Why do so many therapists not work outside 9-5?

Therapists should most definitely put their families first just as any other professional should, and I agree that the statement in the ethics code is not suggestion Ts should sacrifice everything for their clients. Im also editing to add that it's important to know that a large portion of social workers are not therapists and their obligation to society extends outside of the hours they keep to see clients in therapy. That said, I have gotten pretty annoyed when searching for a T for my daughter and not being able to find one at the practice I prefer who will see clients beyond 5:30. Given that most middle and high school aged kids go to school until about 3:00, parents work and then have to travel through what in my city what is essentially rush hour traffic, I thought it was obnoxious there wasn't one day where she stayed until at least 7:00. I won't go so far to say that I think she is doing a disservice to the community since she has plenty of other clients who live closer and the hours are fine. But for anyone who has to travel a bit to see a decent T, it can be very frustrating. Taking time off from work is one thing, but pulling kids out of school to get there, which is what i usually do to see her psychiatrist, can get daunting after a while.

Look, it's a problem in the industry. The problem is so many in the industry wanting the easiest clients and working 9-5 hours.

A former psychiatrist/therapist, used to complain about how many referrals he got for complex patients. He has practiced for 40 years, and he said it has gotten much worse over the past few years that he has had to start turning some away.

Obviously, not everyone feels passionate about this issue, but many believe that those in the industry have some responsibility to the patient population and access issues. So many just don't do their part despite being able to, causing a lot of burden on the therapists who do indeed do their part.

That is coming from you, not me.

I do agree with you about balance and burn out. However, this references a study on social workers, many of whom are not therapists. I'm not sure what the numbers are exactly, but I don't see that the majority of social workers are even therapists. Social workers do advocacy work, work with children in the courts, hospitals, coordinate volunteer services, help homeless populations, etc. They are usually VERY underpaid in comparison to therapists.

The survey isn't available online, unfortunately. But an article that references it states that the same levels of burnout have been found in other occupations too, and that some social worker studies show they have less burnout than those working in other occupations.

I'm not sure if that article applies much to social worker therapists, though I can imagine some experience burnout, such as those working in community agencies. There is a lot of burnout in primary care that is concerning.

Mine is to only see people during say time hours because she had sch age children. Since they've grown up, she offers evenings.

I guess I just don't understand how a therapist is violating any standards by not working nights or weekends. My psychologist does not work nights or weekends and I suspect the AMA has standards too.

Also, I don't think of psychs and therapists working in an "industry." I would refer to it as the health care profession.

But it is a business and they are treating it like an industry.

I don't think anyone here said such a thing. This idea might have come from one of my responses, where I replied to this quote:

I had responded to this quote with the notion that this contradicts what their ethics state, so some may see it as obnoxious for that reason. I had stated that a therapist should at least consider the population they treat when making business decisions rather than only that their needs are met, quoting ethics that said putting clients first (not my idea-quoting from their ideals). It somehow turned into that I was saying that any therapist who only work 9-5 is unethical, or that they should sacrifice their jobs over their families.

I understand my post may have lacked clarity, but I came back and clarified at least 4 times that this is not my position, but the conversation about what no one said keeps rolling as people keep cheering it on.

Many people work outside of the 9-5 schedule and aren't with their families at dinner time.

I guess this shows that "helping profession", those who are "there for you" and "care so much".... well, care more about making life comfortable for themselves in the first place. I am not saying they should sacrifize their whole lifes... but c'mon, working saturdays (biweekly would be enough for many) or evening few times a week... is not that much to ask for... they make quite a good money for the "helping".

Exactly. They are supposedly there to help people but most of them refuse to accomodate clients. It is clearly a problem since the OP created a thread nd several of us pointed out how incredibly difficult it was to find therapists who offer evening hours or who work on weekends. It is strange how that argument is being distorted to mean that we somehow want therapists to exhaust themselves and to work insane hours.

I don't know, there seems to be a huge disconnect in making these choices into something noble about respecting others time and boundaries, and something positive to the client rather than just saying what it is.

That people who are severely depressed can jump through hoops to find adequate therapy is a reflection of how hard a client has to work for therapy and a sign of how motivated they want therapy instead of recognizing the psycho-social economic issues many in this population face, is bewildering.

Many people who are depressed work full time as health insurance is connected with employment, and people just can't take off work. Personally, when I was at my worst with MDD, all my energy went to just getting through the workday. I didn't even open my mail for weeks at a time, things piled up so bad. Just getting through a day of work can be like climbing a mountain, but to say finding appropriate therapy equates to how much effort someone is willing to put in is also bewildering. People seeking these services often have lack of motivation and hopelessness severe fatigue, insomnia, etc as those are common symptoms of the clients seeking these services.

I am honestly not trying to be mean, but there are hundreds of people inconvenienced by the fact that so many therapists want to only work hours convenient to them. Luckily my therapist recently gave me a slot at the end of the day, but for 10 years now, most therapists i saw meant I had to take 3 hours off work every week.

That means someone at my place of employment had to cover me, another had to account for the time when doing the payroll every week, and the entire department had to schedule the meetings around my therapy. Not only that, but every week there are meetings with between 2 and 20+ people. It is extremely difficult to schedule meetings with 5 or more people, and that block on my schedule due to therapy inconvenienced entire groups who need to meet, in addition to the scheduler who had to constantly find alternative solutions, including at times, personally asking each person if they could meet after regular work hours.

If it's a matter of respecting the therapist's time, that is a lot of people whose time is being disrespected to respect the therapist's time. I am only one person. Not everyone has meetings at work, but consider if a therapist has just 10 clients who take off work each week, the possible dozens, hundreds, who might be inconvienced.

Most therapy here is conducted in private practices, so those in private practices are the backbone of MH here in the US. This might be different elsewhere, I don't know. The only people I know who ever went to agencies were people on disability or unemployed.

I'm surprised that some therapists wouldn't recognize the psycho-social problems of their clientele. So this 'create the schedule and they will come mentality' is very upsetting. Also, labeling it as a mere 'inconvenience' when it is actually known a 'barrier' to services. And a barrier means people do go without.

I am sorry My comments may have seemed offensive. I was merely trying to point out some areas that I thought might contribute to the conversation. I'm a lawyer. That's what we do.

I also made an error in my comment. My psychiatrist also does not work any nights or weekends, but no one seems concerned that they are not available 24/7, nor does he take e mail.

I know my T sees clients at 6 and maybe 7. My former T did also. They also both occasionally schedule weekend appointments.

I think the reason they only work from 9-5 is because they can--if they can fill their client load during that time, there's no need to work longer.

Just chiming in to add that I'm in a similar boat as Skies was - having to take 3 hours off work each therapy day. Greatly inconveniencing others. AND I'm one of the LUCKY ones I know whose boss doesn't just FIRE me. I used to burn vacation leave on therapy days and he actually started asking WHY I had to take a day off once every three weeks. And I only get the time off because I go to public mental healthcare in my country. And I'm lucky to only work 45 hours a week!

Many people I know who can't afford private practices with evening or weekend hours and who can't come to arrangements with their employers for time off to attend public mental healthcare simply do without therapy.