What's the Ideal Therapist Schedule?

[@MrHaslam10]

I had someone suggest to me scheduling a half hour break in between clients. It was a game-changer for me. During that time I can write the progress note, update treatment plans, respond to phone calls, or just take a break. It also allows me to be flexible with client sessions, such as if a couple needs to go over a few minutes.

[@nataliebeutel7515]

I do this too and love it!

[@artrayus3]

Great Idea. I might start soft-implementing this and see how it goes. Thanks for the idea!

[@jefflaniajiffy3375]

Great idea! I think I’ll try that next year

[@dcj1291]

Yep! I am playing with this too. It's so helpful and takes so much pressure off for me.

[@metazor100]

I do this, too, but my next experiment will be 2 clients back to back and a 30 min break.

[@labdian]

You have no idea (well, maybe you do) how liberating this video is! It's such a relief to see this! I'd say I do have a full practice with 10-20 clients a week (and I'd say close to 10-20 hours per week for writing evaluations, recommendations and bills), but I felt like an unproductive member of society who formally works just 4-5 hours a day. Now I see I'm really up there with the most!

[@netherworlde]

Yes, it's hard to stop comparing yourself to everyone else's "standard" schedule. But it also assumes the "standard" works. Now we're starting to realize that greater hours generates less productivity.

[@Coach.Meredith]

I have 2 young kids, so I work 4 days a week and always off Mondays! After 14 years in private practice practice, this is my schedule: Tues and Wed (10a, 11, 1230, 130) Thursday (12, 1p, 230, 4, 5p) Every other Friday and alternate Saturdays (10, 11, 1230, 130p). This is my ideal and works for me and my family! I’m not a morning person as you can see. 😂 I spend 3-4 hours on admin per week.

[@pointerdogmarketing2197]

I'm a night owl by default. I don't think I'd ever want to see anybody before 10:30am ever again

[@pocket3362]

Same here!

[@blueberrimary]

Currently seeing 20-25 clients per week at my agency and it’s not considered full time but emotionally feels at my limit. I have to have 35 clients scheduled per week. Also I am only somewhat allowed change my schedule. I don’t like having to work so many evenings. Maybe one day I will be able to make one late day instead of 2-3 per week. I appreciate these videos, especially needed to hear these messages!! ❤

[@michellebee1117]

I'm always interested in hearing how others do their schedules. Another therapist once told me it's always a dance, figuring out that sweet spot and that's helped me roll with it all a bit more. I could relate to the newer therapist who's schedule was spread out to accommodate clients. I recently saw myself doing that and reigning it in helped. I think it's so easy to get caught up in all the "shoulds" I hear out there - like no evenings, working only 3-4 days/week, etc. It's really about what works best for us as an individual. Having said all that, I currently see about 17-23 clients/week, working 12-7 2 days a week and 8-ish to 2-ish 3 days/week (private practice). I have breaks in there, no more than 3 clients back to back with a 1 hour break.

[@RxWrexy]

I personally like working evening hours because we eat dinner really late in my household and I enjoy having quiet reflective mornings to myself. Also my brain does admin work best in the mornings. The one tweak I'd like to incorporate more into my schedule is fewer back to back blocks of sessions, which I think for me will mean normalizing a non-standard start time for some clients, with session beginning at :15 or :45 past the hour. I need a 15 min snack break before I head into those last couple sessions of the day!

[@jonathanlorio3265]

Could you make a video about steps or what to do RIGHT AFTER graduating from a grad school program? I'm doing the LMFT/LPCC at Pepperdine University, and I would really appreciate you talking about what you advice the next steps to take right after graduation for someone like me who wants to go into private practice. THANK YOU for all your videos! Hope I get a response =O

[@zorgnaxstash]

I’m blessed to only work Mon-Thu, but still have 5 and 6 pm slots that I wish I could get rid of. I would love to work maybe 9 am-4 pm, especially now with DST 😂. But I fear that I would basically lose all of my clients. I’m just too new in my private practice journey to feel confident having that schedule, I guess.

[@wondergal4729]

I have 2 long days and in my ideal schedule, I'd keep those 2 long days as the only 2 days I work. Unfortunately, like so many others, I feel like I currently need to add hours on the other days to make sure I'm making the money I need to support my family. I definitely I find that I feel the most productive on weeks where I average 18-22 hours, but the financial stress forces my hand and I end up working closer to 28 hours. :(

[@fisharefwends]

My therapist works 4 days a week and 8 clients in 8 hour days. I feel like thats too much

[@aliwarren5110]

i’m transitioning into a full time practice and this is right on time! i’m currently figuring out to set up my schedule. your channel has been so helpful as i’ve been building my practice. thanks, marie!

[@philipcollier_]

Hi Marie. I recently stumbled on your channel and really enjoy your videos. I have found my upper limit (in terms of energy, ability to stay present etc.) for the number of clients I can see per day before puts me in the 15 to 20 bracket. Even then, when I reach that upper limit, I find that after a couple of weeks I need to take a long weekend. I have often had the unhelpful thought, "I should be seeing more clients". This has helped me challenge that thought. I would put the non-client facing time in the same 15 to 20 hours per week bracket. In contrast to the "I should be seeing more clients" thought, I know I need to spend less time on notes and admin. I would love to see a cross-tab of the number of clients per week by number of non-client hours per week. Thanks for your great content

[@sanjmanj]

I was one of the high admin time people. I'm currently on my postdoc so we have a lot of required meetings (e.g. staff meetings, individual supervision, group consult, seminar, etc.) and required projects that take up a lot of time on top of note-writing time. It's definitely a lot but less than internship was! I was also one of the ones who responded "somewhat" to controlling work hours - I can choose when I schedule sessions in my day but with all the required meetings and not wanting to overload some days with sessions, it kind of forces me to have a certain schedule. Ideally, I'd love to start later in the day as I'm not a morning person, be able to space sessions out more in the day (more breaks between people), work 4 days a week, and see like 16 people a week.

[@JennaRose957]

I absolutely love hearing this!!! Im still working on my Bachelors in Psychology and will eventually become a therapist after a masters.

[@cohesian]

thank you for this channel!

[@inculcatetobemaudlin2943]

Appreciated the suggestions

[@annabelapurva-madhuri4861]

Interesting, thanks!