Why my availability changes

My availability tends to change randomly week to week, here’s why…

I usually have one or two appointment times available at any given time. This is because as available appointments are filled the remaining slots are harder to fill. Which times and days that are free changes frequently and somewhat randomly. Evening appointments are the most popular and tend to fill quickest when free at all.

The majority of clients see me for around six to eight months, sometimes longer; I have several clients who have been coming to see me longer than two years. Occasionally people come for much shorter times. Of the short term clients, the majority stay for six to twelve weeks and may return once or twice for a few weeks after a gap.

Then there are the clients who  stay for one or two weeks, perhaps a month before deciding to not come back. The pattern is usually that they cancel an appointment and subsequently don’t show up the following week. I can make assumptions about why this happens but ultimately I don’t know and have to live with the uncertainty.

I also have clients who may want to reduce the frequency of therapy prior to a planned ending. This usually involves fortnightly therapy and trying to synchronise this with another fortnightly client so I don’t have too many gaps in the schedule. This may involve a client moving to a designated fortnightly slot, freeing up their weekly slot for a new client.

I update the front page of the website as often as I can, as well as the booking widget and my availability on my counselling directory listing. So it’s usually very accurate or has a days lag. I recently discovered a setting on the booking page set wrongly, which meant that clients have not been able to book an appointment between September last year and January this year. That has now been corrected.