As I was reading Jung at Heart, one of my new and favorite blogs by Jungian psychotherapist, Cheryl Fuller, I ran across her post on the importance of boundaries in scheduling.
"Wall of Clocks" by rustman / Russ Morris
Check out her inspiration for the post, her own post, and then drop back in here to share your thoughts about scheduling clients and the transition in between them.
I’ve tried variations on how I schedule clients. I’ve tried the fifty minute hour and the sixty minute hour. I’ve scheduled people on the hour, the quarter hour, and the half hour. As it turns out, I tend to prefer the sixty minute hour with about fifteen minutes in between. This gives me enough time in between to do some of the things Ryan Howes talked about, but not so much time that I lose my groove.
(I used to know a therapist who allowed an 1.5 hours for every client. He told me they didn’t always use the entire allotted time, but his clients seem to love him for it, especially since his rate reflected an hour and not ninety minutes.)
Thanks for the post.
Hi, John! Thanks for joining us here at Private Practice from the Inside Out! I also find a 60 minute hour with 15 minute breaks works well for me. (If I’m working with couples, I expand to 90 minutes.) I think what’s important is to find what works for you and then do it consistently. Simply considering this from a liability standpoint, you wouldn’t want to spend 45 minutes with one client and 2 1/2 hours with another client.
Hope you’ll check back in with us often as we continue to build our community, John!