Your client intake form is the first professional interaction most clients have with your massage therapy practice. It sets the tone for the entire relationship — and more importantly, it’s your first line of legal and clinical defense if anything goes wrong.

Yet most massage therapists are still using the same generic intake form they downloaded during school, photocopied a hundred times, and never updated. If that sounds familiar, this guide is for you.

We’ll walk through every section your massage therapy intake form should include, explain why each one matters, and give you a checklist you can use to audit your current forms today.

Why Your Intake Form Matters More Than You Think

A comprehensive intake form serves three critical functions:

1. Clinical safety. Contraindication screening prevents you from performing techniques that could harm a client with an undisclosed health condition. A client with deep vein thrombosis, for example, should never receive deep tissue work on the affected limb. Your intake form is the only systematic way to catch this before the session starts.

2. Legal protection. If a client claims injury, the intake form is exhibit A in your defense. It demonstrates that you collected relevant health information, screened for contraindications, and obtained informed consent before providing treatment. Without it, you’re relying on memory — which doesn’t hold up in court.

3. Professional credibility. As more states recognize massage therapists as healthcare providers, documentation expectations are rising. A thorough intake form signals to clients, referral partners, and regulators that you run a professional healthcare practice, not a casual service business.

The Complete Intake Form Checklist

Section 1: Client Information

This is the basic contact and demographic section. Include:

Full legal name — not nicknames; you need this for legal records
Date of birth — age affects treatment decisions and is required for minor consent verification
Phone number and email — for appointment confirmations and follow-ups
Home address — for records and potential insurance correspondence
Emergency contact — name, relationship, and phone number
Preferred pronouns — shows inclusivity and prevents awkward interactions
How they heard about you — valuable marketing data that costs nothing to collect

Common mistake: Skipping the emergency contact field. If a client has an adverse reaction during a session — fainting, allergic reaction, panic attack — you need to reach someone immediately.

Section 2: Health History

This is the most clinically important section. It should cover:

Current Health Status

Current medications — including over-the-counter drugs and supplements (blood thinners, muscle relaxants, and pain medications all affect treatment decisions)
Current health conditions — diabetes, high/low blood pressure, heart conditions, skin conditions, autoimmune disorders
Current pain or discomfort — location, intensity (1-10 scale), duration, and what makes it better or worse
Pregnancy status — affects positioning, pressure, and which areas can be worked

Medical History

Past surgeries — scar tissue, implants, and structural changes affect treatment approach
Past injuries — fractures, sprains, whiplash, concussions
Chronic conditions — fibromyalgia, arthritis, migraines, sciatica
Cancer history — current or in remission, treatment status

Contraindication Screening

Your form should explicitly ask about:

Blood clots or deep vein thrombosis
Contagious skin conditions
Open wounds or recent surgeries in treatment area
Fever or acute illness
Osteoporosis or bone disorders
Numbness or loss of sensation
Recent vaccinations (within 48 hours)

Pro tip: Use checkboxes rather than open-ended questions for contraindication screening. Clients are more likely to disclose conditions when they can simply check a box rather than write out an explanation. Digital forms make this even easier — required fields ensure nothing gets skipped.

Section 3: Treatment Preferences

Understanding client preferences before the session improves outcomes and reduces mid-session interruptions:

Areas of focus — body diagram where clients can mark areas of pain or tension
Areas to avoid — injuries, personal comfort, or previous negative experiences
Pressure preference — light, medium, firm, or deep
Temperature preferences — heated table, bolster preferences
Music/sound preferences — silence, nature sounds, specific genres
Allergies — to oils, lotions, latex, fragrances, or specific ingredients

Common mistake: Not asking about allergies to massage products. Nut-based oils (like sweet almond oil) can trigger severe reactions in clients with nut allergies. This one question could prevent a medical emergency.

This is where your intake form overlaps with your liability waiver. The informed consent section should clearly state:

Scope of practice. Massage therapy is not a substitute for medical care. You do not diagnose conditions, prescribe treatments, or provide medical advice. Clients should consult their physician for medical concerns.

Benefits and risks. Massage therapy may provide relaxation, pain relief, improved circulation, and reduced muscle tension. Potential side effects include temporary soreness, bruising, fatigue, or emotional release.

Right to refuse or modify. The client can stop the session at any time, request changes to pressure or technique, and decline treatment of any body area without explanation.

Draping policy. Explain your draping practices — that only the area being worked on will be uncovered, and that genital areas are never exposed or worked on.

Confidentiality. Client health information is kept confidential and will not be shared without written authorization, except as required by law.

Signature and date. The client’s signature confirms they have read, understood, and agree to the terms. A date stamp provides a clear timeline.

Section 5: HIPAA Acknowledgment (When Applicable)

If you’re collecting health information — and you are — you should include a HIPAA awareness section, especially as states move toward healthcare provider recognition:

Acknowledgment that health information will be collected and stored
How that information will be used (treatment planning, record keeping)
How it will be protected (encrypted storage, limited access)
Client’s right to request their records

Even if you’re not technically a HIPAA-covered entity (most solo massage therapists aren’t unless they bill insurance electronically), operating at this standard protects you and builds client trust.

Section 6: Policies and Acknowledgments

Include clear statements about your business policies:

Cancellation policy — 24-hour notice, late cancellation fee amount
Late arrival policy — session time will not be extended for late arrivals
Payment policy — when payment is due, accepted methods
Communication consent — permission to send appointment reminders via text/email

Each policy should have its own checkbox or signature line so there’s no ambiguity about what the client agreed to.

Paper vs. Digital: Why the Format Matters

If your intake forms are still on paper, you’re creating several problems:

Incomplete submissions. Research shows 15-25% of paper forms come back with missing fields, illegible handwriting, or skipped sections. A single missing contraindication checkbox could mean performing a dangerous technique on an uninformed client.

Storage headaches. Healthcare records should be retained for 7+ years. For a therapist seeing 15 clients per week, that’s over 5,000 paper forms in 7 years — multiple filing cabinets of space in your treatment room or home office.

Retrieval delays. When a returning client comes in after 6 months, finding their intake form in a filing cabinet takes 3-5 minutes. With digital forms, it takes 10 seconds.

Loss and damage risk. Paper gets water-damaged, misfiled, or lost during moves. If a client files a claim and you can’t produce their intake form, your legal defense weakens significantly.

Digital intake forms solve all of these problems — required field validation ensures complete submissions, cloud storage eliminates physical filing, instant search replaces manual retrieval, and encrypted backups prevent loss.

Intake Form Audit Checklist

Use this checklist to evaluate your current intake form:

Client Information

Health History

Treatment Preferences

Body diagram for areas of focus/avoidance
Pressure preference
Product allergies

Legal Protection

Policies

Cancellation policy acknowledgment
Payment terms
Communication consent

If you’re missing more than 3 items from this list, your intake form needs an update.

Getting Started

The easiest way to upgrade your intake process is to go digital. Digital waiver platforms let you build custom intake forms with required field validation, health history screening, informed consent, and e-signatures — all in one form that clients can complete on their phone before they arrive.

No more clipboards in the waiting room. No more chasing missing signatures. No more filing cabinets.

Ready to upgrade your intake process? Start your free 14-day trial with Waiver World — build your complete massage therapy intake form in minutes with our drag-and-drop form builder. No credit card required.

The Complete Client Intake Form Checklist for Massage Therapists

Why Your Intake Form Matters More Than You Think