What If YOU Need To Cancel On Clients Last Minute?

I’ve spoken before about navigating clients who cancel with short notice, but what if we’re the ones that need to cancel on clients last minute?

As much as we try to minimize it, it does happen from time to time. I had to do this not long ago when I woke up with COVID on a day I was supposed to meet with clients.

What sorts of policies should we have in place and how do we approach it?

Overall Approach To Canceling Sessions

As with nearly everything, there’s no one-size fits all practice for having to cancel on clients last minute. But there is an overall approach that I want to emphasize for all of us in this article: do what is in your reasonable power to prioritize client care.

Notice there are two parts to this phrase:

Do what’s in your reasonable power
To prioritize client care

And, I think we could say this really sums up how we ought to approach all of our therapy work with our clients. But it applies when we need to cancel on short notice too.

Over Prioritizing Client Care

I think a lot of therapists have a tendency to lean into one aspect of this approach more than the other. This can cause stress, imbalance, or even unhealthy choices.

If you did whatever you could to prioritize client care but you disregarded your own human limitations, then you might attempt to still meet with your clients when you’re feeling sick. Or you might leave a loved one who needs a little extra TLC after an urgent medical procedure hanging dry so you can meet with your clients.

If you lean this way, I get it. We’re taught to always prioritize our clients, that we can sometimes neglect ourselves and our loved ones. If this is you, I encourage you to consider how using this approach might not only negatively impact you, but ultimately your clients as well.

Over Prioritizing Self-Care

Or some therapists lean into the other extreme of prioritizing their own needs over their clients’. For example, canceling on a client for good reason, but without properly informing them. I’ve been in the situation where I’ve spotted a colleague’s client in the waiting room asking if I knew whether their therapist was in. I’d find out later they were at home sick but didn’t tell their clients. Big oopsies.

So if you do what’s in your reasonable power to prioritize your clients’ needs, everyone’s process for canceling sessions on short notice might look a little different. That’s because it needs to reflect what both you and your client need. And humans are dynamic.

Considerations When Canceling

1) Cancel Vs. Meet Virtually?

Does it make sense for me to still meet with clients or make adjustments?
For example, in some instances I’ll just have sniffles so I’ll adjust by offering virtual appointments instead of in-person.

2) How Equipped Am I To Inform Clients?

Consider factors like whether you’re able to call up your clients or if you need to do it digitally/urgently

3) How Much Communication Do My Clients Need?

Ask yourself: are there any ways your clients need more than you can reasonably offer them, or might be in urgent need of support?
See if you can acknowledge that discrepancy and offer referrals as needed.

Should You Offer Make-Up Times?

That addresses the piece of how to decide and inform clients that you’re canceling. But what next? Do you offer to reschedule right away? Do you create time in your schedule to meet with the folks you canceled on later in the same week?

For this, I encourage you to reflect on the same statement:

do what is in your reasonable power to prioritize client care.

When I didn’t have kids yet, and I needed to cancel last minute, I always offered an alternative time slot later in the same week. My life was very flexible at the time and it felt reasonable that I could do that. If clients wanted to, we could still meet that week, or we could simply miss our appointment for that week.

Now that I have kids, bumping my clients to a different time the same week would be an incredible undertaking. I would need to coordinate additional childcare, which is not always easy to access and is also an additional expense.

So I generally don’t offer this anymore. The only exception is if there is a client in more urgent need. Then, I might try to accommodate in this way.

Again, I’m thinking of what’s in my reasonable power to accommodate my clients needs.

Should I Charge My Clients?

And the last item to touch on is charging clients. I don’t really hear people talk about this much but it seems folks have approaches that vary greatly.

Firstly, make sure you inform your clients when canceling if you have a system that automatically charges your clients for scheduled sessions. Let them know how they will be refunded or credited this charge up front

I’ve heard from folks in my personal circles that their therapist missed the appointment with no notice AND their credit card got automatically charged. Not only is this extremely poor customer service, it can be incredibly damaging to the therapeutic relationship. So if you do have a system for automatically charging clients’ cards, please also have a system to address when you need to cancel on short notice.

An item to consider when it comes to missed sessions is to hold yourself to whatever cancellation policy you have in place for your clients.

So, if you typically still charge clients for simply sleeping in through their session or for missing a session due to a non urgent reason, you might consider offering the next session at no charge.

If you typically waive your fee if your client cancels due to illness, then if you cancel due to illness, you might still charge whenever you do meet next.

This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it’s something to consider. Consistency is invaluable when it comes to building trust. So if you hold yourself to the same policy you hold your clients to, it demonstrates your integrity. It also hopefully minimizes you canceling on short notice without good reason.

Hopefully these were helpful things to consider.

My Policy

What I ended up doing with my clients this time around was I emailed everyone right away to inform them that I needed to cancel due to illness.

Since my schedule is full, I did offer a few additional time slots the Monday after for folks who weren’t already booked to see me the following week.

And at this phase of my career, I have made a choice to not charge for the following session regardless of my reason for canceling. I’m able to offer this since my income is not dependent on my practice, and I want to acknowledge the inconvenience I’ve created for my clients by canceling.

I hope this was helpful to you as you consider how you’d like to approach when you need to cancel on clients last minute.