Setting Your Schedule in Private Practice
One of the best parts about private practice is the freedom to create a schedule that works for you. If you want to end work early on a Tuesday to watch your daughter’s school play, you can. If you want to schedule a long lunch with a friend who is just in town for the work week, you can make it happen. This flexibility is one of the biggest perks of working for yourself.
But with that freedom comes responsibility. Without a plan, your days can quickly fill with sporadic client times, unfinished notes, and exhaustion. If you do not design your schedule with your financial goals in mind, you may find yourself spending hours making reels for social, without earning what you need to survive. The truth is, if you are not intentional about your schedule, financial picture, and lifestyle, you may find it more ideal to work in a setting that provides stability, steady pay, sick time, and vacation.
Yet, I am going to assume you are reading this article because you want to give private practice a shot (or because you already have a private practice). Taking the time to design your schedule, and create a structure that works for you, 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 couples, you will likely need to offer some afternoon or evening hours. If your focus is postpartum parents, mornings or school-day hours may work best.
It is also important to be honest with yourself. If you know you do not want to work evenings because you want to be with your kids, then you may need to re-evaluate the clients you serve. Your practice will only be sustainable if your schedule aligns with both your life and your clients’ lives.
Define Your Ideal Schedule
Once you are clear on your ideal clients, 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 partner or a family member need to step in?
Write out your ideal workweek, day by day, and make it realistic. The goal is to create a schedule that not only serves your energy but also matches your ideal clients. Without some structure, you risk saying yes to 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 said yes to every client request. I would see someone at 9 a.m., another at 1 p.m., another at 2 p.m., and then someone again at 5 p.m. It felt like I had worked an entire day, but in reality I had only seen four clients. A schedule like that 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 around 25 weekly slots for clients and I will only book clients during these hours. The remaining work hours are dedicated to admin, networking, blogging, and creating social media content.
Breaks and Administrative Time
Another key decision is how much space you need between clients. Some therapists schedule back-to-back sessions, 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. Even 30 to 60 minutes away from your desk helps you recharge and return to sessions more focused and present. In addition, 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.
Know How Many Weekly Sessions You Need
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, supervision, or marketing). What remains is the income 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, 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, 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 hold 17 client slots per week to cover your salary and expenses. Most therapists find that they need to hold extra spots to account for calculations and sick days. Therefore, if you goal is to see 17 clients per week, I would suggest booking 20 clients per week.
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, yoga, 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.
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 limited finances, our ability to be fully present with clients diminishes. Self-care is not optional’ it is part of the job. This means building in time for rest, reflection, supervision, consultation, and ongoing training. These practices help us process the emotional weight of the work, sharpen our skills, and prevent burnout.
It may feel tempting to pack your calendar with as many clients as possible, but neglecting time for yourself and your professional growth is short-sighted. 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.
