Failure of therapist to respond

[BigNoiseDallas]

How do you follow up when a therapist doesn't respond to a request for an appointment? Do you re-send the request and, if so, how much time do you let pass and how do you phrase your re-send? I politely texted a recommended therapist in Dallas a little after 8 p.m. Friday night, requesting a session at 10 a.m. Saturday. I realize that might not be a lot of notice and that he might have been booked, but it's now 10:30 p.m. Saturday, and no reply.

[Guest buffwolverine]

How do you follow up when a therapist doesn't respond to a request for an appointment? Do you re-send the request and, if so, how much time do you let pass and how do you phrase your re-send? I politely texted a recommended therapist in Dallas a little after 8 p.m. Friday night, requesting a session at 10 a.m. Saturday. I realize that might not be a lot of notice and that he might have been booked, but it's now 10:30 p.m. Saturday, and no reply.

 

I’ve had the exact same experience in Dallas too. Probably isn’t unique to DFW but it feels like it’s worse. PM me if you want to swap stories. I’m always looking for a good local provider.

[+ nycman]

I’m “one and done”.

 

If you can’t take the time to even reply to a simple text,

why should I bother? If the massage ever does take place,

it always sucks. Unprofessional behavior is never limited

to just texting skills.

 

Even a brief “I’m unavailable” is enough for me to try again

another time. Radio silence?...gets radio silence in return.

[BigNoiseDallas]

I’ve had the exact same experience in Dallas too. Probably isn’t unique to DFW but it feels like it’s worse. PM me if you want to swap stories. I’m always looking for a good local provider.

 

Sent you a PM. Don't want to be accused of slander just in case any Dallas therapists visit here and recognize themselves, .

[BigNoiseDallas]

I’m “one and done”.

 

If you can’t take the time to even reply to a simple text,

why should I bother? If the massage ever does take place,

it always sucks. Unprofessional behavior is never limited

to just texting skills.

 

Even a brief “I’m unavailable” is enough for me to try again

another time. Radio silence?...gets radio silence in return.

 

Thanks for the advice. I've been getting massages for about 20 years, and this is probably about fourth or fifth time I've not received a reply about a request -- oddly enough, 3 of the "non-replies" were therapists I had seen multiple times with no issue that I know of.

[+ sniper]

Were they all short-notice requests? If they didn't see it until after they may have figured it was moot(though I agree they should at leaast send a "sorry I missed you" text).

Also, sometimes there is a phone glitch. I apparently somehow turned off screen notifications on my text messaging, so since I didn't look in the messages and just looked for an icon at the top of the screen, I went 3 days without seeing my messages.

[BigNoiseDallas]

Were they all short-notice requests? If they didn't see it until after they may have figured it was moot(though I agree they should at leaast send a "sorry I missed you" text).

Also, sometimes there is a phone glitch. I apparently somehow turned off screen notifications on my text messaging, so since I didn't look in the messages and just looked for an icon at the top of the screen, I went 3 days without seeing my messages.

 

On one request, I texted around 2 p.m., asking for an appointment at something like 8 p.m. the next evening; on another request, after a few back-and-forth texts, the therapist said "yes, I'll schedule you" -- and never replied to any follow-up texts; and on a third one, I agreed to re-schedule an appointment at the masseur's request (he asked to re-schedule and suggested the alternate evening, and it worked for me) -- and he never replied. These were all masseurs I had seen multiple times over multiple years.

 

I thought about a phone glitch as well and considered sending a second text -- but now I'm not available for at least a couple of weeks. The masseur is highly recommended by someone on this site.

[Dmitri]

If you text a request and don't hear back there are 3 possibilities 1) They are crazy busy and are overloaded and are so busy massaging that they don't have enough time to answer all requests. They pick and choose which ones to answer that fit into their schedule, since they are so booked. 2) They don't really take their job seriously since they only do it part time, so only answer when they feel like it. 3) They are just rude. If a masseur does not get back to me after I text a request after a few hours, I will then call ( from an unblocked number) and leave a voicemail asking them to look for my text. I then text them right away after leaving the voicemail, telling them I just left a voicemail. This covers all bases. If after this there is no response, I just move on. There are SO MANY masseurs out there, no sense wasting time on non-responders.

[BigNoiseDallas]

Thanks for the feedback, Dmitri. Perhaps I should have called on Saturday morning to follow up (a few hours after my original request would have been too late.). I wanted to get some ideas from other members here who have experienced the same issue. Appreciate your suggestions!

[BigNoiseDallas]

I followed up with the masseur today (via text). He replied almost immediately -- he received my text but missed it and was very apologetic about that. I told him that it wasn't an issue and that I would try to schedule something with him soon (and would try to give him more notice). Thanks for all of the advice and feedback!