How to schedule therapy
With so many demands on our time, it can be daunting to consider adding another item to the schedule. However, sometimes our routine needs to be disrupted for useful and desired change to happen. As with building physical stamina, building mental health and emotional resilience takes time and dedication. This means it’s important to find a sustainable regular time for therapy, where you can approach the work with the most helpful headspace. Below are some thoughts on how to approach this task.
Making time for yourself
In thinking about how to schedule therapy, it might be useful to consider how you usually approach your time. Do you fit as much into your day as possible, or limit the demands of each day? Do you plan things in advance, or are you responsive to what happens around you? Do you easily stick to a schedule or do things in your own time? Noticing how time works for you can help to inform when therapy might best fit into your life. Often, scheduling a regular therapy time is a first step towards beginning to prioritise ourselves in a new way. If therapy can become a non-negotiable part of our routine, we are more likely to stick with the process and not have to go through things alone.
A shared commitment
Negotiating timings with a therapist can be a moment to notice how we manage our needs and preferences alongside those of others, and how this impacts us. For example, flexing too much might result in feelings of resentment if we deliver or feelings of guilt if we don’t. Alternatively, being too rigid might give us satisfaction at not compromising but risk creating tension in a relationship. A therapist should encourage you to assert what you need, building your confidence in knowing what’s best for you and making decisions. However, a therapist should also model how to assert their own needs with respect and clarity, while ensuring they can fully commit to your shared work. When a time is agreed, it’s also useful to regularly check in on whether it’s still working for you both.
Managing your time
Therapy is usually one of many commitments that we manage in daily life. Establishing time boundaries, ground rules for how ourselves and others use our time, allows space for therapy. It can be challenging to identify and block off personal time. It can be helpful to think of boundaries as providing structure for the work we want to do in therapy rather than restricting us. It can also be challenging to communicate time expectations to others, especially if this is new to us. It might involve saying no to activities that affect our capacity for therapy or asking for moments of no interruptions. You don’t need a reason to introduce boundaries to your life. For some, sharing that you are starting therapy might allow others to support you to manage time commitments.
Time to think
It’s not always easy to know the best time to schedule therapy. It’s often a new experience, and we don’t know how we’ll feel until we begin. The following questions might be helpful in exploring what might work for you.
- When in the day and week do I have the most focus, energy, and resilience?
- When would I most benefit from the support of therapy in my week?
- What will I be doing around my scheduled therapy time?
- What do I need from the transition to and from sessions (whether online or in person)?
- Are there irregular commitments that affect my schedule that I need to factor in?
- What time is possible if I can’t secure my preferred regular session time?
- Are there tasks or time commitments that I can delegate, reduce or reorganise?
- What will help my therapy to be as consistent as possible?
Further Information
This piece written by Heather Schwedel for Slate shares her experience of switching her long-held therapy time. And Simple Psychology also has an article on How to Make Time for Therapy Sessions.
