[Lrad123]

My therapist has a 14 day cancelation policy which I know is a little extreme. I’ve never had an emergency, but sort of assume he’d make an exception then, although I can’t be sure. It seems like most therapists typically have a 24-48 hour cancelation policy. Interestingly, my therapist’s wife is also a therapist and she has a 48-hour cancelation policy which seems more in the norm. Does anyone else have a therapist with an unusual cancelation policy?

[elisewin]

I don't even know if there is one. If something has come up, I have told I can't make it and we have tried to find a replacing slot. Same goes both ways. There has never been a mention of policy.

[mogwai]

Wow 14 days?? I usually have a session every 14 days, so I'd have to notify as soon as I made a new appointment

Mine is a 24 hour. I'm not sure what happens if I don't follow that though, because I've never had an emergency where I'd miss it. I sometimes worry about my car breaking down on the way there, or dying.

[starfishing]

My therapist's cancellation policy is a little unusual in that he doesn't have one... Or if he does, he's never expressed it to me. I've always been able to give him at least a week's notice (often two or three) of needing to miss or reschedule a session, and when a couple of serious emergencies have arisen he's let me know that canceling last minute was fine with him if needed, though it hasn't been needed so far. I do wonder sometimes if his no-policy policy is an across the board thing, or whether he accidentally forgot to mention it when I started seeing him and it's just never come up since.

A 14 day cancellation policy would definitely stress me out! Even though I'm generally able to give lots of advance notice, I do have work schedules shift sometimes at less than two weeks away. And every other therapist I've seen had a 24 or 48 hour policy, so 14 days is definitely a real outlier.

[feileacan]

My therapist has no cancellation policy. If it's possible to reschedule on a same day then that's what we do, another option is to have a phone session at the same time or a very early morning skype session.

Anything else is me missing my session. I haven't had a need to miss a session for a long time, especially after my T discovered that it's possible to have sessions over skype. For instance, I'm travelling most of the next week. This means that I can go in person to my Mon and Tue morning sessions, the Wed morning session is replaced by skype session and Thursday morning session is anyway skype session.

If I can't turn up for Session. T does try and offer another slot.
But as my regular slots, are mine and have been for 16yrs. I pay for them. There or not.

[winterblues17]

I think mine is 48hrs although when I know I'm not going to be there I try to tell her as soon as possible. I think she knows I will try to turn up unless I really couldn't so I think she would try and maybe rearrange if that was possible, if not and it was under 48hrs I probably expect to have to pay which would be fine because it's a business for her.

[SalingerEsme]

24 hour notice. Does your T always give you 14 days notice?

[Lrad123]

[/QUOTE]Does your T always give you 14 days notice?[/QUOTE]

He has always given 2-3 months notice.

[ChickenNoodleSoup]

He has never mentioned his actual policy or whether he even has one.
If I know beforehand that I can't make it, I usually cancel either the session before, which is 2 days, or the week before, so 7 days. My T usually informs me at least a week before if he knows he'll be gone, so I try to do the same.
Once I was sick and only knew that morning that I couldn't make it to the session in the afternoon. We arranged a phone call instead and there was no talk about 'you have to tell me earlier' or something like that.

[Lrad123]

Funny that so many of your T’s don’t have cancelation policies. I wonder if it’s a psychodynamic/psychoanalytic thing to have stricter policies. I have a standing appointment every week at the same time.

[feileacan]

My T actually has a policy but it is not a cancellation policy. The idea of this policy is that there are no cancellations, everything is missed session. It makes sense because all his patients are regular and long-term and if I miss then he couldn't and wouldn't see anyone during my time slot.

It is certainly a psychoanalytic in my case but in practical terms, if there would be a possibility to cancel in these circumstance then I suppose my session fee would be higher than it is now.

Originally Posted by Lrad123

Funny that so many of your T’s don’t have cancelation policies. I wonder if it’s a psychodynamic/psychoanalytic thing to have stricter policies. I have a standing appointment every week at the same time.

I think this is true.
I'm psychoanalytic. T says a big part the therapy is having ones own times. Within those times T is committed to thinking about the work whether I'm there or not.
She can't let those times to anyone else. They're mine.
Im ovey with this. It makes complete sense.

[JaneTennison1]

14 days seems ridiculous to me. T doesnt seem to have much of an enforced policy. A few days for non emergencies

[Anne2.0]

24 hours notice, but one free "pass" a year. I also think that an emergency-- I'm hardly ever sick and I think I've only canceled once in all these years because of that-- my T would not charge me for it. My sense is that a harsher cancellation policy gives more room for leniency when needed, like for people who have a hard time making appointments consistently. It's easier to give someone a pass from the policy rather than to start ratcheting up the consequences from a lenient one. That's what I did many years ago when I was teaching college students, like never ever will you get an extension on a paper or a rescheduled exam, unless you have a dean's excuse (and deans, in my experience, will hand these out just to get students out of their offices, but students seem loath to ask).

[ChickenNoodleSoup]

Originally Posted by Lrad123

Funny that so many of your T’s don’t have cancelation policies. I wonder if it’s a psychodynamic/psychoanalytic thing to have stricter policies. I have a standing appointment every week at the same time.

My T is psychodynamic and as I said I'm not aware of his policy. I assume he has one and would make me aware of it if I started missing appointments or whatever.

[WishfulThinker66]

Emblazoned on huge signs throughout the waiting room and reception desk are the words outlining the policy, namely that unless you provide 24hrs notice you will be billed for any missed appointments.

With that said however, I once was given to cancel my appointment right at the time it was to commence. I had the first session of the day; and, when my cab failed to show up, I had no way to inform them until the office opened. However, my T was kind enough to call me and we had a session by phone instead. Is this an option for you?

[WishfulThinker66]

Originally Posted by SalingerEsme

24 hour notice. Does your T always give you 14 days notice?

Very good question. While my therapist's office is pretty strict about the 24hr notice, my psychiatrist is quite lenient. I suppose he would have to be as he himself cancels or rebooks our sessions fairly frequently. He only has limited clinical hours to begin with as his primary focus is his heading up the department and instructing at the medical college of the university. As such, he will get dragged away to meetings, symposiums, etc.

My problem is that I live near 3hrs drive away from my psychiatrist (I would still not give him up for another) and hence must plan the entire day. It does get rather irksome when notice comes late.

[starfishing]

Originally Posted by Lrad123

Funny that so many of your T’s don’t have cancelation policies. I wonder if it’s a psychodynamic/psychoanalytic thing to have stricter policies. I have a standing appointment every week at the same time.

My therapist who doesn't have a cancellation policy is a psychoanalyst, and I have two standing appointments every week at the same time. Every other therapist I've seen in private practice has had a fairly strict 24-48 hour cancellation policy though. And psychodynamic/psychoanalytic therapists are typically the only ones who have policies where people pay for missed sessions regardless of the reason or amount of notice given.

[SummerTime12]

So.. if someone sees T once a week, but schedules week by week, technically that means they could never cancel because their appointment wasn’t even made when it was 14 days before??

[nottrustin]

I dont remember reading or Emdr ever mentioning as policy. I have never cancelled although I almost did once she was supportive and never mentioned a policy.

T had a 24 hour policy but she never enforced it. In 10 years I cancelled 2x both I was very sick. I asked about the 24 hour notice she said she only enforced it if a person frequently cancelled last minute but never because they were sick.

[Lrad123]

Originally Posted by SummerTime12

So.. if someone sees T once a week, but schedules week by week, technically that means they could never cancel because their appointment wasn’t even made when it was 14 days before??

He doesn’t schedule anyone week by week. All of his clients have standing appointments at least once/week on the same day/time.

[Lrad123]

Originally Posted by Jessica11

I think this is true.
I'm psychoanalytic. T says a big part the therapy is having ones own times. Within those times T is committed to thinking about the work whether I'm there or not.
She can't let those times to anyone else. They're mine.
Im ovey with this. It makes complete sense.

So would you have to pay if you were to miss a session for any reason?

[Lrad123]

Originally Posted by feileacan

My T actually has a policy but it is not a cancellation policy. The idea of this policy is that there are no cancellations, everything is missed session. It makes sense because all his patients are regular and long-term and if I miss then he couldn't and wouldn't see anyone during my time slot.

It is certainly a psychoanalytic in my case but in practical terms, if there would be a possibility to cancel in these circumstance then I suppose my session fee would be higher than it is now.

So if you missed a session for whatever reason (illness, vacation, etc) would you have to pay?

[ArtleyWilkins]

Officially? 24 hours. But honestly, I was never charged for a cancellation. I never cancelled unless I had gotten suddenly ill or there was an emergency (and I always communicated directly with them as soon as that kind of thing happened), so he didn't charge me. Same with my psychiatrist. I'm sure they would have if I abused the policy by cancelling a lot, but that wasn't the case. They were reasonable people and realized that emergencies happen.