Software For Counsellors & Therapists

1. Use the template.

Go to the template page and click "Use his template."

If you don't have a Paperform account, you will need to sign up for a free trial first (no CC details are required).

You can also start a form from scratch if you would like, but using templates is a great way to quickly familiarize yourself with the Paperform platform and its features.

2. Change the name, cover, and text in your intake form.

It is simple to edit or remove the form's heading, and the process is the same for any body of text throughout the form. Simply click or highlight the text you wish to replace or edit. Likewise, if you wish to edit any of the questions on your template, click on the question text and do as you please.

Paperform supports a number of slash commands that make creating new fields faster and easier. Check out the cheatsheet below that features just a few of them.

This template has a cover image added to give a personal feel to the form. If you wish to replace or remove it, click on the image, and a toolbar will appear above. Click the picture icon to replace the image with a file of your own, or simply click the 'X' icon to remove it entirely.

Find out more about adding images to your forms.

You can add a body of text, image, or question anywhere on your client intake form by merely clicking the area you wish to create. A small toolbar will appear on the left. From this, you can choose what you want to add to your form by clicking the corresponding icon.

3. Change the look and feel of your form.

Now that you have changed your form's basics, it is time to make the form more personal to you. Your form editor's top right corner holds the 'Theme settings' icon (colored teardrop).

Once you click on this, you will enter your theme settings. You can personalize your form from here. Simple changes such as the font and color of the text can be done in this menu, while you can edit your text's appearance in more detail from the 'Typography' tab.

The look and feel of your buttons and questions can be edited from the 'UI Elements' tab. You can also change the background color and even upload a background image from this tab.

Have a play with making this form reflect your unique brand and values.

4. Tailor a personal appointment system to schedule when to meet your counselling clients.

At Paperform, we have now made it easier than ever to create and control your appointment booking system through the 'Appointments' question field.

An appointment system has been included in this template to organize the first discussion with your counselling client and better understand their future needs.

To ensure your meetings are managed efficiently, you can choose to connect a Google Calendar. This will keep track of all meeting slots chosen and stop any double bookings and clashes from occurring.

You can also configure your general availability manually, add 'blockout dates' for days you are not available, and add multiple calendars.

The integration with your Google Calendar will also automatically add new bookings to your Calendar, so it would be easier for you to stay organized. Connecting your Calendar is simple:

1. Select the configure icon to the right of your Appointments question.
2. Click + Calendar to connect a new Google calendar.
3. Click + Account and follow the prompts to connect.
4. Select the Calendar you want to use for your appointments from the drop-down menu.
5. And that's it!

5. Looking at Page-breaks.

This template offers the submitter to choose whether they wish their first meeting to be through a 'Phone conversation' or 'Video call conversation' under the "How do you wish your first meeting to occur" question.

You can easily edit these options by clicking on the configure icon. Depending on their choice, one of two possible 'Appointments' question types will appear. These are conditionally set to be only visible depending on the response of the submitter.

Find out more about adding page breaks to you form.

If the submitter chooses the option 'Phone conversation', then the 'Appointments' question conditionally set only to appear when this option is chosen will prompt the submitter to select a date. The same will occur with the 'Video call conversation'.

6. Put through a test submission

Click the 'view" button to go to the live form. Fill in the form and submit it. You can access submissions via the dashboard.

7. Organizing contact for sessions.

As there are two separate contact options, there will need to be two separate Google Calendars attached to this form.

One calendar will need to be connected with the 'Phone conversation' appointment question while the other will need to be connected with the 'Video call conversation' appointment question.

The integration with Google Calendar will trigger an event in both calendars, so you can better keep track of your sessions. Furthermore, when a booking is made on the 'Video call conversation' appointment, Google Calendar will have a Hangout Video Call link automatically included which you might like to use for your meeting. Google will automatically send out reminders for this meeting by email. How easy is that!

8. Set up automatic after submission email.

After a client has booked their meeting, you will want to send them a confirmation email containing details of their session and some information.

To set up a confirmation email that will automatically send once a customer has submitted their form, simply go into After Submission > Emails. Then click 'add email', follow the prompts and create your automatic email. You can pipe answers from your submitter into this section, such as their email or name.

Find out more about answer piping.

9. Connect to HubSpot to keep your client's details in one place.

Paperform's integration with HubSpot will allow you to keep all your client's details in one easy to read location.

As a Customer Relationship Management leader, HubSpot makes it easier to connect with your clients and keep that relationship blossoming.

You can take control of your emails, reporting, goals, and more. To connect, simply go into After Submission > Integrations & Webhooks, Click on the HubSpot icon and follow the prompts.

10. Final checklist.

Before making your form live and starting to accept bookings from your couselling customers, you’ll want to do the following:

1. Edit the title, description, cover image, and custom URL under Configure>Details.
2. Customize the submission page message under After Submission > Success Pages & Redirect.

You're done! You can get the URL or embed code of your intake form under the Share menu in the form editor.