Tota is a dictation app for Mac that lets therapists and counsellors speak their session notes, treatment plans and letters into any app with the audio and text processed entirely on the Mac, so nothing a client disclosed is sent to a server or seen by a vendor.
The session ends at ten to the hour. You have ten minutes to write a progress note that is accurate, in your own clinical voice, and done before the next client arrives. Typing it takes most of the gap. Talking it takes two minutes, if the thing you talk to is not shipping the client's disclosures to a cloud transcription service. Tota transcribes on your Mac and types the note into your practice software, a Word document or wherever your cursor is.
Why confidentiality and cloud dictation do not mix
Therapy notes are among the most sensitive text anyone writes. They contain what clients said about their relationships, their histories and their risk. A cloud dictation app sends that audio to a vendor, which transcribes it on its own servers, often via a third-party AI provider, and keeps it for a retention period set by its policy.
Vendors address this with business associate agreements, SOC 2 reports and encryption in transit. Those are real controls, but they are controls over what happens to your client's words after they have been disclosed to someone else. For many practitioners, and for the ethics codes they work under, the cleaner answer is that the disclosure should not happen at all.
Tota is built around that answer. Speech recognition, formatting and speaker identification all run on your Mac. The app has no account, sends no audio or text anywhere, and works with the internet switched off.
What therapists actually dictate
- Progress notes. SOAP, DAP, BIRP or your own structure, spoken straight after the session while the detail is still accurate.
- Intake and assessment summaries. Longer notes where talking through a history is faster than typing it.
- Treatment plans and reviews. Goals, interventions and progress, dictated as a list with Smart Formatting handling the structure.
- Letters to GPs, schools and other professionals. Drafted by voice, then edited on screen before they go out.
- Supervision notes and reflections. The notes you write for yourself, which are easier to be honest in when you are speaking.
What leaves your Mac, and what doesn't
This is the whole list. Every row is checkable from the app's own behaviour, and the security page explains how to watch its network activity yourself.
| Data | Leaves your Mac? | What actually happens |
|---|---|---|
| Your voice while dictating session notes | No | Recorded to a temporary file, transcribed on your Mac by Whisper via WhisperKit, then deleted. |
| The transcript | No | Typed into the app you are using. Kept in a local history for three days, then archived as Markdown in a folder you choose. Entries can be deleted. |
| Text on your screen | No | With “Spell what’s on your screen” on, the visible text of the window you are dictating into is read once, to bias spelling. Never stored or sent. Can be turned off. |
| Glossary terms and learned corrections | No | Stored as JSON files in Tota’s folder in Application Support. |
| Smart Formatting | No | Runs a local Qwen 3 language model via MLX. Off by default. |
| Audio files dropped in for transcription | No | Transcribed and speaker-labelled on your Mac. |
| Licence key and a machine identifier | Yes | Sent to api.lemonsqueezy.com at activation and validation. Never any content. |
| Update check | Yes | A download request to github.com at launch. Can be disabled in Settings. |
| Model downloads | Yes, one-way | Speech, formatting and speaker-ID model files from huggingface.co, once, on first use. |
| Usage analytics or crash reports | Never | There is no analytics or crash-reporting SDK in the app. |
How Tota works for therapists and counsellors
Install the app, grant it microphone and accessibility access, and press Cmd+Shift+R wherever your cursor is. Tota records until you press it again, transcribes the audio on your Mac with OpenAI's Whisper model running through WhisperKit, and types the result into the field. There is also a hold-to-talk key for short entries and a “Hey Tota” wake word for hands-free use. It behaves like a keyboard, so it works in browser-based systems, Word, email, Notes and anything else with a text field, with no integration to request from IT. After the one-time model download it needs no internet at all.
Three optional layers sit on top. Smart Formatting runs a small local language model that fixes punctuation, turns “new paragraph” and “new list” into structure, and corrects stutters without rewriting what you meant. The auto-learning dictionary remembers the corrections you make. And Audio Drop transcribes audio files you already have, with automatic speaker labels, also on-device.
Workflows for a therapy practice
- The ten-minute note. Put the cursor in the note field of your practice software or document, press the shortcut, and talk. Say 'new paragraph' between sections. Tota types the note where the cursor is and the audio is deleted once transcribed.
- First names only. If your notes use initials or pseudonyms, dictate them that way. Tota's dictionary learns corrections you make, and you can delete any learned entry from the Dictionary tab.
- The referral letter. Dictate the body into Pages, Word or your email client, then tidy the tone on screen. Filler-word removal takes out the 'ums' automatically.
- Home office, no Wi-Fi needed. If you write notes somewhere without a trusted network, dictation works the same because nothing is transmitted.
A glossary for therapists and counsellors
Clinical vocabulary is where general dictation stumbles. A Tota glossary is a short list of terms the speech model is nudged towards while it transcribes, with sound-alike matching afterwards for anything it still mishears. A glossary for a counselling practice might hold:
- CBT
- EMDR
- DBT
- ACT
- psychoeducation
- rumination
- dysregulation
- affect
- comorbid
- sertraline
- fluoxetine
- safeguarding
- client pseudonyms
The live hint has room for roughly 70 to 90 words, so keep the list to the terms that get misheard. You can run separate glossaries for different kinds of work and let Tota switch between them by app.
The glossaries guide covers set-up, the hint budget and per-app switching.
What Tota does not do
- It is not an electronic health record. Tota types where your cursor is. Your notes live in whichever system you dictate them into, and that system's rules on retention and access still apply.
- It does not record sessions. Tota transcribes your own dictation. Recording a session requires informed consent and a separate recorder; Tota's Audio Drop can then transcribe the file on your Mac without uploading it.
- It is not HIPAA-certified and does not sign BAAs. A business associate agreement covers a vendor that handles protected health information on your behalf. Tota does not handle it: the only copy of your notes is the one on your Mac, under your own device and backup policy.
- Transcripts are files on your Mac. Nothing is synced or backed up by Tota. FileVault, your backup tool and your device policy are what protect them.
Pricing for a therapy practice
Tota is a one-time purchase of £19.99, with two seats per licence, after a 14-day free trial of every feature. There is no subscription, no per-minute transcription fee and no word limit, because local processing costs us nothing per word. Larger teams buy additional licences. Pricing is the same worldwide; see the pricing section for what the licence includes.
Frequently asked questions
Does anything a client said leave my Mac when I dictate?
No. Audio is transcribed on your Mac by OpenAI's Whisper model via WhisperKit, the audio is deleted once transcribed, and the text is typed into the app you are using. Tota sends no audio, text or screen content to any server, and it works with the internet off.
Is Tota HIPAA compliant?
Tota makes no HIPAA claim and does not sign business associate agreements, because there is no Tota server that handles protected health information. The security page lists every network call the app can make: a licence check, an update check and one-time model downloads, none carrying content. Whether your overall setup is compliant depends on the Mac, the software you dictate into and your own policies.
Does it work with my practice-management software?
Yes, if the notes field is a normal text field. Tota is system-wide dictation and types into browser-based practice systems, Word, Pages, Apple Notes and email alike. No integration is needed.
Will it learn client names, and can I remove them?
Tota's dictionary learns from corrections you make so a name is spelled correctly next time. Every learned entry is visible in the Dictionary tab and can be deleted, and automatic learning can be switched off so the dictionary only learns when you press the shortcut.
Where are transcripts stored and for how long?
In a local history on your Mac for three days, then archived as Markdown files in a folder you choose. You can delete entries at any time. Nothing is synced or backed up by Tota itself.
Can it transcribe a recorded session?
With the client's informed consent, yes. Drop the audio file on Audio Drop and Tota produces a speaker-labelled transcript on your Mac with no upload. It exports to text, Markdown, SRT, JSON or CSV.
What does it cost?
£19.99 once, after a 14-day free trial, with two seats per licence. No subscription and no word limit.
Write the note before the next client arrives
Download Tota and dictate your next progress note on a Mac that keeps it to itself. Two seats, £19.99 once.
14-day free trial · macOS 14 or later · No account needed
