# First-Session Intake — Practitioner Guide

> Folder: `first-session-intake` · Category: scenario kits · solo or 1–2 per session · 20 min · offline + online · print props · scenario kit
> License: CC BY 4.0

The first session is won or lost before the client arrives: what you asked beforehand, what you are allowed to ask, what you promised, and what the client understood when they signed. This kit runs the whole intake-to-first-session loop — a pre-session intake form, a consent and boundaries card, a session agenda that fits on one page, and a follow-up cadence that does not die in your inbox. Written for private practitioners: therapists, coaches, consultants — whoever takes clients one at a time and lives on the referral chain.

## Objectives

By the end of the loop, the practitioner will have:

1. A completed intake in hand before the first session — history, goal, constraints — so session one starts at the problem, not at the paperwork.
2. A consent conversation that is done, understood and recorded: scope, fees, confidentiality limits, cancellation — on one card the client can actually read.
3. A one-page session agenda and a written follow-up cadence (what happens in the 48 hours after, and what re-opens the case).

## When to use this kit

- You are opening or formalizing a private practice and your intake is currently "whatever comes to mind on the call".
- Your first sessions keep running over because the goal got defined in session one instead of before it.
- You lose clients after session one — not to a better practitioner, but to silence between sessions.

## What this is not

- Not clinical guidance. What to ask, what to document and what consent must cover varies by discipline, license and jurisdiction — those calls belong to your professional board and your own judgment, not to a printable card.
- Not a diagnosis engine. The intake collects what the client reports; it sorts nothing on its own.
- Not a CRM. It standardizes the paper around the first session; the records system is yours.

## Setup

**Space:** works unchanged for in-person, video and phone. Online: the intake form goes out as a link; the consent card goes out as its own document, never folded into the form.

**Materials per client:** one intake sheet (print the blanks or lift the items into an online form — see the folder's FormLM block), one consent & boundaries card, one session agenda sheet for your desk.

**Materials for your desk:** one card deck within reach during the intake call (you read from it; the client never fills cards), a folder per open case.

**Grouping:** solo practitioner workflow; the only "group" is you plus the client. Agencies can run it as an onboarding standard across practitioners.

**Roles:** you own the loop. The client owns the intake sheet. If an assistant handles booking, the consent card still goes out from you, before the session, with a named human to ask.

## How to run it

| Time | Phase | What you do | The client does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before booking | Send the loop | Send intake form + consent card together, with one line: "read it, bring questions". | Fills the intake; reads the consent card; knows what the first session is for. |
| 0–5 | Open | Name the agenda from your sheet: goal today, what you will not do today. Confirm the consent conversation happened — ask what they disagreed with. | Hears the frame; asks the question they were unsure about. |
| 5–15 | The one thing | Work the intake answers, not a fresh interview. Ask: "if we only fix one thing by session three, what is it?" Write the answer down, in their words. | Gives the goal in one sentence; sees it written where both can read it. |
| 15–20 | Close the loop | State next session, the 48-hour follow-up, and the between-sessions task in one breath. Book before they leave. | Walks out with a date, a task, and no ambiguity about the bill. |

## The card deck

Use the faces from `first-session-intake-prop-cards.pdf`: a master card (the loop in one view), the intake prompts card, the consent & boundaries card, the session agenda card, the 48-hour follow-up card, and a watch-out card — plus branded backs and blanks for your own discipline-specific prompts.

## Failure modes

1. **Intake as interrogation.** Reading the form aloud line by line kills the session's trust in minute two. Rescue: you read the intake before the session; the session opens on its answers, never on its blanks.
2. **Consent folded into paperwork.** A consent nobody read is a boundary nobody respects — yours and theirs. Rescue: consent goes out as its own card, and the session opens by asking what they disagreed with.
3. **The goal never lands in one sentence.** Five problems listed, none owned; session three has no finish line. Rescue: the "one thing" question is mandatory; it is written in the client's words, on paper, visible.
4. **The silence after session one.** No follow-up, no task, no date — the case quietly closes itself. Rescue: the 48-hour card is not optional; the follow-up line and the between-sessions task go out within two days, every client, no exceptions.

## Variations

- **Coaching version:** swap the history prompts for current-state / desired-state; keep the consent card (frame, fees, cancellation) — it is where coaching relationships break.
- **Consulting version:** the intake becomes a discovery brief; the "one thing" becomes the engagement's single success metric.
- **Group or workshop host:** run the intake as a pre-registration form; the consent card becomes the participation agreement.
- **Online:** the intake items lift straight into a form (the folder's FormLM block); responses land before you book — the loop does not need paper to work, paper just makes it cheap.

## Facilitation notes

- The intake belongs to the client's words. Do not rewrite their goal into your jargon — you will lose the one sentence that sells session two.
- Say the fee structure out loud at close, every time. Money ambiguity is the quietest reason cases end.
- If the intake reveals you are the wrong practitioner, say so in session one and hand them a name. Referral generosity is how private practices grow.
- Keep the blank faces for your discipline: the deck is a frame, not a script — your questions are the content.

## Put it on the wall

Print `first-session-intake-activity-poster.pdf` (A3): the loop, the four phases, the watch-outs — one sheet by your desk. It is also the honest version of what you promise; clients notice.

## Props in this folder

- `first-session-intake-prop-cards.pdf` — poker-spec print sheet (63.5 × 88.9 mm, bleed and cut guides): master card, intake prompts, consent & boundaries, session agenda, 48-hour follow-up, watch-out, branded backs and blanks
- `first-session-intake-run-sheet.pdf` — the print edition: this guide + the debrief, bound as one A4 document with bookmarks (`-Letter.pdf` is US Letter)
- `first-session-intake-activity-poster.pdf` — the whole loop on one A3 desk sheet
- `first-session-intake-guide.md` · `-debrief.md` · `-start-here.md` — the practitioner guide, the case-review sheet, the one-page start here
- `first-session-intake-license.md` — what you may do
- `SKILL.md` · `first-session-intake.zip` — the machine-readable manifest, and the whole folder in one download

## Agent version

Every file in this folder has a stable public URL — an AI agent can fetch the card deck, the case-review sheet and this guide with three curl commands (see `SKILL.md`), or lift the intake prompts into a real form. The paper version needs a desk, a printer and a client. Keep the consent conversation human; the card carries it, you have it.