Why do therapists always change their availability?

Recently I heard somebody asking, why do therapists change their availability all the time? This question came because the person reached out to a therapist who they wanted to

work with, and this therapist said no because they didn't have the availability. Then a week later, the same person saw that the same therapist had availability (again). And this person understandably felt rejected, confused and as though the therapist was not honest about their availability.

To me, each part of this situation completely makes sense. I've been a client in therapy and I'm also a professional therapist as well, and I see how by both the client would feel confused and rejected by the therapist and I also understand - as a therapist - how the

therapist needed to say no because of their availability. Most importantly, that the therapist most likely was not being dishonest about their availability. It's not always the case, even though social media, television (and even some therapists amongst ourselves) will say that the golden excuse not to work with clients anymore is a "lack of availability".

But it's not always an excuse.

Why do therapists always change their availability?

We therapists don't always know our own availability. Sometimes we have availability and other times we don't. This can be a really, really fast turnover. This is because we might have clients who suddenly cancel their sessions or their sessions end unexpectedly - because life happens. It means one week we might think that we have no more availability for clients and therefore our availability is "off". Then the next week we do have availability again and our availability is "on".

The majority of therapists won't have a waiting list because most therapists want people to get help as soon as possible with the right therapist. And this might mean signposting clients

to another therapist who is available. Of course, if some therapists don't have availability, they might have a waiting list if their clients or are willing to wait. And that's really understandable and fair.

But the vast majority of therapists will not have a waiting list.

So one week the therapist you want to see might say - honestly - "Sorry, I have no availability". And another week, they do.

The last thing that therapists want is to take on board too many clients, like a

therapy factory, be overworked, exhausted, because this means that they're not giving a good service and you as a client are not receiving the full attention and commitment from your therapist either.

Your therapist is more often under-booked than they are overbooked. If they're anything like me - they're very careful about taking on new clients when they don't see in the future that they'll have availability. Even though this often changes! No rejection meant in it. It's just the awkward, uncomfortable, unpredictable reality of being a therapist.