# First-Session Intake — Case Review Sheet

> The intake is the client's words; the review is yours. Use with `first-session-intake-guide.md`. The 48-hour follow-up is the compressed version; this sheet is the full one.

## How to run this review

- Do it within 48 hours of session one, before session two's slot gets booked over the case.
- Review against the loop, not against your impressions: did the intake arrive, was consent understood, did the goal land in one sentence, did the follow-up go out?
- Keep the sheet per case. In a young practice it becomes the best evidence you have of what actually closes cases.

## Read the four checkpoints

1. **The intake that came back thin** — either the questions are wrong for this client, or the goal is not yet worth twenty minutes of their honesty. Both are fixable; silence is not.
2. **The consent they "just signed"** — nobody reads a document they are not allowed to question. If they could not name one thing they disagreed with, the conversation did not happen.
3. **The goal in your words** — if you cannot find the client's own sentence on your notes, session two is being sold on your goal, and you will be the one defending it.
4. **The follow-up that did not go out** — the case is not lost in session one; it is lost in the week after it.

## The six review questions

1. **The one sentence.** Is the client's goal written down in their words, and can you read it out loud without editing? → Targets: goal ownership; a paraphrase is a plan nobody believes in.
2. **The consent test.** What did they push back on or ask twice? If nothing — what would you change about how the card goes out? → Targets: boundary hygiene; unchallenged consent is unread consent.
3. **The intake gap.** Which answer do you wish existed on the sheet — and is that a question you forgot to ask, or a client who is not ready? → Targets: question design; the sheet improves one prompt at a time.
4. **The 48-hour line.** Did the follow-up go out, and did it name a task and a date? → Targets: cadence; a follow-up without a task is a greeting.
5. **The fit call.** Reading the intake now: are you the right practitioner for this case, and would you refer differently knowing what you know? → Targets: honest routing; referral generosity is growth, not leakage.
6. **The pattern check.** Across your last five reviews, which checkpoint fails most — and what single change to the loop fixes it? → Targets: system repair; the fifth client teaches what the first could not see.

## Failure modes of the review

| Failure mode | Why it happens | The rescue |
|---|---|---|
| Review as self-therapy | The sheet becomes a diary of how the session felt | Every line answers against the four checkpoints, nothing else |
| The skipped week | Caseload pressure, review is "for quiet times" | The review is part of the 48-hour card — it rides with the follow-up |
| Editing the client's goal | Your jargon sounds more professional | Quote or nothing; quotation marks are the discipline |
| One-case thinking | Each case reviewed, nothing learned | The sixth question is mandatory from case five onward |

## What this is not

This is not supervision, not a compliance audit and not a substitute for your board's documentation rules. It is a two-page habit that keeps the intake-to-first-session loop honest — the client's words in front, your blind spots on the sheet, and no case lost to the silence after session one.