Setting up your ideal schedule in private practice
Learn how to schedule your time as a therapist in private practice.
Setting up your schedule as a therapist in private practice can be extremely challenging (and isolating) when you are first starting out.
At first, there’s a belief that everything should go swimmingly without any hiccups. You created the practice of your dreams and your schedule should match that!
Uhhh huhhhhh, that’s cute.
In reality, it’s actually really challenging to know how to manage your time as a new business owner. Most likely, you are leaving a traditional 9-5 and now have zero obligation to stick to the 9-5 schedule. So where do you start?
Start with your own nervous system.
Pay close attention to times of day when you are sharpest, present, and attentive (i.e. REGULATED!). Start from there. We might sound like broken records at this point, but boundaries are key to setting up a thriving private practice.
While your client might be available at 7 pm for a session, is your nervous system?
Use that question as the guiding principle. Ask yourself, “what time am I most regulated and available for myself and my clients?"
Then, think about how many clients you like to see back to back. Some people like to see four in a row and be done for the day. Others like at least a 30-minute break in-between clients.
You can literally do whatever the heck you want.
What is the work schedule for a therapist?
Here’s how to create a schedule in private practice:
For simplicity's sake, we’re going to use a four-day workweek with a full practice of 16 available slots to show you a sample schedule.
Ask yourself the following questions:
What time do I want to start my day?
What time do I want to end my day?
What’s the maximum amount of clients I want to see in a day?
What’s the ideal amount of clients I want to see in a day?
Then, use a simple Google sheet to visualize your time:
What does a therapist's schedule look like?
See the example below to see what a therapist’s schedule looks like, including time for self-care and breaks throughout the day.
Make sure you are building in time for all the additional things outside of one-on-one therapy sessions. This includes:
Self-care (yes, this includes sitting down to eat lunch…we’re looking at you!)
Supervision
Peer consult groups
Bookkeeping
CE’s
Parent check-in’s
Consult calls
Networking
At first, this might seem like an overwhelming amount of things to manage and coordinate. Don’t worry, we’re here to offer a few simple tips that will set you up for success.
Tips for setting up an ideal schedule:
1. Use Calendly
For just $12 a month, you get a virtual assistant. You don’t have to coordinate any of your meeting times.
You don’t have to worry about updating your schedule.
Your networking, consult calls, and check-ins are pretty much seamless.
Connect Calendly to your main calendar and then create different calendars within Calendly (lol, that’s a mouthful) for the different events you offer.
Then, create availability based on the open times in your work day when you aren’t seeing clients.
If you decide to get a massage during your two-hour lunch break (and it’s on your main calendar), you don’t have to worry about updating your Calendly; it’s automatic!
When someone signs up for an event, a meeting invite is then sent to you and the person who signed up.
2. Use Sessions Health (or another EHR) to schedule client sessions and create availability blocks.
Unfortunately, Calendly isn’t HIPPA compliant, so you can’t schedule client sessions through that… but Sessions Health (and other EHRs) are!
Create an availability calendar on your EHR based on your ideal schedule calendar.
That way, when you quickly schedule with clients at the end of sessions, you know exactly when you can schedule them.
If you want, you can also have clients schedule through the Sessions calendar widget.
This is sort of like Calendly (though a less sophisticated version).
Clients can cancel, rebook, or request new appointments through this link. It’s another virtual assistant, just not as snazzy as Calendly’s features.
3. Have one calendar where you can see ALL your calendars.
Confusing, we know. We’ll explain.
Julie uses iCal for this, and Lindsey uses Google Calendar. Do whatever works for your brain, but link all your calendars in one place. That way, it doesn’t actually feel like you have a million calendars to keep track of. When you open your chosen application, all your resources are in one place.
4. Be clear about when you can do intake sessions.
For some clinicians, intake sessions are a full hour rather than a 50-minute hour. Try scheduling these only when you don’t have anything right afterward.
How to handle after-hour calls in private practice
Let clients know from the get-go that you are not an emergency call service.
Explain in your paperwork that you respond to client calls and/or texts during your chosen work hours. Provide emergency call numbers for after-hour calls.
Julie uses Google Voice for her work number and does not give out her personal phone number. She turns off call forwarding on her phone, so she’s not actually able to make or receive phone calls from her iPhone, just texts on the Google Voice App.
This means she gets to CHOOSE when to answer the phone. Most of the time, calls go directly to voice mail, and she responds within one business day. Clients and parents know that she won’t respond outside of work hours.
No one has taken issue with it, and people are VERY respectful of her phone boundaries.
How to schedule emergency services while on vacation in private practice
If you are going on vacation, first find another clinician to be “on-call” in case of clinical emergencies. Provide all clients with their contact info in an email or voicemail.
Create an out-of-office voicemail with emergency phone numbers.
Create an out-of-office email response with emergency phone numbers.
Don’t check your email or phone, just go on adventures!
Next steps to creating a schedule as a therapist
Here are the four things you need to do to set up your ideal schedule:
Brainstorm what your schedule looks like
Create a Calendly account
Create an availability calendar in your EHR
Stick to it and move things around as your nervous system and practice shift!
If you are feeling stuck, don’t hesitate to reach out. We offer individual private practice consulting sessions, you can learn more about them here.
Julie Goldberg is a licensed therapist and the founder of Third Nature Therapy. Her practice focuses on helping individuals better understand their inner world, befriend their nervous system (instead of working against it), and navigate changing relationships. She offers somatic therapy, EMDR intensives, and Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy in Brooklyn, NY.