5 ways to prepare for taking vacation time in private practice

Why time off is important

As rewarding as it is to be a mental healthcare provider, it can also be emotionally and mentally draining. That’s why it’s so important to pencil in recovery time.

“To show up in a way that’s meaningful and helpful to clients requires that you as a provider also take care of you,” says Natalia Tague, clinical lead at Headway. Along the same lines, taking time off for yourself ensures you can show up for your loved ones, whether your partner, kids, or friends.

The problem? Scheduling time off can be hard for a few reasons. You likely chose this profession because you want to take care of others, so it may feel counterintuitive to prioritize yourself.

“You’ll plan to take Thursday off, but if a client is in crisis, you might tell yourself it’s not a big deal to squeeze in one session,” says Tague. “But then one turns to several, and you end up not taking time off at all.”

Given how easy it is to slip into others-first mode, it’s important to take steps ahead of time to set yourself up for successful time away from work.

5 ways to prepare for time off

1. Create a paid time off (PTO) bank

If you’re working in private practice, direct care is likely your sole source of income — and you may feel like you can’t afford to take time off, because you’re giving yourself a pay cut. Tague recommends creating a “PTO bank” so you can continue to pay yourself when you’re not working.

That may mean you take on extra clients, or that you adjust your overhead budget to have fewer expenses. Either way, try to set aside a certain amount of money per pay period to ensure you can take paid sick days and vacations later on.

2. Plan your time off strategically

You can’t always control when you need to take time off. But it’s worth thinking about when your practice naturally tends to pick up or slow down.

“Therapy is a business that is impacted by the seasons: you might expect a yearly slowdown around the holidays and during summer,” says Alex Oliver-Gans, a private practice therapist in San Francisco. “Early in your practice you might feel that these slowdowns are a bad sign for your business, but plan instead to take advantage of these periods. It feels less stressful taking a week off when you know that at most 80 percent of your clients were going to show up anyway.”

3. Make a plan with your clients

How you communicate your time off to clients depends on your clinical set-up. If most of your clients are biweekly and you’ll be out for a week, you can determine with them whether they’ll simply skip that week or if you’ll work them into a different week (if you have time).

4. Secure crisis coverage

If you’ll be unreachable, Tague recommends asking a colleague (or another therapist you network with) to be available to your clients for emergencies when you’re away. This is especially important if you anticipate any high-level clients who could experience a crisis while you’re on PTO. Before you head out, let any relevant clients know what to do if they need support, whether calling your colleague or checking in with their primary care provider.

“Have a collaborative conversation with them, so it’s not just ‘see you next month,’” says Tague.

5. Update your calendar, voicemail, and email

Before you go OOO — out of office — be sure to update your online calendar so new or existing clients can’t schedule appointments during that time. It’s also a good idea to set up an out-of-office response on your email letting people know you’re out and when you’ll be back, along with emergency contacts such as the suicide hotline (988).

Whether you update your voicemail depends on what it currently says. If you tell people you’ll respond in a week and you’ll only be out for three days, then you don’t necessarily need to change it.

How much time off do private practice therapists take?

Many jobs in and outside of healthcare provide about two weeks of vacation, but there’s no right or wrong amount of time off to take as a private practice therapist. Some therapists take off two weeks, while others go away for a month or longer, whether for extended periods or shorter chunks.

“It’s very much a personal choice,” says Tague “As long as you communicate with your clients and can still provide quality care, you can make that decision based on what you feel comfortable with financially, mentally, and emotionally.”

To plan your own time off, take a look at your calendar once a year so you can plan ahead — for example, you may need to consider your kids’ school days off, or any family commitments and holidays, along with any vacations you want to plan.

“When you project your income for the year, make a realistic estimate of your working weeks,” suggests Oliver-Gans. “If you’ve known all year that you were going to take two to five weeks off, it’s not going to be a shock that you have less than 12 months of income to plan on.”

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