Consultation Length and the “Therapeutic Hour”

Our standard consultations are 50 minutes in duration. We prefer to book an extended appointment of 80 minutes for initial consultations. Some client issues may require longer consultations for subsequent appointments. There are a number of considerations for how we schedule our time with clients to ensure they receive our best care. We believe that everyone’s time is valuable and should be respected.

We book our appointments to allow for a full 50-minute session (the “therapeutic hour”) to each client. This also allows time for the associated administration to handle paying accounts, processing Medicare rebates and booking future appointments. When we say that a session is one hour long, we are including the therapeutic time and the associated time with the client

Mutual Respect for Client and Psychologist Schedules

Your psychologist will aim to schedule time within a session to allow for a conclusion, including wrapping up and making future plans, within the 50 minutes. We appreciate clients sharing the responsibility for this time keeping so that we may offer all clients the same dedicated service. 

Not finishing a session on time may inconvenience the next client by cutting their time short. It also prevents us from reflecting upon each session and preparing for the next and may impose on our other commitments for that day. We also value that clients may have commitments that they need to honour, and therefore need to rely on the finish time.



If you feel that it is important to have more time to cover issues to a satisfactory level on a given day, we encourage you to negotiate an extended session time with your psychologist if the time is available. Fees for extended sessions are charged in 15-minute units and are reduced from the first-hour fee.

Please Arrive on Time

Please plan to arrive on time for your appointment as we are generally not able to extend your session to make up time if you are running late. Full session fees are applicable. We appreciate a courtesy phone call if you are delayed.

This need to stick to scheduled times is respectfully balanced with our client’s needs. We acknowledge that sometimes, extraordinary circumstances may require a longer session than scheduled. We do our best to let upcoming clients know if we are running late on any given day.

We appreciate your understanding if this occurs.

Booking longer appointments

If you and your psychologist feel that 50 minutes is not sufficient time to address your issues given their complexity or the frequency of your appointments, you can consider booking a

longer appointment.

Note that the Medicare rebate does not

increase for longer sessions unless you are over the safety net for the year(in which case you will receive the standard rebate plus 80 percent of the out-of-pocket fees).