how many clients does your T have?

I asked my new T this week how many clients she sees. I was just curious how busy she is, because it seems like the center where she practices is always full of clients.

Also, I just wanted to get a sense of how long she works and whether she has time to take care of herself. (and whether I have any chance of rising to the status of "favorite client"! j/k)

She told me that until recently, she saw 10 clients a day.

She said lately, she has been seeing far fewer, like 6 per day and she said she really prefers it this way. She has a break mid-day for herself.

It just made me wonder what's typical for Ts. I know there are lots of factors involved, but doesn't it seem like there should be a limit to protect Ts from burnout?

How many clients does your T see?

I'm afraid to ask her, but maybe I will. I think she sees more than just me for 1 1/2 hours, so that cuts down on the number. I have to admit I got a queasy, triggery, yukky feeling when I read your thread. I don't want my T to have any other clients but me!

No clue. I know she works a 4-day work week and seems to be booked a lot, however.

I have wondered the same about my therapist. She keeps it under raps for some reason. I asked her the other day and she said, "How would that make our work together any different?"

She just says, "I work part time" and that's all. I get the feeling that she only schedules 3-4 appointments per day. I know her appointment times are 9:00, 11:00, 1:00. I am the only one that she sees at 3:00.

I am guessing she has 12 -15 appointments per week. She is private practice and this is a part time job for her.

My T works part time and I don't think she sees more than 10 or so clients.

I know some T's who see 7 or 8 clients a day. I personally think that is too much for one person. My T works 4 days and always seems to have last minute openings so I'm happy that she's not swamped. I wouldn't like it if I were one of 40. How would she remember me? But, they need to make a living too. But, really, how can they see 10 a day? My goodness!

I asked my T earlier in therapy, and I think he said he had around 24 - 28 clients...but he didn't see all of them every week, some are couples, etc. I can't imagine my T with 24 - 28 other people, actually!

He does consulting work and a supervision group and some things in the community so he is out of the office some mornings. Plus his own therapy.

He seems really careful about self-care, so I assume if it were too much, he'd find a way to cut back.... it is REALLY hard to get in to see him last minute though!

Mine works 4 days a week, about 10 hours a day...so I've guessed about 8-10 clients a day...I don't like to think about that though

I've never asked. I've been curious, but don't feel it's my place to ask. I know she only works 4 days a week, and is only in her office until 4 pm each day. So, the max she could probably see would be 6-7 per day. I know that she's not fully booked every day, though, so it's probably less than that.

mine has 26 or so others......I only know this because of a comment she made when telling me about a new policy my insurance has (which affected the others on her client list who have the same insurance.....) I know that some she sees on a much less regular basis than me, some perhaps only once/twice a month. I haven't asked, and won't, how many she sees in a day, but I'm guessing 6-7, from what I know of her hours....

Technically, my t can see 8 clients a day, but generally he sees a bit less than that. Some clients come once a week. some every other week. Some probably once a month. So I have no idea what his patient load really is. I think he'd like it to be more than it is though from things he has said.

I have no idea how many clients my T sees...but I know it's quite a bit. He never leaves more than a couple minutes between sessions, which bothers me at times.

I'm wondering if you (anyone) thinks it's a rude question to ask your T. Why wouldn't they want to answer, at least give an estimate? Is that a personal question?

My therapist was very evasive about answering that for me. I did ask her what the big deal was. I told her I was just curious as to how big her practice was. I don't know why it seems to be such a big deal for them to tell us.

She just responded that she works part time. Which is about 20 hours per week. The receptionist keeps making comments about how busy my therapist is. Since I never see another client, I was curious.

Yes, I have to admit there is jealousy. You guys know by now, that I have those stupid feelings going on!! This is really magnified with the fact that my own daughter may start seeing her. I am praying this won't happen.

I cannot handle her talking about my therapist and what they talk about and do in therapy

My t does private practice part time and has one or two other jobs. He talks about his jobs a lot. He was telling me about how he sees less people in his full time job(s?) than in private practice, but he seemed to imply he prefers the private practice. He does groups and other things in the other jobs and it's people mandated by courts to get treatment. I forgot how many people he said in each. He said he spends too much time working. He seems to be trying to get more clients in private practice.

Sometimes it bothers me that he might be nice to me to keep my business, but with t's who are harder to get appointment times with, that bothers me. I prefer this over having a harder time getting a good appointment time.

My T told me once that seeing 27 clients a week is considered a full load for therapists. Of course, if a T sees 27 a week, they could still have a lot more clients than that because they don't see every client every week. (I see my T once every 3-4 weeks.) I am pretty sure my T sees more than 27 clients a week. He works about 4 ten hour days. He is very busy and it takes about 3 weeks for me to get an appointment with him, so if I wanted to see him more frequently than 3 weeks apart, I would have to schedule more than one appointment in advance.

Rainbow, I'm not sure why a T wouldn't want a client to know that sort of thing. I never asked--my T volunteered this information.

I did ask my T, though, if he ever slept on the couch in his office when he had an empty slot during the day. This was during my "exhausted" phase and I just thought it would be so great to have an hour break during the day and a couch to take a nap on. My T said in all his 30 years of practice, he had only slept a couple of times.

sunny that is a GOOD question!! I may ask my T that someday. If it were me (as a T), I don't know if I would really do that because of all the people that sit on those couches, and they were your clients...it might weird me out a bit.

austin-t only sees me and maybe 1-2 others in his full time job, but that's because he manages the national program for the group of hospitals and doesnt have time to do private consultations anymore. sometimes i think he runs group sessions, but he's been hiring a lot more staff to take over that too.

he usually sees 3 clients from 4-7pm from monday to friday, which means 15 clients a week. add me & the other 2ish people he sees, and i guess you have 17 clients. he prefers to see people weekly because it helps him manage his waiting list and go through people quicker. he attends to phone calls etc after 7pm, but usually only to text back saying he'll talk the following day. he has called me once or twice when i've been in crisis, but i dont know if he does this for everyone.

he works weekends as a consultant for various companies and is also doing his (second) phd. which means he's got naught on me when he starts talking about my maybe taking on a heavy load .

My T works 15 hours a week in her private practice. So she probably has about 12 clients(?), some of whom are doing DBT (and so need phone contact as part of their treatment). The rest of the time, she works as a consultant for a DBT service. Lots of that job seems to be management/development meetings but I think she has some clients (and therefore more phone contact) there too. She also runs her business (other Ts work in her private practice), is doing a further specialist qualification for her consultant job, has a 2 year old child at home and somehow sustains a marriage and a busy social life.

I don't think it's rude at all to ask (obviously, since I asked!). But I understand that I can ask T anything and she has a right to respond or not respond.

Also, I think if it's a triggering issue, then it should be discussed in therapy and not avoided.

With my old T, it was REALLY hard for me to picture her being so loving with other clients. But she asked me to think about my kids and the unique relationship I have with each of them and try to remember that it's similar with Ts.

She said to me, "you are NOT just an appt slot in my day, G. You are G, and there is no one else in the universe like you. I look forward to seeing you every single time."

That helped

Way too many. Several new evaluations every week, who may turn into regular clients or be referred elsewhere. Then she leads two or three groups. And the individual clients - 30 sessions a week?
Still, I'm her favorite client so no one else matters !!

I've never asked her, but she told me the place she came from she worked until 9p every night. Right now, she works until 7-8p depending on the day. I think she only works a half day on Monday and she doesn't work on Fridays. She also does supervision and testing so not every day is booked full of sessions. She did say last night that she's been filling up and doing cold calling (??? not sure what that is) She said another therapist works with the husband and she works with the wife, and she ended up getting booked up for the next month. She adds me in for every Wednesday night at 6p even if I've skipped a week she makes sure to put me in for at least 2wks ahead.

Sorry, I guess I didn't really answer the question

my guess is 30, but i've never asked. since she's in private practice, i feel she'd be more or less disclosing how much money she makes if she were to tell me how many clients she has. i realize she could have 10 clents that she sees four times a week, or 100 clients that only come twice a year, and the dollar amount would be very different - but still. that's my guess as to why some therapist aren't willing to disclose that infomation. aside from the fact that it could cause problems down the road like, "i know you're only seeing six other people, so why haven't you called me back?!" i think it's a boundary issue..

Even if they were in private practice, there is no way of knowing exactly how much $ they actually take home. They must have to carry one hell of a malpractice insurance policy, and possibly have a lawyer on retainer. My friend who is going into clinical psychology said that for the amount of money and time she spends on her education and training, she could go into bartending tomorrow (at the right place) and still make a killing. She says she is definitely not in this for the money.

I work 4 days a week and have 26-30 clients scheduled a week, with 5 meetings