[sherbet]

I contacted a T yesterday (Wednesday) to ask if she's accepting new clients and whether we can set up an initial consult (either phone or in-person). She wrote back today (Thursday) that she is accepting new clients and she is available on Tuesdays, Thursdays and every other Saturday and asked what day works best. I said any of those, sooner is better. That was seven hours ago and I have a feeling I won't be hearing from her until tomorrow at this point.

I didn't send her a long stream of consciousness about some issue I'm dealing with, I didn't send her a complex problem to resolve…I simply asked her, in a one-sentence email, to schedule me in her next available time slot…indeed arranging even a 10-min long phone call to see whether she was a good fit would have sufficed. Surely that doesn't take seven hours? This is the kind of thing that would have taken my former therapist 5 minutes to an hour to resolve (depending on whether she was in session).

I feel that given her limited availability (only Tuesdays and Thursdays…and every other Saturday) the lag in response time could mean pissing away a whole week.

I know that seven hours or even a day is not a long time in the grand scheme of things. Maybe she's having a crazy, busy day. I'm not having some kind of emergency. I just feel like this doesn't bode well for future scheduling…I don't expect an immediate response but scheduling shouldn't take days (what if I need to make plans and it takes days to schedule every appointment?). It also makes me feel like she's not trying to be helpful…and I don't want an unhelpful T! Reaching out to a new T can be a stressful experience…I feel like the kinder thing to do is to send even a short response back, even if she doesn't yet know when she can fit me in.

I'm already turned off and we haven't even spoken. Am I being anxious and unreasonable? How long does it take to contact your T re scheduling?

[wotchermuggle]

Truthfully? Yes, you're being a tad unreasonable. I have email and phone contact available with my T and sometimes it takes a day or two to figure out rescheduling if we don't actually talk on the phone or in person about it. Most people work at least 8 hours and breaks aren't sufficient to do everything you want. People need to pee, to eat, to simply BREATHE for a second. It doesn't mean they are a bad therapist, especially if they are their own secretary as well.

Maybe a bit. My t doesn't schedule via email, but I also am aware his does not even have his laptop out and on during the day. I suspect he checks emails and does paperwork once or twice a day rather than spending his brief time between appointments on his technology. He uses that time to handwrite notes, go to the restroom, perhaps return a quick phone call. It is likely she has had clients all day and will get back to replying to emails once her client load is over for the day. My pdoc doesn't return calls until the end of his client day unless it is a real emergency either, so just realize not all therapists spend their time between appointments answering emails and texts; they may have a routine of doing that a couple of times a day rather than constantly throughout the day. If that isn't okay for you, and her part-time schedule load seems a problem for you, you might need to find a T with more time availability for sessions.

[mira belle]

I left a voicemaik for a well reputed T . been 24 hours ...haven't heard a thing. Today is ending. .so maybe tomorrow...or never. Looking for another T. Who can return simple phone calls like what are your timings...in the morning before they start seeing patients or end of the day. I got neither.
Just wanted to let u know I m waiting for call back also.

You might still hear from her tonight, depending on how late she works, but I think it's a stretch to expect a same day response. Some will do that, others not, but it's not necessarily a reflection on the quality of their work. That said, if her response time grates on you, either be prepared to deal with it or find another therapist to interview because it's not likely to change.

As for what could happen in terms of scheduling in the future, maybe you could either schedule far in advance or ask for the same time/day each week.

But for now, you probably need to go in with an open enough mind to see if you like her.

[stopdog]

I see two who are each semi-retired. One only works at the beginning of the week and one works at the end. I think it took the second one a few days to call me back after my initial phone call. I only see those who do not use a separate person for appointments or anything. The ones I see do not employ staff. I would directly ask the therapist how quickly she usually returns calls etc when I spoke on the phone or met in person. If I needed more than she could offer, I would move on to find someone I thought would fit more into what I was looking for.

The other factor here is that you are not an established client yet, so she'll probably get back to you only after she has attended to her active clients first. This is one reason I've enjoyed having therapists who have secretaries to handle scheduling. I can handle scheduling at my convenience as soon as I call and not have to wait around for the therapist to find time to get back to me. It also frees up his time to devote entirely to therapy. His secretary handles the scheduling, insurance filing, nags him to return calls when he needs nagging.

[sherbet]

Maybe I was spoiled by my last T! She was her own secretary as well, not part of a practice, and I had no problem with that. I just texted her and she responded.

I'm not a difficult client. I don't contact my T between sessions (and in the rare instances I do it's just material to be discussed in-session, not something I expect to have addressed on the spot). My time is flexible so if T asked me to go to a different office location or move my slot I always said "yes" whenever I could.

I do find it irritating to wait for days to initiate even a short phone call…but if this is actually typical I think I can approach her open-mindedly. I don't, after all, generally require a fast response. It looks like I'm going in with unreasonable expectations.

I don't know if it's typical, but it's not unusual. Glad you're going ahead with an open mind.

A few years back my pdoc wanted me to have a full psychological testing work up done, and while my T can do testing, he couldn't do mine because he knew me too well. So, I had to go down the list of psychologists on my insurance list trying to find those that do testing (they don't all). MANY of them didn't have secretaries and it was so incredibly frustrating to call and leave messages never to have them returned. Drove me crazy. A secretary simplifies the business end of things so much. I know some people don't like to deal with someone other than their T, but I like not having to go to him about scheduling, insurance matters, paying my bills, etc. It keeps our relationship about the relationship and the business end really never enters into our interactions at all. There's a real plus to that.

[ragsnfeathers]

I've emailed my new t a couple times (primarily ironing out some administrative type stuff) and he seems to do his email mornings when he gets to work. He may also do it at the end of the day; I'm a morning person so I wouldn't know. If his clients need to reach him immediately they (we) would call him. It could be this therapist does something similar. The best way to find out her email policy would be to ask her when she gets back to you and then decide if its something you could live with.

[pbutton]

I may have missed it, but is there a reason why you didn't call her, if you were looking for an immediate response?

[stopdog]

I have not found calling a therapist to get a quicker response than email.

[Seeking_Peace]

Originally Posted by sherbet

I contacted a T yesterday (Wednesday) to ask if she's accepting new clients and whether we can set up an initial consult (either phone or in-person). She wrote back today (Thursday) that she is accepting new clients and she is available on Tuesdays, Thursdays and every other Saturday and asked what day works best. I said any of those, sooner is better. That was seven hours ago and I have a feeling I won't be hearing from her until tomorrow at this point.

I know that seven hours or even a day is not a long time in the grand scheme of things. Maybe she's having a crazy, busy day. I'm not having some kind of emergency. Am I being anxious and unreasonable? How long does it take to contact your T re scheduling?

You are a new client who is not having a crisis. You told the T you wanted the earliest appointment available but did not indicate any reason you needed to to know a time/date asap. The first e-mail you sent her, she responded to it within 24 hours. You don't know anything about her client schedule or personal life. She could be slammed with clients, maybe one of her clients had a crisis which she had to attend to, or maybe she had personal things she was doing.

Given that you are a new client and not in crisis, I think being this upset b/c the T hasn't written back in 7 hours is unreasonable. I would give her at least 24 hours to respond to non-crisis e-mail.

As for appointments, I schedule my appointment with my T at the end of each session. No reason for me to play phone or e-mail tag. At the end of my time, before I walk out of the room, my next appointment is set. I don't see any reason why you can't do the same starting in the 1st appointment.

[sherbet]

Originally Posted by Seeking_Peace

As for appointments, I schedule my appointment with my T at the end of each session. No reason for me to play phone or e-mail tag. At the end of my time, before I walk out of the room, my next appointment is set. I don't see any reason why you can't do the same starting in the 1st appointment.

Well because you schedule at the end of the session and then the **** hits the fan and things get moved. It depends on the individual T's style. I had one T who would work with me to pick a day/time for our session and that's how it stayed. No need for scheduling at all--all the sessions were scheduled for the same day/time for months in advance unless stated otherwise. And I had another T who had a different style and sometimes I didn't know until hours before the session if I was going. In return for my flexibility she was flexible with me if I ever needed it.

In any case, the T did get back to me that evening so we're set. Thanks for all the support. I think that generally I don't need immediate attention so I can deal with her style, especially since it sounds like this is normal. I also hope that maybe she was prioritizing her existing clients. After all this agonizing I hope she's a good fit (*fingers crossed*).

[Lauliza]

If she does her own scheduling then to be fair I'd give her a couple of days. There's a lot to running your own business so not hearing right back about a scheduling issue is to be expected, I think. If she takes more than a couple of days then Id be concerned.

I'm glad she got back to you, sherbet, and I hope she is a good match for you.