# The midnight message becomes a typed intake record by nine.

You automate therapy intake by putting a conversational agent in front of the pre-session conversation. It asks for the presenting concern, prior therapy experience and preferred format one question at a time, types the answers into a structured client record, and posts that record to your practice software before the first session.

## The process this page is about

Not "AI for therapists". One process, the one that decides whether someone who has finally decided to try therapy reaches your practice or gives up before the first session: the pre-session intake, the message that arrives before anyone has spoken to a person.

- **Who starts it**: Someone who has decided, often after putting it off for a long time, that they want to talk to someone - usually outside office hours, usually on a phone, usually a little nervous about what they are about to say.
- **What it costs today**: An 8-page intake packet emailed as a PDF, asking about trauma history and medications in the same tone for a first-timer with a rough week as for someone with years of prior treatment, or a phone line that goes to voicemail until morning.
- **What it has to produce**: A typed client record: who is reaching out, the presenting concern in their own words, whether this is their first time in therapy, and the format and availability that will actually get them to a first session.
- **of therapy dropouts happen between assessment and the first session - the exact window intake runs in**: 20% (source: PMC dropout meta-analysis)

## What it asks, and what it never asks

You name the fields your intake form already has. It does the asking, in whatever order the story comes out, and it keeps asking until the required ones are filled.

| Field | Type | Required | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| full_name | text | yes | Identity on the client record |
| phone | phone | yes | How the practice calls back |
| email | email | no | For records that are easier by email |
| presenting_concern | text | yes | The presenting concern, in their own words |
| prior_therapy_experience | boolean | no | Whether this is a first time in therapy |
| preferred_format | text | no | In-person or telehealth |
| insurance_provider | text | no | Feeds the eligibility check, never a coverage promise |
| specialty_area_needed | text | no | Routes to the right clinician |
| availability_preference | text | no | When sessions would realistically fit |
| current_mood_rating | number | no | The self-reported number a between-session check-in carries, never interpreted by the agent |

### And what it will not do

- The moment anything sounds like self-harm or a mental health emergency, it stops asking questions, says plainly it is not a crisis service, and tells them to call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room right now.
- It never diagnoses, never names a condition, and never says a feeling or situation is serious, minor or normal.
- It never recommends a therapist, a modality, or a number of sessions - that match is made by a clinician.
- It never confirms insurance coverage, a copay, or a fee. The front desk verifies both and follows up.
- It never gives a coping technique, a grounding exercise, or any other therapeutic content. It collects information, it does not deliver care.
- It never invents a field. If they did not say it, the record says "Not captured" instead of a guess.

## Try the run yourself

Six situations a front desk actually handles, each running its own agent with its own fields. Pick one and answer it the way a real person would, out of order and mid-thought, and watch it ask the follow-up instead of accepting the blank.

- [I want to start therapy](https://joina.chat/l/tc-intake): Chat widget. New client intake, in the corner of your practice’s own site.
- [I need to be seen sooner](https://joina.chat/l/tc-urgent): Conversation page. A recent change makes this feel urgent, flagged for a faster callback.
- [Do you take my insurance](https://joina.chat/l/tc-eligibility): Conversation page. Coverage and fit, qualified before anyone books.
- [It’s been a while](https://joina.chat/l/tc-return): Conversation page. No guilt, just help getting reconnected.
- [I need to stop for now](https://joina.chat/l/tc-ending): Conversation page. No refund promised, no talking them out of it, just recorded.
- [Quick update before my next session](https://joina.chat/l/tc-checkin): Conversation page. An existing client’s between-session check-in, not a new booking.

## Frequently asked questions

**What does Gnosari do for a therapy or counselling practice?**

Gnosari runs the intake conversation a practice would otherwise hold on a first phone call or leave to a PDF nobody returns: what brings the person in, in their own words, availability, insurance or self-pay, whether they have seen a therapist before, and how to reach them. It asks one question at a time through a link on your website, then posts a typed intake record to your practice management system before the first session.

**How do I take new client enquiries without a phone tag that lasts a week?**

Create a free Gnosari account and tell it which fields your intake packet already has: reason for seeking therapy, preferred days and times, insurance or self-pay, previous therapy, emergency contact, contact details. Put the link on your website and in your voicemail greeting. Gnosari runs the conversation at any hour, follows up when an answer is thin, and posts the record to SimplePractice or TherapyNotes through a webhook, Zapier or Make. You call back once, to book.

**Will Gnosari give clinical advice, diagnose or say whether therapy will help?**

No. Gnosari is instructed never to diagnose, never to suggest a treatment or a modality, and never to say whether a person needs therapy or whether it will help: that judgement stays with the clinician. It collects the person's own description of what brings them in and records it verbatim. It never tells anyone they are a fit or not a fit for the practice, and never decides whether an insurer will cover a session.

**What does Gnosari do when someone in the intake conversation is in crisis?**

Gnosari checks every message against a crisis list before asking the next question. Any mention of harming themselves or others, or of an emergency happening now, stops the intake immediately. It says plainly to call emergency services or the crisis line for your country, gives that number, and does not resume collecting fields. The partial conversation is flagged in your Gnosari inbox so the clinician sees it first, rather than as one more intake in the queue.

**Does Gnosari work with SimplePractice or TherapyNotes?**

Yes, through a webhook. The moment an intake record is complete, Gnosari posts a signed JSON payload to the address you give it, and Zapier or Make routes it into SimplePractice, TherapyNotes or the practice management system you already run. There is no Gnosari app to install on either side, and the record is already in your Gnosari inbox before delivery starts, so a down endpoint never loses a new client.

## Five minutes from now your after-hours enquiries could be typing themselves up.

Build the agent, put it on your services pages, and watch the first client record arrive. Free to start, no card.

Full page: https://gnosari.com/for/therapy