I’ve been contemplating boundaries recently, and I’ve decided I’m going to shift my schedule in the new year. Perfect time for this, I figured, as clients will be getting settled into new life routines in the new year, and I’ve finally gotten some ideas about what works for me and what doesn’t.

I’ve also been thinking longer-term, and reading up on what it means to treat your private practice as a business. I’ve found this quite overwhelming, and have decided that currently, I don’t think I’m in the phase of life to be thinking of a group practice or anything like that. I’ve only been in practice for less than a year, and I just don’t feel like it’s the right time to be trying to expand, when I’ve only just started getting my footing in my practice. I did, however, think through what Success means for me in private practice which may be a topic for another blog post.

I have been thinking around what type of schedule would work best for me, given this was one of the major reasons I knew I wanted to have my own practice. I did not want to work under someone else’s ideas of what type of schedule I ‘should’ have or ‘need to’ have in order to make the living I envision for myself.

In planning my upcoming schedule changes, as I want to transition my clients into the new schedule and know what days of the week and times I want them to consider, I knew I needed to get in touch with myself first.

My current schedule is:

• Tuesday (11:30am-7:30pm)

• Wednesday (8am-6:30pm)

• Thursday (8am-2:30pm)

• Saturday (9am-5pm)

And the times listed are mainly client hours (I see 18-22 clients in a typical week). In a busy week, I may only get 1 or 2 open timeslots where clients aren’t booked in, and so I spend that time catching up on notes and admin. Up till now, my plan had been to take Fridays off and use that as a PD day, but it hasn’t proved feasible given I’m usually so emotionally drained from the 3 prior days of client work, and the 1 upcoming day of client work that I just need that day to recoup and do something I enjoy.

Through this past year of trying out different schedules and hours of work, I’ve found that:

• I cannot sustainably & regularly see 3 back-to-back clients

• Going into person-facing mode is quite taxing, and not something I’m able to transition quickly into and out of

• I can see up to 8 clients and feel relatively fresh, if I see 2 back-to-back clients followed by a 30-minute break throughout the day.

So some of the things that I’m creating boundaries around are:

1. only 3 days of client work

2. 1 PD day (including supervision)- no clients

3. Not doing 3 days in a row of client work

I realized I’m okay working a Saturday (especially as I have my in-person office lease for Saturdays until mid-2025, so I’m determined to see it through and make my decision at that point) and I’m also okay working in the evenings, if it means that I can meet my client needs on those 3 days.

I’m not the biggest fan of evenings, and so I may leave them as a last resort and make them non-bookable to clients through online booking. But it’s something I’m willing to try out, and perhaps eventually phase out (especially if I’m going to keep offering Saturdays as a non-workday alternative).

My planned schedule for 2025 is:

• Tuesday (8am - 8:30pm)

• Wednesday (8am-6:30pm & 8am- 9pm; alternating biweekly)

• Saturday (9am-6pm)

That’s what I’ve got so far- we’ll see if it works! I’m also planning on leaving a larger break between my morning and afternoon sessions, and so I can plan on doing something fun midday if I know I’m going to have to work late in order to meet clients who have stricter working hours.

Resources I found helpful:

Heard: How to Treat Your Therapy Practice Like a Business

Edge of the Couch Podcast: How to Leave Work at Work