How long would you wait for a therapist?

Other.

I wouldn't wait at all and would call him immediately. Being late or not being present at all is just so out of character for my T that it means that something very extraordinary has happened. As it happens during my session time then I feel that I have the right to know what's going on.

15 minutes, but I'd text after 5 minutes, because he's NEVER late.

I am generally willing to wait 30 mins at appointments if there is not a particularly strong (positive or negative) motivation factor. I have waited >2hrs for a doctor (repeatedly) and ~1 hr for a hair stylist - in both cases, I knew them and was quite confident that the wait would be worth the end result. I think waiting that amount of time can ultimately be more economical than rescheduling, having to deal with the frustration of it's not being done and having to go back for the same thing. I would not wait more than 10 mins if someone previously demonstrated repeated unreliability and useless work. So, it depends.

20-25 minutes.

I generally have the first session of her day so my T appointments pretty much start on time. If I had a later appointment, I would think that the one prior to mine has gone overtime for a good reason and I respect the needs of the client ahead of me.

My pdoc incidentally is often late by as much as 30min. In some cases, if my appointment is at the end of day and he is running late I get a courtesy call from his office. But there have been times I sit and sit outside his door. When he has run late I can usually tell from the tones of the voices within that something is up and quite serious with the prior patient.

If either were more than 30min late, I'd demand a rescheduling of the appointment.

Thats cuz im a copycat

I'd wait 30 mins. I'd text after 5 mins because she's always on time. I'd also freak out after 5 mins. It would upset me so much.

Depends on the situation. My it Ts have rarely been more than 5 minutes late. Once T and I had a miscimmunication on times so after 15 minutes I messaged her to say that I figured we miscommincated on a time (it was an added appointment on a Saturday.

There were a few over the years she was in with a patient and running late. I knew that she would only run late if there was either a major breakthrough or the client was struggling. So I waited patiently once for 20 minutes. She apologized profusely. Since she always went over on my appointment because I was her last appointment, I didn't mind at all.

Emdr T has only been a few minutes late 1x and again she was in with a client.

In early years with my former T I would sometimes wait 30 to 45 minutes but she had to travel to get to her office (it was her second office) and part of that involved going through a mountain pass and you just never know how the traffic is going to be. So I would sit on the floor outside of the office (how annoying--no bench) and eventually she would arrive. As the years went on she got better at not being so late but would typically run 10 or maybe 15 minutes behind. With my PDOC I've waited over an hour but I know sometimes they have to fit someone in who is in crises. I don't mind. I know he would do it for me because he has. But normally I just have to wait like 15 to 20 minutes. I'm at the end of the day so I know he will eventually get backed up. I need my meds so I'm okay with it.

In the past, as long as an hour and a half, but these days 15-20 minutes unless I hear from them

I have waited several hours. Sometimes they have situations that they have to take care of.

I generally don’t wait for therapists!
It happened three times with my last t that they weren’t there when I called so I left straight away!!

My therapist is almost always on time. There have been times he has been 15mins late but not very often. I would wait 1/2hr then i would see if I could reschedual. The clinic has back to back clients so even if he was late the session would not go over the hour.

This is very depending on if I see my psychiatric nurse within public health care or my therapist within church.

Within public health care almost every psychiatrist, therapist and so on is late to every appointment. Some don´t care if the patients have to wait and some are just bad at keeping their schedule during the day as they see so many patients. My psychiatric nurse is always late and as I don´t like her and don´t get attached to her I don´t mind that much.

If my therapist within church was late, I voted I would wait for 10 minutes, I would probably think something has happened to her or that I had confused the date or time for our meeting. My therapist within church is never late and she has herself said she finds it ignorant to be late. (Besides on some rare occasion of course but not to every session). If she hadn´t turned up for 10 minutes I had probably tried to call her or ask some of her colleagues if they had seen her during the day.

I said 30 minutes because I *have* waited 30 minutes for ex-marriage counselor before (he was habitually late, though usually not that late). But in that case, he had a receptionist who confirmed he was there and let him know his next client was there.

My current T is extremely prompt (he's been 5 minutes late at the most, usually exactly on time), so if he's more than 5 minutes late, I assume either he messed up something with the scheduling or that something is wrong. So I'd text him. Then if I didn't hear anything back in 5 minutes, I'd try texting again. After 15 minutes, a phone call, then if nothing, I'd be more likely to just leave, maybe wait until 20 minutes because it is so unusual. He doesn't have a receptionist, so I'd have no way of knowing if he's in the office, is back with another client, etc.

Knowing myself I would probably wait an hour thinking I got the time messed up. But with the standing appointment it doesn't happen so I would probably sent a text after 15 min because that would be very unusual. My T has never been late more than 5 min and when he is I know it's just a session running late if he's car is outside. One time he wasn't there he texted me he was running couple min late.

My T just texts me if he's going to be late, which is rarely ever.

Due to my work hectic schedule, i normally can't wait more than 15 mins or so for appointments with any provider. Problem is, I have to pay my copay as soon as I get there, and the provider may not be available for another month and beyond if I don't wait now, so it becomes a hassle trying to get refunded and rescheduled. Because of lack of availability for future appointments, I sometimes end up having to cancel work meetings, inconveniencing my work colleagues.

I once had a psychiatrist who I had to wait 2-3 hours for every_single_time; this was long ago. I had limited insurance provider availability at the time, so when I quit seeing her, I could not find anyone else. I guess I didn't psychiatry that bad anyway.

Unless you are an OBGYN or other type of provider called out to emergencies that can't be filled by on call providers, keeping a sloppy schedule is unprofessional and disrespectful of others' time.

That's true for me too-that waiting can be more economical. It is sort of a cost benefit decision.

With therapists, unlike medical providers, it's easy to just cut the session short if I have to run. That's normally what either of us do in the rare event we are more than 5 minutes late.

I'm really surprised by the number of people who will routinely wait long periods of time. For me, the 20 min wait is assuming I've been notified of a delay. If there's no notification, 10 min is the max I'll wait. I wouldn't be willing to wait as a repeated occurrence because it would feel to me that I was being repeatedly disrespected. I had enough of that behavior growing up; don't need/want to accept more of it now. It's an issue of self-care and esteem that would undermine whatever therapeutic benefit I'd get from the therapy. (With non mental health providers, it's more consumer-driven for me). And I would not expect any provider to keep my appt if I were so late without explanation--and both my GP and dentist have policies to automatically cancel appts for patient lateness beyond 15 min. So to me it's an equal consideration.

Yes! Thinking more... I would not wait longer than 15 mins without being notified for a therapist either, and that is if it happened once. No way I would regularly see any professional (not just T, literally anyone) who habitually made me wait more than 5 mins without a reason and notifying me. I did say earlier that I waited 1-2 hours for professionals (not Ts) occasionally - that is only when I already know them and trust that the quality of their work is stellar and I would be happy in the end, it is just less time/energy consuming than rescheduling and going back another time for the same service. I am willing to sacrifice attitude for quality, but not in severe and habitual manner.

Being on time is something I feel very strongly about and take seriously myself; I am almost never late unless something really unexpected comes in the way, and even then, I notify whoever I had an appointment with as soon as possible, preferentially still long enough before the scheduled appointment. For me this has nothing to do with being disrespected and treated unreliably growing up though, more the opposite. My parents, especially my father (the parent who had the biggest influence on me in many ways) always taught me to be respectful of others' time and effort and I can't recall a single case when I was stood up or made to wait long by anyone in my family or even by any important adult in my childhood. So in this case I guess I just picked up being punctual from them/those experiences. I remember dumping a boyfriend in my teens who was late more than a twice without a reason and thought it was no big deal. So, given all this, I am also always a bit surprised how people tolerate being chronically late from a therapist, even if they make up the time at the end of the sessions! I do tolerate some lateness in my academic life and from my own clients when it is ingrained part of the local "culture" and I know about it, but nothing extreme.

ETA: For me, I think what has added to my feeling so strongly about responsible treatment of schedules, meetings, deadlines etc is also coming from the years in my 30's when I struggled with alcoholism. I became what I still see as a manipulative, unreliable, shape shifting and lying monster during the worst of those times, just because I either wanted to drink or was sick with hangovers/withdrawals. It was the worst part of addiction for me (even before the scary health effects) - self-degrading my default work ethic and sense of responsibility on my own, without no other reason but my addictive urges/behaviors. It also helped me quit and recover eventually though because I just could not look in the mirror and face that irresponsible, chronically lying version of myself anymore - it was the worst cognitive dissonance I had ever experienced. With my sober perception now, I understand how one can become irresponsible and disrespectful, even that some people just never even developed otherwise, but it still irritates me whenever I need to deal with it.

Totally agree: punctuality is demonstrated respect, a value I follow as well as expect. And the esteem value of that is independent of the attitudes/values of the other party. It's important to how I see myself as my best self that I show that respect, even when it's not expected, demanded, or valued by the other person. So I admit I have a difficult time understanding the de-valuing of punctuality by a professional: how does that person define professionalism for him/herself?