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What’s the best way to schedule appointments?

 
Counselees, counselors, and/or an administrator can schedule appointments. What are the pros and cons of each method?

Counselees schedule their own appointments

In this method, a counselee sees your availability and selects a time that would work well for them. This method of scheduling works well if you only meet with your counselee one time. However, since counseling appointments tend to be ongoing, this method of scheduling raises the likelihood that a counselee will choose an inconvenient time for you to counsel them every week. For this reason (among other reasons), this method doesn’t typically work well for biblical counselors and is very uncommon.

Counselors schedule their own appointments (Recommended)

In this method, the ministry/counselor states their general availability, and then the counselee provides three to five times within that timeframe that they would be available to meet. Then the assigned counselor would choose a convenient time to consistently meet. Even if the counselor has to reschedule, with this method, there is virtually no back-and-forth because the right expectations about when counseling can take place is already established. This method is also convenient for busy administrators who don’t have the time or the means to schedule their appointments for others. For these reasons, this is one of the most popular methods of scheduling amongst biblical counselors in both churches and care centers.

Administrators schedule all appointments

In this method, the administrator looks at the availability of the counselee and their counselor, then schedules all appointments on their behalf. The primary benefit to this method is that it provides the administrator with a feeling of complete control over when and where counseling sessions take place. There are also some counselors who prefer that someone else schedule their appointments for them. This method however, can take A LOT of administrative work! We almost never see practices schedule in this way and this method is not common amongst churches.

Administrators schedule the first appointment and counselors schedule all subsequent appointments

In this method, the administrator looks at the availability of a counselee and their counselor, then schedules only the first appointment on their behalf. It takes a bit more administrative work, but some counselors are appreciative of this. This method is favored by ministries that schedule an initial meeting between an administrator and counselee, and then based on that meeting, assign the appropriate counselor.

Hybrid scheduling

If you have a mix of tech-savvy and tech-shy counselors, a hybrid method of scheduling could work well for you. The tech-savvy counselors could schedule their own appointments (which would save the administrator time and would give counselors control over their own schedule), and the tech-shy counselors could have their administrator schedule their appointments for them.

TIP: How to avoid back-and-forth conversations about scheduling

No matter how you schedule, we recommend having a question on your pre-counseling form that says something along the lines of: “Our ministry’s office hours are Mon-Thurs from 8am-5pm. Please record five times that you would be available for counseling in order of preference that are within our ministry’s office hours.” In this way, no matter who is scheduling the appointment, you won’t have to go back-and-forth with the counselee about when appointments can be scheduled.

Have Questions About Scheduling?

We’ve covered all the ways that appointments can be scheduled, but you may be wondering…

• How would an administrator know when and where people are meeting?
• How could you make it so that counselors can’t tell whom other counselors are meeting with?
• How could counselors schedule without double-booking the same counseling room as someone else?
• How can you schedule automated reminders to be sent to the counselee?