I still really disagree with those saying it's unethical and whatnot for Ts not to offer later hours. They have no obligation to do that! If they are in private practice, THEY decide their hours, their rates, and their clientele. If that doesn't work for you, you find another T. Inconvenient, sure. Unethical or breaking some kind of social responsibility code? Absolutely not.

The office I work in has more than 10 Ts, and when I schedule people I always let potential clients know what times they have available on a weekly basis. One of our most experienced Ts only works 8:30-4:30 Monday-Thurs and almost always has a full caseload (including a lot of child clients), because she is amazing at her job and people make it work to see her if it's that important to them. If her schedule doesn't work, there are other Ts we have who have after school, evening, or weekend appointments, and some of them are even less expensive due to their experience level. Sometimes there is a waiting list for those spots though, because everyone wants them.

Why should any T work hours they don't want to if they don't have to? Some prefer daytime hours and others don't want to get up before 11am. Not sure where y'all are, but here there are enough Ts in my city who work all different hours that you can certainly find something that should work for you. Plus, it keeps being mentioned as if 9-5 is everyone's work schedule, but it's not. We have quite a few clients who come to the office that have alternative work schedules- like nurses who maybe work 3 days, get 2 days off, or people who work 1pm-9pm, etc. Or sometimes, one person will bring a kid in and a different relative will pick them up. They make it work! The people who can't will make appointments somewhere else.

Personally, while I see my current T at 6pm on a weeknight, if I couldn't get on her schedule at that time I would either look elsewhere to find someone closer who I could see during my lunch break or take time off work but go less frequently. I've even had other jobs in the past and my bosses have always been understanding about me needing to leave early to make it to therapy appointments. The one job I had that would have been impossible to do that with had a different schedule of 3pm-11pm and usually two weekdays off, it wasn't an issue there either.

Also, personally, I don't want to be more important that my T's family and personal life, because that would be bizarre and unhealthy. They need to take care of themselves properly to be emotionally healthy and effective at their job. Private practice Ts provide a service and they determine the details of how, when, and where. Clients can choose to partake or not.

[edit] For the social responsibility piece, both the Ts I work with at my job and Ts I've seen before often offer a sliding scale to reduce the financial burden. I know some Ts who normally charge $125/session who lower the rate to $25/session for those going through some sort of major crisis and some places even offer free counseling. And, in my own experience, I had a T who normally didn't accept insurance start accepting mine again just so i could afford to see her- making her $125 rate go down to a $15 copay for me and extra paperwork and phone calls for her to get maybe half of her usual pay from them. There are other ways to help those in need besides having extended hours.