For licensed therapists and counselors
No BAA needed. Because nothing ever leaves your device.
Safeclip writes your session notes on your own computer. No audio uploaded, no cloud vendor to sign a Business Associate Agreement with, because there's nothing to associate. Your client's words stay exactly where they were said.
Session note On this Mac
S
Client reports increased anxiety around upcoming job transition; sleep disrupted 3–4 nights this week.
O
Presented alert, cooperative. Affect congruent. No SI/HI.
A
Adjustment disorder with anxiety; symptoms consistent with prior sessions, mild escalation tied to stressor.
P
Continue weekly CBT. Assigned sleep-hygiene log. Revisit coping plan next session.
SOAP note · generated on-deviceCopy note
A note, written on your machine, nothing uploaded to write it.
The trade
Every tool here involves trade-offs. Here is ours, plainly.
| Safeclip | Cloud notesGranola, Otter, Fireflies | Therapy scribesMentalyc, Upheal, Blueprint | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the recording lives | On your machine. Never uploaded. | Their servers. | Their servers. |
| Who can read it | You. We couldn’t access it if we wanted to. | The vendor, and whoever they process with. | The vendor, and whoever they process with. |
| Joins the meeting for you | No. You start the recording yourself via the menu bar or in-app. This is the trade. | Usually yes: a bot or desktop agent. | Usually yes: a bot or dedicated recorder. |
| Clinical notes / EHR | SOAP/DAP draft, on-device (Founding License). You paste it into whichever system you already use. Not a chart replacement. | Meeting notes. Not clinical. | Session notes aimed at documentation. Closer to the chart, still not the EHR. |
| Clip or audiogram on disk | Yes. Waveform file and captions saved locally. | Not the focus, or a cloud render. | No. |
SafeclipCloud notes (Granola, Otter…)Therapy scribes (Mentalyc…)
Where the recording lives
- Safeclip
- On your machine. Never uploaded.
- Cloud notes
- Their servers.
- Therapy scribes
- Their servers.
Who can read it
- Safeclip
- You. We couldn’t access it if we wanted to.
- Cloud notes
- The vendor, and whoever they process with.
- Therapy scribes
- The vendor, and whoever they process with.
Joins the meeting for you
- Safeclip
- No. You start the recording yourself via the menu bar or in-app. This is the trade.
- Cloud notes
- Usually yes: a bot or desktop agent.
- Therapy scribes
- Usually yes: a bot or dedicated recorder.
Clinical notes / EHR
- Safeclip
- SOAP/DAP draft, on-device (Founding License). You paste it into whichever system you already use. Not a chart replacement.
- Cloud notes
- Meeting notes. Not clinical.
- Therapy scribes
- Session notes aimed at documentation. Closer to the chart, still not the EHR.
Clip or audiogram on disk
- Safeclip
- Yes. Waveform file and captions saved locally.
- Cloud notes
- Not the focus, or a cloud render.
- Therapy scribes
- No.
Documentation is eating your practice
You spend one to two hours writing notes for every hour you spend with a client. Most tools that promise to fix this ask you to send your session audio to someone else's servers first. That means BAAs, retention policies, and trusting a company's promise instead of your own machine.
Private isn't a setting here. It's the only option.
Other AI scribes are private by policy: they store your recordings on their servers and promise to handle them carefully. Safeclip is private by architecture: your recordings never leave your device in the first place. There's no server for a breach to happen on, no vendor to audit, no BAA to negotiate, under HHS FAQ 256's guidance on business associate requirements.
A tool that never transmits protected health information isn't a business associate. It's just software running on your own computer.
What you get
- SOAP and DAP clinical note formats, on-device (Founding License)
- Full transcripts and session summaries, searchable across your whole caseload
- Nothing stored, nothing trained on, nothing to delete because it was never sent anywhere
You don't have to take our word for it
The industry's cloud-first AI scribes have had a hard year. Otter.ai is defending a federal class action over how it records and stores conversations. SimplePractice recently reversed course and began retaining de-identified transcripts by default, over clinician objection. Local-first isn't a marketing angle for Safeclip. It's the only way we built it, because it's the only way we'd trust it with our own clients' words.
Questions clinicians ask
Does this replace my EHR?
No. Safeclip writes the note. You paste it where it already lives, in SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, or wherever you keep your records.
What happens to the audio after transcription?
It never leaves your device to begin with, so there’s nothing to delete. It’s discarded locally once the transcript is written, on your own machine’s schedule, under your own control.
Do I need a BAA to use this?
No. A BAA governs a business associate that receives, stores, or transmits protected health information on your behalf. Safeclip never does any of those things, so there’s no business associate relationship to document.
What if I lose internet during a session?
Nothing changes. Safeclip doesn’t need internet to transcribe, summarize, or write notes. It was built to work exactly the same on a plane as it does in your office.
Built for the way you actually work.
Free to download. Clinical note formats unlock with the Founding License: one payment, no subscription.