Appointment times

I do have a standing appointment, kind of. Since vacations and holidays have been abundant, and I've only seen the current one for a couple of months, it's varied greatly. I'm happy to be flexible on days when I don't have work. Don't know or care if she remembers, so long as she's attentive in session.

With the former, I had a standing day (Saturday, boy do I miss Saturdays) but the time fluctuated. He saw me once during the week, and we both commented how weird it was.

Yep, standing appointments at the same day and time every week. No idea if he would remember without his calendar to remind him, but that's what calendars are for after all. There is usually a deviation every few weeks from those standing times because of shifts to either my schedule or my therapist's, which is fine. I very much like having the backdrop of knowing that in general my standing appointments are mine indefinitely unless I say otherwise. Having to mess around with scheduling and logistics every week would be stressful and difficult and feel like a huge waste of time!

I don't have a regular slot but I do have days and certain times I prefer which my t of almost 1 year does remember.

M and F at 8 with T1, although I have been able to be flexible about it now. It used to really upset me to change times/days (due to either T or I being out of town or occasionally, T testifying in court). My personal schedule is quite flexible, but I like having T at the same time/day. We had to shift the next two weeks due to Christmas and New Years day both being Mondays. But he always fits me in on another day. T1 definitely knows those are my days/times.

T3 has a receptionist (it's a large practice, which I don't really like), so I don't think she pays that much attention to the schedule. I have heard her ask for a print out of who she sees the next day. But I do schedule the same time/day each week. I like to be the last appointment of the day (8:30 pm) because the waiting room is a whole lot less crowded. T3 always runs very late (even when I tried being her first appointment of the day, she was still always late). I frequently wait a half hour, so a crowded waiting room pretty much sucks. This is off topic, but some people actually bring their kids (grade school age) and leave them in the waiting room while parent goes in for a session. Obviously the kids get bored. There are a few toys, but not enough to keep a kid occupied for an hour. I have no clue why people think that is ok.

Oh wow, I wouldn't think leaving grade school-aged kid in waiting room is OK at all...I assume you mean, like, 10, and not 16 (who should be able to occupy themselves...).

I would love to have a regular appointment. But my schedule is crazy- never know what I will be doing for my job from day to day, where I will be, what my hours will end up being. And t is well known as well, and her time is not her own either. So we just text each other things like “you got any time available on this day? that day? i can do this day at this time, how about you? no? well how about that day at that time, that work for you?” And sometimes one of us will just call each other “can you talk now?” or even “i have five minutes to talk , how about you!?”” Our sessions may be at 9 am or 1pm or 11pm, you just never know.

we also live in different countries and different time zones, so that adds to the craziness of scheduling.

my regular time is tues evening but then i get fri afternoon for when i need 2x, but I've done various days here and there....

I have a preferred day, but not a regular time. I work school hours and try to get a late afternoon appointment, but she sees school-age children/teens, so my appointment time and day flex as needed.

Same schedule, and she totally remembers which are my days and times. I think she knows everyone's, unless they are irregular or new, because whenever I've had to rearrange an appointment, she generally knows which days might be more flexible based on how people tend to schedule.

Longtime T I had a standing day and time. It changed a few times over the 12 years I saw her, but only 2 or 3 times.

Current T I do not have standing appointments. I don't know if she does them. I see her 2x/week, so either Monday or Tuesday and Thursday or Friday. No set time. Lately, we've been scheduling two appointments in advance. This system works for me because I see her more than once a week - the only problem I might have is if I saw her Thursday and then had to wait until Tuesday. I prefer no more than 3 days between each appointment. If I only saw her once a week, I would want it to be the same day each week so that I wouldn't get stuck waiting more than a week.

I see my T 9.45am on Mondays, 7.30am on Tuesdays, 9am on Wednesdays and 6.45am on Thursdays. I'm quite confident that the T knows all of his patients' appointment times. As he sees most people 2-4 times per week, he just doesn't have that many patients altogether.

Thursday, 10.30am.

'I always have a little 'Lost' moment...'

Moves about a bit sometimes, but that's agreed.

Every other Thursday 2:30 easy for me

Tuesday and thursday at 11:40. From the start. When i dropped down to one session it was still thursday at the same time.

Interesting mix of responses. To those who do have a regular weekly standing appointment would you be angry or hurt if your T didn’t remember it. I mean not just a one off ‘oh I forget when you usually come again’ but more of them seeming to have no idea that you come at ‘said’ time each week?
Is it not reasonable to expect your T to remember if you do come at a certain time every week if you have been doing so for an extended period of time. It seems odd to me that they wouldn’t remember something like that.

Or at least have checked their schedule for the day to see who is coming in for that day. That's more the one that gets me - say I'm a person that doesn't remember who I see when, I would then think that I would check my schedule the night before I left and the morning when I first arrive to refresh my memory of who I'll be seeing that day.

I think it would start to bother me after a bit if I thought T didn't remember that she sees me on my days.

Interesting question. It's basically impossible for me to imagine my therapist forgetting our standing appointments, since the fact that we meet in the same timeslots every week is as much (or maybe even more) due to his preference as it is mine. We never discuss scheduling beyond "see you next time" or "see you again at our usual time?" unless there's a deviation from those standing appointments.

But yeah, even if the standing appointment was solely my doing, I would expect the therapist to take note of the consistency on a normal human level and anticipate it to a certain extent.

I see my T 3 times a week and at the same day/time. At the end of each session we almost always confirm the time for next session but she always knows my regular times.

If she ever gave my time to another client I would be beyond angry and hurt. And i know she would be horrified at her mistake. She totally gets the need for consistency and the importance of the relationship.

I would be hurt, and also disbelieving. My T is very organized, and also seems to put an additional symbolic meaning into things like being on time, coming to the right day etc. He is very alert, to deviations from normal patterns, and I think he would freak himself out if he started forgetting regularly scheduled patents, or that is how it seems to me.