Does your T have a policy for missed appointments?

My T did explain that there would be a charge if I didn't inform her before 24 hours to cancel a session, but if I had to cancel and change the date or time it was always well in advance.

I'm unsure if she is strict with the charge, but I think it's fair to charge if notice was not given. She could have filled that spot for some other client, and she is in private practice. I know people who are so irresponsible and neglect to check their appointment times or are always late or no-shows. One of my pet peeves.

One has never said, but I always give more than 24 hours notice. The one time an emergency came up, I explained it and it was not a problem.

The other explained there is a 24 hour notice policy, but it has never been a problem thus far in that I have always been able to give more than that.

I imagine for sudden sickness or something rare both would not be super into charging for a missed appointment.

Mine let me know there is a 24 hour notice cancellation policy. He let me know though that if I r/s the appt for another day in the same week, he will not charge me....I haven't had to do this yet.

My old t made you reschedule even if you canceled days in advance. If you canceled and didn't reschedule in that week you still paid. So basically you paid once a week even if you don't use it. I didn't think that was a cool policy.

The 24 hour rule is pretty standard from what I've seen.

Technically, my T has a 24-hour notice policy. My guess is that if I woke up ill on a Monday morning and couldn't make my Monday am appointment, he would not charge me. If I blew off an appointment because I just didn't want to go and didn't let him know in advance he would charge me. He'd be concerned about why I did it because I'm never even late, but he would charge me.

My T has a 3 day cancel policy, but one day I woke up very sick on T day
and let T know that I was sick, and T did not charge me. T did offer another day, but I was still too sick to take it. Still no charge, just got a "hope you feel better soon" email in response.
( I had email my T)

I'm sure he does, but it has never really come into play, so I can't remember what it is. I've had to cancel on short notice due to illness or emergencies in the past, but he's never charged me for that. I think if there wasn't that kind of situation and I cancelled in less than 24 hours, he charges his full fee, but again, I haven't run into that.

My T has a 24 hour cancellation policy. It's never been an issue, but I think that if an emergency came up where I couldn't make it, she probably wouldn't charge. Of course, if an emergency came up, I'd probably want to talk to T anyway and end up scheduling a phone call or session as soon as possible, so she'd get paid either way.

I don't even know...neither has told me. I wouldn't miss one unless I was sick, and one does phone appts so unless I was REALLY sick I think I could probably manage that.

My pdoc has your check card on file and charges you $300 if you miss an appt... Which is much higher than his billable rate! Go figure my check card expired and I never updated it with him.

My T has a policy. Cancel within 48 hours and you pay the full fee. Cancel between 48 hours and a week before and you pay 50%. Cancel a week or more before and you pay nothing, but you can only do that (cancel as opposed to rescheduling) for up to two sessions a year.

I think it's fair enough as he's in private practice. I've never cancelled. And my T says he's been off sick three times in 20 years, so it's not like he often cancels on clients.

But you expect your T to be free once a week. That's what you hired them for. I think that's completely reasonable.

I personally would never see a therapist who expected me to pay if I gave them reasonable notice that I could not make the appointment. I know some therapists act like it is a salary for them. If it works for you, then fine, but I would not hire one who worked like that. I think there are plenty out there who are not completely incompetent who do not work like that. In my community, it is not usual for a therapist to expect a salary. I am particularly appalled at how those types dictate the time off (their vacation for example, but not the client's).

Well, maybe that's how it works where you are. But my T is in private practice. He doesn't just act like it's a salary for him - it actually is.

I am self-employed. If my clients repeatedly scheduled work only to cancel it, I would not be able to earn a living. I don't charge people for cancelling on me - but if they mess me about more than once, I will drop them. Forever. I can't afford to let them mess me about as, unlike my T, I don't have a policy for this. It's not appropriate in my line of work (I'm a writer working from home). It is in his.

Some therapy clients only reschedule once in a while but, if you let people cancel, some will abuse that. It is completely reasonable that, if you hire a therapist, you are agreeing to pay for a certain number of sessions and you can't just cancel here, there and everywhere.

I personally would never see a therapist who didn't treat their business like a business, because if they just let people cancel and didn't value their own services, I would constantly worry that their business was about to go under. The fact my T takes good care of himself in this way is reassuring to me.

I am in the US and perhaps that is a difference. I know it is a way for therapists to practice, and if it works for a client, then fine. In the area where I live, I have interviewed over 30 therapists (from lcsw to phds) and none of them charged for time one did not use if reasonable notice was given. They had different time periods for what they considered reasonable - usually 24 to 48 hours notice. It never concerned me that their practice would go under. I never thought it was my problem to worry about the therapist.

The therapists I see do treat it like a business but I don't pay them for time I don't use. I have been (and still am to a small extent) a solo practitioner. I charge by the hour. If a client makes an appointment and cancels, I deal with it but not by charging the client. I have court appearances cancelled, changed, and post-poned by the court or by requests from opposing counsel. It does change how much money I make that day.

My Ts policy is that you still have to pay for the session unless you give more than 24 hrs notice. i see that as perfectly fair. If my clients (i am self-employed) cancelled with less than 24hrs notice, i do the same.

Both the therapist and the marriage counselor we see are busy enough that one cancelled appointment will not affect them that adversely. I have been my T's calendar (just which spots are blocked out by appointments), and his schedule is full. He has a list for cancellations and he fills the spot with someone else. I'm sure MC has something similar because we had to cancel one week because a court hearing conflicted with our appointment, and he said he would put us on the cancellation list in case something else opened up. The cancellation list he keeps is the reason he wants 24 hour notice if someone wants to cancel.

My therapist is in private practice, semi-retired. I have cancelled very few sessions (maybe three out of 125, when my daughter was sick or something), though I've threatened to cancel quite a few, haha, as we have ruptures.

When I threatened to cancel early on, she kindly told me she would keep my slot open. I *always* insisted on offering her payment for missed sessions, but she has told me she would occupy herself otherwise and no charge was necessary. She has no overhead, working form home online, so that probably makes it easier for her to be flexible. However, I always reschedule as soon as possible in the event of a very rare last minute cancellation so... she still receives the income.

So how many would? Two? Five? Where do you draw the line? I am glad my T has firm boundaries with this. It would annoy me if he didn't.

Um, people who work from home online still have overheads. Heating, lighting, internet, equipment, tax...

Those are all normal cost of living expenses. I work from home full time myself, so I'm familiar. The cost she incurs with me is internet access, a cost she would also normally pay anyway. She'd still have to pay all her heating, lighting, and other bills whether she worked with me or not.

That is not to say I'm inconsiderate of her time. I always offer and am willing to pay for missed sessions.

I think this thread: http://forums.psychcentral.com/psych...ouldnt-do.html is a perfect example of why Ts need these policies.

TR, we all have different stuff that bugs us. Not sure why this one bugs you, but I see that it does, but that person was willing to pay for the appointment, so it doesn't seem fair to point a finger there.

It would annoy me to no end if the T tried to have a set in stone appointment that I could never change without paying. My T has had to change or cancel appointments with me because of issues with meetings he has to go to, or continuing ed classes or trips or whatever. I do not fuss about it. I expect the same courtesy from him.

Good point, mkac. Because stability would be more of an issue for some people, and flexibility, while an ideal for me, turned out to be problematic. (Altho we now have both.) But I couldn't even recognize that I was lacking stability, that everything was chaos, until a couple of years into taking the bus - I.e., taking the bus to t! - I realized the bus schedules didn't change. I found that comforting. As I said so to t, he gave me a look like, and what am I, chopped liver?? So - when stopdog says she doesn't understand how t works - but you don't keep a regular schedule, isn't that like complaining that a recipe didnt turn out right when you didnt follow it exactly? Given that regular attendance is part of the "recipe" of therapy. I better go do something that's part of my dang recipe.

No. I don't think so. I have never been told by a therapist regular attendance is supposed to happen, help or why it would help.

I'm not really pointing the finger, just saying it's an example of how a client may say they're cancelling because they can't go when really it's not the case. You're right. This does bug me. It bugs me partly because I'm self-employed so I understand why these policies exist and partly because I just feel it shows a lack of courtesy when people say Ts shouldn't charge for cancellations.

Just to be clear, I'm talking about cancelling, not changing - different thing. I think it's fine to have a set-in-stone policy for cancellations if you're willing to reschedule as needed, the point being the T doesn't lose the session fee.

I think many of us here are self employed at an hourly rate and only get paid for appointments if the client actually shows up. I think it is a part of being self employed that people sometimes cancel. I only see it as a problem for me when a client cancels on me at the last minute (and I still don't charge them anything if they do) - I give the therapist enough time to fill in the slot with another client if they want. I also have been cancelled on by the therapist the morning of my appointment due to illness, change of schedule, her dog needing to be there for some reason, and so forth - and I do not give the therapist grief about it. I can handle that sometimes things arise. That is the equal courtesy that I find necessary.