How therapists can prepare themselves and their clients for time off
I know that therapists can really worry about their clients during time off so I'm going to give you some tips to help you prepare both you and your clients for the holidays.
Time off is key for both you and your clients. If you're not taking regular breaks you can really burn out and you're not going to be offering the best service to your clients. So, if you are about to take a break in Private Practice or you are hoping to soon keep reading.
Schedule Your Breaks
I really recommend having a look at your year as a whole and scheduling regular breaks. Some of my clients like to do this every six to eight weeks. You might want to do this along with school holidays if you have children or at an interval that suits you and your lifestyle.
I recommend sitting down at the beginning of a year and planning out what breaks you are going to take in advance. Now, not every break that you have from your Private Practice can be planned in advance but there will be times where you can schedule these in.
This will help you budget your finances throughout the year for the inevitable loss in revenue during your breaks. It will also allow you to be able to give your clients plenty of notice which will help you relax more during your time off.
Give Clients Plenty of Notice
I suggest verbally communicating to your clients four to six weeks in advance that you are planning on taking a break. I would then back this up with an email two weeks prior to your break. Finally, make sure to verbally communicate this again in their last session as a reminder and let them know when their next session will be.
If you send invoices a month in advance that would also be a good time to remind clients about your holiday dates.
This will help them plan for your absence. It will allow them time to be able to add in additional sessions if that's something that you can offer them. It will also mean that they can ask you questions about your time away. For example; any other support that they can get, if they need a therapist in the interim to cover the session dates or if you have any resources that you can give them whilst you're away.
Communicate Your Boundaries
This is around how you will communicate with people whilst you are off. Will you be checking your emails or replying to text messages? If you do, will this be daily or once a week? Will you offer them some kind of check-in with you? Will someone else reply to emails in your absence such as a VA?
However you want to take your break this should be communicated to your clients so they know what to expect. If you are going to be completely off the grid and uncontactable then just let people know and they won't expect a reply from you.
Have a Very Clear Out of Office
In my opinion, when you're on a break you should be taking a break. If you are checking emails or text messages it's going to really distract you from being able to fully log off from everything and focus on rest or whatever it is that you're doing on your break.
As with the previous tip, which was communicating your boundaries ahead of time, you also want to reinforce this in your out of office message. Then, if anyone does contact you whether that be a client, a new enquiry or another professional that you work with they will know when they can expect a reply from you.
Be really clear about your holiday dates and when it is that you are returning. Let people know if you are going to have access to your emails and when they can expect to reply. Give additional resources or services that your clients can access in your absence (such as going to a GP, taking themselves to A&E if it's really serious, speaking to a friend or a relative. You can also give them help lines that they can contact and any other resources relevant to your work.
Below is a template for an out of office reply. You can just copy and paste it and then edit it to your needs in your email provider.
Thank you for your email
I am currently away from (insert date) and will return (insert date)
I will not be checking emails during this time so you will be responded to upon my return. / I will be checking emails once a day/week during this time however I may not be able to respond to you before my return.
In case of crisis please:
- Call Samaritans (116 123) operates a 24-hour service.
- Make an urgent appointment with your GP.
- Go to your nearest Accident and Emergency (A&E) department.
- Visit www.nhs.uk and type suicide in the search box. All areas have local mental health crisis lines where urgent help, possibly at home, can also be arranged.
- Call friends or family
Conclusion
With these tips you’ll be able to prepare yourself and your clients so that you can take time off without worrying about your business whilst you're away. And if you want to check out my tips on how to prepare financially for the holidays then take a look at my YouTube video here.
