Cancelling your therapy session.

Read all about the impacts of cancelling your upcoming appointment, and what it means for my services when you cancel multiple appointments, cancel within 48 hours of your upcoming appointment, or do not attend your appointment.

The impacts of cancelling

Cancellation of your upcoming appointment/s with me may occur at any time from making your appointment. However, there are a number of impacts associated with cancelling; as such, I do have limits to my services as it relates to cancellations, both in the instance of cancelling multiple appointments with notice, and when you cancel within 48 hours of the session occurring (or do not attend the scheduled appointment). The impacts of cancelling are related to you, us, me, and other clients.

You.

Committing to therapy is tough work. And there are days when making an ongoing appointment may be tougher than others. Many things can feel like they get in the way – work, children, lack of sleep, traffic, sickness… the list goes on. But in order to gain the benefits of therapy, attendance is necessary. Knowing that you’ll get charged with a cancellation fee can act as a motivation to attend, which ultimately means that you are continuing to work toward your goals.

Us.

Not attending your scheduled appointments can lead to a negative impact on our therapeutic relationship, particularly if you cancel last minute or do not attend your scheduled appointment. If you cancel within the 48 hours preceding the appointment or do not attend, paying my cancellation fee is necessary for the maintenance of our therapeutic relationship and for me to be able to provide you with an ongoing service.

An important part of therapy is providing you with safety within a therapeutic relationship, and part of what creates this safety are the limits of the relationship. There are a number of policies and limitations in place to protect both of us within our therapeutic relationship, and enforcement of these is important for the maintenance of trust and safety. This also includes the enforcement of my policies relating to cancellations.

Me.

As a small business owner, a session that is not attended has a direct impact on me as I do not get paid if a session is not paid for. As such, my business model protects me from the impact of late cancellations or non-attendance, to ensure that running my own business is feasible.

Other clients.

Most people that enquire about my services will be placed on a waitlist. When you do not attend a session, this represents a session that could have been offered to another client. If you do not attend multiple sessions, this may mean that your timeslot may have been better placed with another client who is waiting to see me on an ongoing basis. A non-attended appointment means a missed opportunity for someone who may be in need of support.

Cancelling multiple upcoming appointments

When you make a commitment to attend an ongoing appointment time with me, my commitment to you is that I reserve this time specifically and only for you, with the expectation that you will attend this appointment time on an ongoing basis as per your commitment to therapy. Every time you do not attend a time that has been reserved for you, this represents an available session time unfulfilled, which has a number of impacts, outlined above. With enough notice as it relates to upcoming work commitments, holidays (etc.), I am at times able to fill this session with another client who needs an additional appointment or who may not yet have a committed timeslot, lessening the impact of the cancellation. However, this is not always the case.

If you cancel multiple sessions, the impact is greater, and may mean that we need to revisit your commitment to therapy. It may also mean that the time that I have reserved for you is better placed with a client who is waiting for an ongoing timeslot, and who is ready to commit to attending these sessions. Ultimately, it may mean losing your ongoing timeslot.

If you wish to continue to use my services but are unable to attend your ongoing timeslot, let’s have a discussion about what you are able to commit to and create a new plan moving forward.

Cancelling within 48 hours (or not attending your scheduled appointment)

Charging cancellation fees is a common practice for a lot of businesses that provide services, and it is a fairly common practice when booking in to see a psychologist. I charge a cancellation fee equivalent to the session fee if you do not attend a scheduled session, and if you cancel within the 48 hours preceding the scheduled appointment time.

I do understand that life does truly get in the way sometimes, and so I offer a couple of options for last minute cancellations: the ability to change our appointment to telehealth, and if a mutually suitable time can be found within the same calendar week, I am happy to move you to that time.

If you would like to discuss my cancellation policy in more detail, please raise this with me in our next session together. 

In summary

My cancellation policy ultimately aims to protect and benefit you, our therapeutic relationship, me, and other clients. I aim to be as transparent as possible in the terms of my services – I outline all of the relevant information about my services online, in my new client enquiry form, in my consent form, in communication confirming a new appointment, and in communication providing a reminder about your upcoming appointment. If you do not agree with any part of my service, that’s completely okay – let’s discuss finding a provider who is better suited to your needs.