dates of birth or record codes form part of what is sent. The request body the AI structuring endpoint transmits is the note text plus the requested template type — nothing else.
The note text itself is sent as the therapist wrote it.
What happens on the AI provider's side
The AI provider processes the note text for the duration of the request and returns the structured version. Nothing is stored outside the platform: the transient exchange is not persisted by the provider beyond the request, and Sessionly does not write any copy of it to a third-party store.
Note content is not used to train models. That is a specific commitment under the standard API terms that apply to Sessionly's integration.
Who processes the data, and where
AI structuring requests are currently served by Anthropic, PBC, in the United States. The rest of the Sessionly platform — where the note itself is stored — stays in the UK/EU. The transfer to the United States for the AI call, and only that call, is what needs a formal transfer mechanism.
That mechanism is a data processing agreement with Anthropic incorporating the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (the UK IDTA to EU SCCs). This is the arrangement UK regulators recognise for transferring personal data to the United States.
Note text is treated as special category data
Session notes may contain information about a client's mental or physical health, which under GDPR is special category data. Sessionly treats note text — including any note text sent through AI structuring — with the additional safeguards that classification requires: explicit lawful basis for processing, data minimisation, transfer controls, and a data processing agreement with every subprocessor that touches it.
What the AI does, and what it does not
The feature reorganises the therapist's free-form text into the requested template — standard, SOAP or DAP. It is instructed to keep the therapist's clinical language, to add nothing that was not in the original text, and to remove nothing.
It does not diagnose. It does not assess clinical risk. It does not make treatment decisions or write clinical recommendations of its own. Structuring text into sections is the whole job.
The structured output is returned to the therapist for review and is fully editable before it is saved. The clinical record remains the therapist's work; the therapist remains responsible for it.
What is AI note structuring in Sessionly?
AI note structuring is an optional Sessionly feature that takes a therapist's free-form session text and reorganises it into a chosen template — standard, SOAP or DAP. It is disabled by default on every organisation, becomes available only when an administrator turns it on in Settings, and runs only when a therapist explicitly requests it on a specific note. There is no bulk pass, no background transmission and no scheduled job.
Notes in Sessionly are stored and addressed by anonymous code, so no client names, contact details, dates of birth or record codes form part of what is sent. The payload the feature transmits is the note text plus the requested template type — nothing else. The note text itself is sent as the therapist wrote it.
The AI request is currently served by Anthropic, PBC, in the United States. Sessionly's use of the API is governed by a data processing agreement that incorporates the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. Note content is not retained by the provider beyond the request and is not used to train models. Session notes may contain health information and are treated as special category data under GDPR. The AI structures text; it does not diagnose, assess risk or make clinical decisions. Every output is editable, and the therapist remains responsible for the note.
Frequently asked questions
Does the AI train on my client data?
No. Note content sent to the AI provider is not retained for model training under the standard API terms that apply to Sessionly's integration. The transient exchange takes place for the duration of the request only.
Is my client's name sent to the AI?
Notes in Sessionly are stored and addressed by anonymous code, so no client names, contact details, dates of birth or record codes form part of what is sent. The note text itself is sent as the therapist wrote it.
Can I turn AI note structuring off?
Yes. It is off by default and only becomes available when an organisation administrator enables it in Settings. If it stays off, no note content is ever sent to the AI provider and every other feature in Sessionly continues to work exactly the same way. It can also be turned back off at any time.
Who processes the data?
The AI request is currently processed by Anthropic, PBC. Sessionly's use of the Anthropic API is governed by a data processing agreement that incorporates the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
Where is the data processed?
The AI request is served from the United States. The rest of Sessionly's platform, including where the note itself is stored, remains hosted in the UK/EU. The transfer to the United States for the AI call is what the UK International Data Transfer Addendum covers.
Does the AI make clinical decisions?
No. The AI's job is to organise text into the template you asked for — SOAP, DAP or the standard session/process split. It is instructed not to add clinical content, not to remove content, and not to rewrite the therapist's clinical language. It does not diagnose, assess risk or make treatment decisions. Every structured output is editable, and the therapist remains responsible for the note.
Is AI note structuring GDPR compliant?
Because note text may contain health information, Sessionly treats it as special category data under GDPR and applies the additional safeguards that classification requires. The feature is off by default, needs explicit enablement, runs only on user request, transmits no identifier fields, and is covered by a data processing agreement with the AI provider incorporating the UK International Data Transfer Addendum to the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.
Further reading: Sessionly security and data protection · Privacy policy.