Pro-tips for making an appt

Ever try to make n appt with a booked up therapist or doctor? Here are some ways to possibly get in sooner.

Doc David

Transcript

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Hey friends, let's talk about making appointments with counselors.

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You are listening to Hedge Drink Inc. Relationships and Daily Living.

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Hello all. Happy spring. It's a spring right now. Even though the weather here is like can't make up its mind. Right now it's sunny. But about an hour ago it was hailing, and then a couple days ago it was snowing lightly. So I it's some kind of odd spring, which I'm not sure if that's called something. Someone told me it's a La Nina spring, but I am no meteorologist, so I couldn't tell you if that's the case or not. But hey, welcome back. Welcome back to the show. Um the this little podcast, this little corner of the internet where I do this podcast. Um kind of been absent for a bit. Life's busy, so I'm not getting paid to do this. So uh you get what you get, right? All right. Hey, uh welcome. So I want to talk about uh it's kind of a little bit of a different topic today than I normally talk about. It doesn't necessarily deal with relationships, it deals with um making appointments with therapists. Now, one of the things that's been happening oh the last oh, I don't know, probably the last year at least, is that um therapists and maybe even doctors have just been booked. Um there's been a transition from Zoom to face-to-face, and there's still people that are doing Zoom, that's fine. I I've gone I've been face-to-face since about June of last year. Um but this would apply, what we're gonna talk about today would apply to both face-to-face and Zoom. Um inevitably people want a therapist, people want a doctor, and they get met with either no response or they get met with, oh, I'm booked, um, I can put you on a waiting list. Um so I wanted to talk about maybe some I don't know if you want to call them pro tips on how to maybe get an appointment with more easily get an appointment, um, versus not getting an appointment ever. So one of the things that you there's a difference between um group practices and smaller individual practices. There's also a difference between insurance and self-pay. Um group practices are you're never really gonna be able to get connected with a specific therapist. You're always gonna be directed to a uh to a receptionist. And so any kind of schmoozing, talking to the therapist, saying, Hey, I know this person they told me to call, is pr talking to the receptionist is not gonna probably get you much. Um where where it's gonna be more beneficial to have referrals is gonna be talking to an individual therapist like myself. Um, I don't have a receptionist. I pick up my phone, I answer my own emails, um, which is kind of shocking to people. It's funny to hear have someone call me and I answer, and then they don't know what to say because they were expecting a voicemail. Um the and so oftentimes you'll hear people, hear therapists say, Oh, we're booked till whenever, and we can put you on a waiting list. So I'll tell you the little secret is that usually therapists, and I'll include myself in this, we're not booked. We we leave some space for emergencies. Um doctor's offices do. Have you ever been to a doctor off doctor's office? And they said the receptionist said, Oh, we're booked out till March. And so you explain some kind of exigent circumstance, and then they look again, and they're able to get you in in a week or two. Um, that's because most places have built into their systems um room for emergent circumstances. Now, the problem is um you can't lie to people, that's just wrong, right? So if you really want to get into therapy, but it's not emergent, or if you're wanting to get that mole removed and it's not emergent, don't lie to the therapist, don't lie to the receptionist just so you can get in. I had that happen to me Oh a couple weeks ago, where I've had it happen two times actually. Um someone left a message and said to me, Hey, you called me and I'm just calling you back to give you the information that you needed so we can set up our appointment. And I was I was kind of confused at first because I thought, I didn't call this person. Who is this person? And I looked back and they had left me a message, but I had not returned a phone call to them. So either they were trying to be sneaky about getting an appointment or they confused me with another therapist. I want to believe the best in that they confused me with another therapist. Um another one was someone that had um what did they do? I can't remember exactly what it was, but uh it it was pretty they told me that uh they had talked to a therapist who I know that that told them that I said to them that they could I that I was holding a space for them. That was that was crazy because I hadn't talked to this therapist in a while, and um I would never do something like that. Uh I I would say maybe have them call me and tell them that you talked to me, but I I don't hold spaces for people, um generally speaking. And and so, anyways, that was another example of someone that was trying to be deceiving to get an appointment. And there's nothing that's gonna be quicker of an appointment denial than being deceptive if if you're being deceptive, it's just wrong, it's gross, and and it's like trying to cheat, trying to get to the front of the line in front of everybody. Um, and so I so so that's something not to do. What I can tell you to do is when you make that first contact with a uh therapist, whether it's group practice, individual, whatever, you go on psychology today, and you call the number that's on psychology today. That I'll give you a little little behind the scenes tip. That number that you call on psychology today is not the actual number for the the therapist or um counselor that you're trying to reach. Psychology today uh changes it for some reason, probably because they don't want to give out the therapist numbers, which is weird to me because that's how you get business by your phone number. But that number is not a number that um it's a it's an auto-generated number that patches into like my personal cell number or my business cell number. And so if there's a therapist that you find on psychology today, instead of calling the psychology today number, do a quick Google search for them and their website should pop up and their their actual business number probably will pop up. When you call from Psychology Today, um the therapist gets a notification that oh, you've got a call from psychology today or you got an email from psychology today. So you're not contacting them directly. So I would say if you want to get the direct contact of the direct number, um that's the way to go, is like do an actual Google search Google search for them after you find them on Psychology Today. Secondly, um try to figure out what's the best contact person for the therapist that you're trying, or what's the best contact way for the person that you're trying to set up an appointment appointment with. Like for me, I'm in session um pretty much from 9:30 to 6, 10 to 6. I'm I'm I'm going, I'm seeing clients. Maybe we'll have a cancellation, but that's that's day of, and so I'm not gonna know. And so like today I've had sessions and I've probably gotten at least five phone calls. And so sometimes people will will leave messages, and sometimes people won't leave messages. And so what you need to do is figure out the best way for contacting this person that you're wanting to interact with. Now, in my voicemail, I say very specifically, um, I'm in session, I'm not gonna be able to return phone calls easily. If you want to get in touch with me, here's my email. And so I leave my email. And so if a person really wants to get a hold of me, then they will email me. Um, it's very rare that I return phone calls. It's very rare that I return voicemails because I just get so many. And then if I get a voicemail that's not very descriptive, I'm it's gonna be harder to return it when I return that call when I want to go home at the end of the day, and I have boundaries around um around when I'm going to return phone calls and and when I'm gonna return texts. Um texting is also another way some therapists are willing to set up appointments. I'm I will do texting um at times, but email is my go-to because like my email is on my laptop, I can look at it, and then my calendar's there, and so then I can respond back like hey, I have these times available or I don't have any time available. The other thing I would encourage you to do if you're wanting to track down a therapist and you're gonna either email, text, or leave a message, be very specific what you're looking for. A lot of times the specific specificity doesn't happen. So, as an example, I'll get a call that says, Hey, this is Joe, um, wanting some counseling, give me a call back. Uh it's gonna be super hard for me to find time to call that person back because there's other people that um are being very specific about what their needs are. So when you call someone, what you should say is you give your name, give your insurance, this is a key one too, give your insurance, or if you're gonna be private pay, give the issue that you're wanting assistance with, and then um do whatever else was asked for in the voice message. The reason for insurance, because I don't take every insurance. And so if you have insurance A and I don't take that, um I know very quickly that this isn't gonna be somebody that I'm gonna interact, that I'm not gonna set up an appointment with. Um, but if you if you have insurance A and you're also willing to do cash pay, then chances are I'll probably will give you a callback because you are willing to pay out of pocket. Um also the the issue telling uh the person or leaving a message, you don't have to go into super intimate detail, but just kind of giving it an idea, this is what uh we're wanting help with. There's things that I don't work with, right? So uh someone calls up and says, Hey, I I need a therapist for my 10-year-old kid. I don't work with 10-year-olds. And so um, if I have that information at my fingertips, I can just respond very quickly, hey, I don't work with 10-year-olds, and then that person can move on. But if you don't give any of that information to me, and then we have to exchange emails back and forth, it's gonna be less likely that you're going to get a quick response because we therapists are just busy. We're busy seeing clients. And so the more information we have, the more we're gonna know um if we can be helpful. The problem, and don't be mad. Here's another thing, don't be mad if if the therapist says, sorry, I don't have availability or this is not my area of expertise. Like I had some person where um they said, Hey, can you we set up an appointment with you? And and so I say, Oh, what is your insurance and what are you needing help with? So they let me know and they write this fairly long thing, and I realized this isn't gonna be like a good fit for me. And I tell them, hey, it's not gonna be a good fit. Here's some other places that could be helpful for you. They got mad at me, like, why would you ask me uh what's going on? With you know, you should just not ask those kinds of questions. And so it's like, well, I need to know if I'm a good fit. You who do you think you are to know if you're a good fit or not? And it's oh, it was kind of painful. Um, and and ultimately I just stopped interacting because there's no point, and it's just taking up time that I don't necessarily have. So be specific, talk about tell them what your insurance is, um and location also. I used to have another office, and I I closed that office down because I didn't financially I didn't need to keep it open because I just was busy where my main office is. And so occasionally I'll get uh requests that are really good fits, but then their location is in Vancouver, Washington, which is like an hour and a half south of me, and I'm not doing Zoom anymore. And so it's helpful to say, hey, this is where I'm located also, because uh there's an I I make an assumption like, oh, they're contacting me, they must be um in the area that I'm live that I'm in. And this my office down in Vancouver hasn't been open for like a year now. Um but insurance companies don't update their rosters, and so people think, oh, this person's in Vancouver when actually they're not in Vancouver. Um so so those those things specifically about insurance, location, uh the problems that are going on, and listening listening specifically to the voicemail to do what is asked on the voicemail are going to be things that probably get you in to get more likely to get you a response from a therapist. I made a commitment long ago that um when I got emails, I was going to uh respond to every email that that I got. Now, I may respond three or four days later, but I I work hard to respond to my emails because another complaint I hear from uh clients is I emailed six people and didn't hear back from any of them. And I don't want to do business that way. I want to make sure that I respond. Um now voicemail is different because voicemail is I'm I'm busy throughout the day, and then I don't want to be returning six to seven calls um after 6 p.m. and I want to get home. So that's why on my voicemail, I very specific contact me by email. And so if people contact me by email, they're probably gonna be more likely to get a response from me. I'd also say that on Psychology Today, like I said earlier, if it has uh a little link that says contact me, you're not getting a uh direct contact link to that therapist. You're getting you'll put whatever you put in, and then it shows up in my email as a psychology today contact. Um and so again, I think use psychology today, but then do a Google search of the person that you think would be a good fit, and then um reach out to them through their Google information that they have. Um the other thing I would say, one of the other kind of things that I would say is just be very, and I said it earlier, but again, I want to just emphasize be very specific what you're looking for. Because uh the person that you are thinking would be a good fit for you may actually be a good fit for you, but if you don't tell them specifically what you're looking for, um they may not realize that they're a good fit for you. And so a space that they may have saved for something else may be available if they think, oh, this is in my area of expertise and this is what I'm passionate about. I'm gonna open up this spot for this person that is struggling with whatever I'm passionate about. Um, versus, oh, that's something that therapist Joe down the street is an expert on. I'm just gonna refer that person on to therapist Joe. Um and so from my perspective, it's all about managing um my space and managing my my availability because occasionally I need space for clients that cancel and are looking for um uh a slot to get in. So, for example, I closed my office down in um Vancouver, and then I recently had a former client reach out to me saying, Hey, can we can I get an appointment with you? And um typically I wouldn't do that, but I recognize that it's hard like when you've been working with someone for a long period of time and you've poured your heart out to a therapist and you've explained all the situations that have happened in your life to a therapist, and then um you have to switch over to a brand new therapist, that's that's emotionally hard for someone to do, um, and it's tiresome for someone to do. And so I recognize that, and so I'm willing to uh work with older with clients that I've had for a long period of time, but even if we suspend services and they call me back, I'm willing to reconnect with them because I recognize like who wants to start all over again and explain everything all over again to uh to a new therapist. Um and so if you if you need a spot, try to get back with your um previous therapist that if you remember their name, but a previous therapist who kind of knows your situation because it's gonna make uh your initial session that you have with them, it's gonna make it go much smoother because they'll just want to catch up with you, like, hey, what's been going on? You can say, Oh, this is what's been going on, but here's my new issue, and then they can just kind of go back into the flow of helping you because they already know what's been going on with you. Um I think that there's probably some more things that I haven't thought of. If you um have any questions about uh how, or if you have any questions or tips on how best to get in with a therapist or um a doctor's office when everyone else is wanting to get in, that would be helpful. Send them my way at headshrinkinc at gmail.com. Um thanks for listening. Hope you have a great uh weekend and hope the weather is great where you are currently at. You can always reach me at docdavid.net um and we will see you next time.