Creating Your Ideal Schedule
One of the best parts about private practice is being able to create a schedule that works for you. If you want to end early on a Tuesday to watch your daughter’s school play, you can. If you want to plan a day date with your spouse on a Friday, you can make it happen. Schedule flexibility is one of the biggest perks of working for yourself.
But with that flexibility comes responsibility. Without a clear plan, your week can quickly fill with client sessions scattered at random hours throughout the week, social media scrolling, and stretches of unproductive time. It can leave you feeling like you worked a full work week while only seeing a handful of clients. The truth is, many therapists who return to steady jobs with set schedules, benefits, and vacation time do so not because they cannot thrive in private practice, but because they never built the structure and plan needed to make it work. When you are intentional about your ideal clients, schedule, income needs, and lifestyle, private practice can be both sustainable and deeply fulfilling.
I am going to assume you are reading this article because you want to create a private practice that flourishes. Taking the time to design your schedule, and create a structure that works for you and your ideal clients, is what makes private practice both sustainable and worthwhile.
Get Clear on Your Ideal Clients
The first step in creating your schedule is understanding who you want to serve. Your clients’ availability will directly impact when you need to be available. If you see kids, teens, or families, you will likely need to work afternoons and evenings. If your focus is postpartum parents, mornings or school-day hours may work best. If you see adult individuals you may want a mix of morning, day, and evening options.
It is also important to be honest with yourself. For example, if you know you do not want to work five evenings per week because you want to be with your children after school, then you may need to re-evaluate the clients you serve. I started out working with kids, teens, and families. As a single parent, I discovered it was not sustainable for my children to be with their babysitter most afternoons and evenings while I was at work. After a several years in private practice, I shifted my focus to work exclusively with couples that are available during school hours.
Your practice will only be sustainable long term if your schedule aligns with both your life and your clients’ lives. This being said, if you are new to private practice, I think it is very important to offer some afternoons and evenings when getting started. Although many clients have flexible schedules, and the ability to attend morning and mid-day therapy, afternoons and evenings will always be coveted by the average working adult who is unable to leave work during the day. Once you are solidly established, it will be easier to shift to your schedule to what works best for you.
Define Your Ideal Schedule
Once you are clear on your ideal clients and their schedule needs, turn inward and ask: When do I do my best work? Are you energized in the mornings, or do you hit your stride in the evenings? Think through the details. If you work afternoons and evenings, can you afford child care, or will your spouse or a family member need to step in?
Write out your ideal, yet realistic, workweek, hour-by-hour and day-by-day. The goal is to create a schedule that not only serves your energy but also matches your ideal clients. Without structure, you risk booking clients at all sorts of random hours, which may leave you feeling like you are working all the time without actually getting much done.
When I first started my private practice, I rented a full time office and said yes to every client request. I would drop my kids off at school and arrive at the office around 8:45 am. Then I might see a client at 9, another at 10, another at 2, with my final client at 5:30pm. By the time I left the office at 6:45pm, it sure seemed as if I had worked a 10 hour day, but in reality I had only seen four clients. A schedule like this every once in a while is manageable, but doing it five days a week over the course of a year left me completely drained.
Eventually, I tightened my schedule to include 20 slots for clients, with 5 back to back clients Monday to Thursday (with an hour for lunch after 3 clients). Generally speaking, my client slots offerings are firm and I only hold sessions during these hours. The remaining work hours are dedicated to administrative work, networking, blogging, and creating social media content - I can do these tasks from home, or the office, depending on the day.
Breaks and Administrative Time
Another key decision is how much space you need between clients. Some therapists schedule back-to-back sessions on the hour, while others prefer 15 or 30 minutes to reset. Breaks give you the opportunity to write notes, use the restroom, stretch, eat, or prepare mentally for the next session.
It is also important to plan for a proper lunch each day. I spent too many years working through lunch because I wanted to be available to clients. This is not good! Now I always block 30 to 60 each work day for lunch. This enables me to recharge and return to my remaining sessions of the day more focused and present. I also block time each week for paperwork, phone calls, billing, and other administrative tasks. If you do not set aside space for these responsibilities, they will spill into your evenings and weekends, leaving you drained.
The rhythm of your workday should include both client sessions and the pauses that make them sustainable. Treat breaks, lunch, and paperwork time as essential, not optional, parts of your schedule.
How Long Will Your Sessions Be?
In agency work, most sessions are standardized at 50 minutes, starting on the hour. But in private practice, you get to decide. You are free to create offerings that make sense for your style and your clients’ needs.
Some therapists build in longer sessions of 75 or 90 minutes for couples or trauma work. Others offer half-day or full-day intensives for clients who want to make progress quickly. Your session lengths and structures should reflect the type of work you do and the kind of practice you want to build. The flexibility to design this is one of the biggest advantages of private pay settings.
How Many Weekly Slots Do You Have?
Another key piece of setting your schedule is knowing how many clients you need to see each week. To figure this out, you first need to determine what you want your annual salary to be, then subtract your expected expenses (such as rent, software, insurance, consultation, training, and marketing). What remains is the revenue you actually need to generate from client sessions.
For example, let’s say you want to take home $100,000 per year. You estimate $20,000 in annual expenses and taxes, which means your practice needs to bring in $120,000. If your session fee is $150 and you plan to work 48 weeks per year (to account for sick days and vacations), the calculation would look like this:
$120,000 ÷ 48 weeks = $2,500 per week
$2,500 ÷ $150 per session = about 17 weekly sessions
This means you would need to conduct 17 client slots per week to cover your salary and expenses. However, due to client cancellations, you will want to add additional slots to your calendar. Therefore, if your goal is an income of $100,000, I would suggest offering at least 20 clients slots per week at a rate of $150 per hour. Please note that this is just an example, you will want to coduct your own calculation based on your actual session fee, expected client sessions, vacation and sick days, taxes, and expenses.
Make Space for Life Outside of Work
Your schedule should not only reflect client hours, it should also account for the rest of your life. Parenting, running a household, exercising, self-care, time with friends, dates, and personal appointments are all important. If you do not deliberately build these into your week, they will get pushed to the margins, which can quickly lead to stress and imbalance. Therapy is emotionally laborious and most therapists find that a lifestyle that emphasizes balance and wellbeing is vital to their effectiveness.
Consider blocking out time for workouts, errands, and family responsibilities just as you would a client session. For example, you might reserve Monday mornings for grocery shopping and meal prep, Wednesday afternoons for yoga or personal therapy, and Friday evenings for date night or family time. By treating these tasks as non-negotiable parts of your schedule, you protect your energy and prevent work from spilling into every corner of your life. When you own your own business, it is easy for work to tric
Remember: You Are the Vessel
As therapists, our minds and bodies are the vessel through which we do our work. Without time to care for ourselves, and without enough income to support our wellbeing, our ability to be fully present with our clients diminishes. In my opinion, self-care and a livable income are not optional; they are needed for the job. It is very challenging to be an effective therapist when we are in survival mode. This means building in time for rest, play, family, consultation, and ongoing training. These practices help us process the emotional weight of the work, sharpen our skills, and prevent burnout. Your clients benefit most when you are grounded, healthy, and supported, and that only happens when you honor your own needs. Your schedule can assist you in creating a lifestyle that supports your health, your family, and your business.
