No show protocol

is anything amiss here?

Client misses an appt. last minute emergency. (never missed an appt before)

C. emails T few minutes before the scheduled session is to begin and apologizes for last minute cancellation.

20 minutes into the appt. No email response (maybe T didnt check email- totally understandable)
but no call to check in what happened...nothing.

C. calls T after 20 minutes into their appt time - no answer.

if a C. is a no show..dont T usually call to check in what happened? (assuming he didnt read the email)

If he did read the email, it would have been polite to answer saying got it. no problem..see u next week? but nothing...

is my T mad at me?

i did explain the emergency in the email. and apologized profusely.
and i will pay for the missed session next week.

I recently missed an appointment and did not notify T in the proper amount of time. It was not an emergency, so I was charged for the missed appointment. I would hope that my T would check in with me to see what was going on and why I didn't show up. I hope you can talk things out with T soon!

My T's wouldn't call to check on me unless I asked them to. I doubt your T is mad at you.

I'd at least expect some kind of confirmation he got the email.

here in NY most treatment providers and mental health agencies do have no show rules, usually the standard to call in with in 24 hours of the appointment to cancel otherwise insurance company will still get billed and they usually do not call the client back when a client has notified them that they cant make it to their appointment. my therapist told me this is because she knows that if she gets my message during or right before my appointment then obviously I wont be able to answer her call because I will be busy doing what ever it was that caused me to cancel my appointment. (work and what ever) and that if I canceled just because I didnt feel like going or because I didnt want to deal with seeing her or deal with what ever work needed doing well thats my prerogative and she wasnt going to interfere with my decision not to go to therapy that day.I make the choice to go to therapy or not and she will always honor my decision.

my suggestion is schedule an appointment with your treatment provider and talk about what the therapists and mental agencies rules are on this and what you would like to happen when you cancel your sessions. it may be that your therapist was just honoring your choice to cancel your session and the ball is in your court as to when you want to have your next therapy session.

Yes, I'd expect an email to confirm he got my mail. I know I would feel worried if I didn't hear back- if it were me I would ring again and leave a message saying I'm worried and would appreciate a callback. Do you think doing that might help? One thing I've noticed is that usually when I follow up on these things and say explicitly that I am concerned about something my therapist can then clarify the situation, and I don't need to worry anymore.

The T probably wouldn't call as maybe presuming you are busy with said emergency but yeah I'd expect an email saying "Thanks for letting me know" Hope you both can work it out.

T and I have an agreement that if something comes up and I can't make an appointment to just email her it doesn't need to be an emergency it could be something came up at school or whatever. She knows I never miss appointments and definitely wouldn't be a "no call no show". So if I am late she will check her email it'd it were an emergency I would call and leave a message. If I didn't contact her she would call me. This has happened a couple of times where I had written site a later time.

this was yesterday...so it has been more than 24 hours ...and i havent heard back anything.

just that when it was my session time, he must have been wondering where i am ...he had 50 mins. he must have checked his email...his laptop is always on.

just feel icky...that i got no acknowledgement and he could care less...i am sure he read the email..just chose not to respond at all...i wasnt looking for attention or doing something that i need to be discouraged from. it was strictly appt. related. so it just doesnt make sense to me..why he would do this.
and i didnt write just that i can not make it..i apologized a couple times..so a quick response its okay...see u next week ..would have been sufficient.

anyhow...i was left wondering all day...what happened...why didnt he reply..is he mad at me?
since its been 24 hours..i am not expecting a response now. so have stopped checking my email constantly.

Maybe call him again? Or send him an email, letting him know how his lack of response made you feel. For me, sometimes being direct helps my t know what I need from her and puts my anxiety to rest on what if's

Yes, it has happened more than once to me that my therapist either thought he had replied or meant to reply, and something thwarted him in some way. I have found that I don't need to suffer wondering what is up if I just follow up and ask him again, and let him know that his non-response is really hurting me. I would be surprised if he were mad at you - sometimes people can have a moment of scatteredness or distraction, for example, and just drop the ball. I hope you can reach out to him and let him know how you are feeling.

I personally think it is really unprofessional to not acknowledge your email. That is strange.

He might think you are handling the emergency and can't talk. I agree with puzzle bug that its not professional to not answer your email. When my T doesn't respond within a reasonable time frame I often send another email and ask her to please reply to my other one. She likes that I am assertive. Could you do that?

session was yesterday..so no point in getting a reply now right?

really weird...whole 50 minutes...what was he doing? taking a nap..couldnt even write a few words...

is he testing me?? or trying to get some point across...cause i am totally missing it !!!

or just being plain unproffessional

Well, if it were me I would want a reply just because I'd would be getting very stressed out not hearing back. I suspect that the answer is simpler than him testing you or trying to get a message across- but of course I don't know him. If it were my therapist though, it would just be a little screwup on his part - or at least that's what it has been every time so far.

No reply acknowledging that he got thesg would bother me too.

I've never missed without calling first, but I'm pretty sure my T and pdoc would not call to check. As for his not responding, I know I don't check email throughout the day so I never use it for anything urgent. I don't remember if you said in your OP, but did you ask a question in the email? Some people have a habit of not answering emails or texts that are informational and not asking a direct question. I've annoyed friends before for making this mistake. Plus you called so I'm sure your T is not mad, it happens to them all the time.

I agree that it's unprofessional not to reply to an email, however, I also think that it's human to get distracted and not realize you didn't do something.

Traditionally what I have done in any situation in which I haven't received an acknowledgment is to follow up.

I usually write something like, "Hello! I just wanted to let you know X. I didn't hear from you and am following up to make sure you got my initial email. If you could let me know that you did, I would greatly appreciate it! Thank you, Me"

X would be whatever - in this case "I have the emergency handled" or "everything has worked out fine!" or "Things are stable."

That way I a) provide a follow up (saving an email or two) and b) clearly state that I am expecting a reply.

And also a follow up email saves one a lot of angst as to why they didn't receive a reply.

I still think you should follow up.

If this happened to me I would be completely freaking out that I had done something wrong or that my T hated me..

I agree with the others that a reply to your email at least should have been given. I think it's really unprofessional that you still haven't heard from your T but even though it sucks greatly I think you should try calling him again - maybe something came up that had him distracted and so he just forgot? ...you will never know until you talk to him.

Thinking of you and let us know how you go

I don't really see where the therapist has a big obligation here. Sure a reply would be nice, but unless you requested one, the ball is in your court to set up another appointment

No shows and late cancellations are not uncommon in medicine and therapy. It would bog down the practice to follow up on every one of these, unless there was a concern for said patient's health.

Plenty of paperwork to catch up on in those extra 50 minutes

I've seen my therapist coming back from filling up his car with gas or other errands when he's had a cancellation or no-show appointment before my scheduled time. That said, t's secretary always calls if I'm more than 5 minutes late to see if I'm coming because I never miss. It would frustrate me not to receive a response, but my t rarely responds to emails, in which information has been effectively communicated.

Probably depends on the person and their style. Is your T usually responsive to emails / phone calls? If yes, I would also find it strange. Definitely let him know how this made you feel in next session.

well..he could have replied to my email during my allotted session time.
otherwise i completely understand he is very busy and i will not expect a reply at all.
i apologized...so i guess least u can do is reply to that?

i did receive a reply last night.

he is tech savvy...and does answer emails promptly. so thats why i was really confused as to him not replying .

now that he has replied after 2 days...i am thinking he is letting me know he was not happy about the cancellation thus chose to not reply immediately.

i guess i should be taking some chocolates with a sorry note and late fee to cheer him up.

I would just bring up this whole experience first thing in next session and discuss with him. Ask why he did not respond earlier. You reaction might be informative in the context of your treatment.