It's better to plan a psychologist's schedule by the week rather than by the day. First decide how many sessions a week you can run without burning out, then add a break after each session and lay the hours out across the days — splitting them into several blocks with a pause in the middle if you need to. Add time off and blocked hours well in advance, and state your time zone explicitly if you or your clients live in different countries. Below is how to work out your week and what to keep in mind.

How many sessions a day is a reasonable limit?

There's no single standard, and the honest answer is "as many as you can give your full attention to." Therapeutic work is draining in a different way than office work: after several sessions in a row your attention dulls, and the last client of the day gets a tired version of you. A few things affect where that limit falls:

  • Who your clients are. A session with a couple, a client in crisis or someone working through trauma takes more out of you than a supportive check-in.
  • The format. Back-to-back online sessions tire you differently than in-person ones: less movement, more screen time.
  • Everything else. Notes, supervision, training, your own therapy, messaging with clients — this is work time too, even though it isn't paid by the hour.
  • Your own rhythm. Some people work better in the morning, others in the evening. A schedule that fights your natural rhythm won't last long.

A useful question to ask yourself: how do you feel after the last session of the day — and would you want to be the client in that session?

Signs your schedule is overloaded

  • You write your session notes in the evening or on weekends because there's no time for them during the day.
  • You catch yourself waiting for a session to end, or mixing up details from different clients' stories.
  • You keep putting off time off because "I can't leave my clients right now."
  • Supervision and training are the first things to drop off your calendar the moment new bookings appear.
  • After a workday you have no energy for anything but silence.

One or two of these signs are a reason to rethink your schedule, not to push even harder. Often it's enough to drop a single session from your busiest day or make your breaks longer.

How to work out your week

  1. Decide how many sessions a week

    Not the maximum you can endure, but a number you can sustain steadily for months.

  2. Add breaks

    Session length plus a break is the real "step" of your schedule. A 50-minute session with a 10-minute break makes an even hour.

  3. Schedule the unpaid work

    Notes, supervision, training. If you don't set aside hours for them, they'll creep into your evenings and weekends.

  4. Lay it out across the days

    Decide which days are working days, and where in the day you need a longer pause.

  5. Leave some slack

    One or two free slots a week — for urgent bookings, reschedules and the unexpected.

For example. Monday: 10:00–13:00 and 15:00–19:00. A session lasts 50 minutes with a 10-minute break. The first block fits sessions at 10:00, 11:00 and 12:00; the second at 15:00, 16:00, 17:00 and 18:00. That's seven sessions and a two-hour pause for lunch, notes and rest.

If you offer longer formats, work those out too. A 90-minute session for a couple, with the same break, fits into the 10:00–13:00 morning block only once: a second one would start at 11:40 and end after 13:00. So for long formats it's handy to keep at least one longer block each week.

Several blocks in a day: why bother

A "9 to 6, no breaks" schedule looks simple, but in practice it's better to break the day up. Two or three blocks with pauses between them let you eat, get some fresh air, jot down notes while they're fresh, and avoid carrying the fatigue of your morning sessions into the evening ones.

Blocks also help with personal matters. If every Tuesday afternoon you pick up your child from school, just split Tuesday into a morning and an evening block — and clients won't be able to book that time.

If you combine online and in-person work, consider separate days for each format. Travelling to and from your office takes time too, and a day where online sessions alternate with in-person ones easily turns into a scramble. It's much calmer when, say, you see clients at the office two days a week and work from home the rest.

The break between sessions: how long and what for

A break isn't a luxury — it's part of the work. In those few minutes between clients you need to:

  • Jot down the key points from the session while you still remember the details.
  • Drink some water, air out the room, take a walk.
  • Switch gears: let go of the previous conversation before starting a new one.
  • Reread your notes and the focus for the next client.
  • For online sessions — check your connection and close any extra tabs.

Many therapists work on a "50-minute session + 10-minute break" pattern, but that's not a rule. If you need more time for notes after each session, allow 15–20 minutes. What matters is that the break happens automatically rather than depending on whether someone books right up against it. A break you have to "defend" by hand every time will eventually disappear: someone will ask to be slotted in right after the previous client, and it'll feel awkward to say no.

Days off

At least one full session-free day a week is about professional hygiene, not laziness. A day off "on call," when you're replying to clients and rescheduling bookings, isn't restorative. If you work on Saturdays, make another day your day off — and mark it in your schedule so bookings don't land on it.

Time off and blocked hours

It's best to add time off to your schedule as soon as you've planned it, even if it's months away. Then no one books those dates, and you won't have to reschedule bookings you've already made. It's also useful to be able to block off not a whole day but just a few hours: a doctor's appointment, a conference, your own therapy.

Time zones: when they matter

As long as you and all your clients are in the same city, time zones go unnoticed. But the moment someone moves, works from abroad, or you change countries yourself, the classic confusion arises: "Ten o'clock — is that your time or mine?"

  • State your time zone explicitly in your schedule rather than relying on your laptop's settings.
  • When arranging things in writing, add the city or zone: "6:00 PM Kyiv time."
  • Keep in mind daylight saving changes — different countries switch on different dates.
  • It helps when the booking system shows the client the time in their own zone and shows you yours.

Your client-facing schedule versus your personal time

It helps to distinguish two schedules. The first is the hours when clients can book themselves. The second is your actual working time, which allows for exceptions: a client who can only do 8:00 PM, or an urgent session on a day off. You don't have to open those hours to everyone — it's enough to be able to book a specific person in manually.

Review your schedule every few months. Your client numbers change, new formats come up, and your own capacity shifts. A schedule you put together a year ago may no longer match how you work now.

How this works in Praxis

Under the “Working schedule” menu item you set working hours for each day of the week — you can add several blocks, and a day with no blocks counts as a day off. Below, in "Settings," are the time zone, the "Break between sessions" and the “Cancelling by the client” window. The form is saved as a whole. A separate “Holidays and days off” block lets you close entire days or specific hours of a single day.

Free time for clients is calculated taking into account the length of the session type, the break before and after each booking, time off and already-booked hours. A client booking through a link sees the time in their own time zone, and you see yours. The therapist can book a client into any free slot regardless of the schedule — in Praxis the schedule acts as a rule specifically for self-booking.

Frequently asked questions

Can I work without a schedule?

You can, if you make all the bookings yourself. But then clients won't be able to book without you, and you'll still have the back-and-forth about free times.

How often should I change my schedule?

Whenever your workload or your circumstances change. New bookings will follow the updated hours, while ones already made stay put — you can reschedule those separately if needed.

Is it worth opening up evening hours?

Evening sessions are convenient for clients who work, so they're usually in higher demand. But if evenings are your recovery time, it's better to open one or two evenings a week than to work late every day. You can handle any other requests for evening slots on a case-by-case basis.

What if you work in several places?

Split your days into blocks so that your self-booking schedule only shows the hours you see clients in that particular setting. Leave the rest closed. If the schedule at one location changes every month, update it as soon as you learn about the changes — otherwise clients will book hours you no longer have.