The problem with manual reminders
Most therapists in private practice send reminders the same way: a text or email the evening before, composed by hand, for every client on tomorrow’s schedule. It works — until you’re tired, busy, or simply forget. A missed reminder is a missed opportunity to prevent a no-show, and a no-show is an hour of lost income with no recourse if you don’t have a cancellation policy in place.
Even when it works, it’s time you shouldn’t have to spend. Sending the same message, personalised slightly for each client, every week, indefinitely — that’s not clinical work, it’s administration.
The quick answer
You can send reminders manually via email or SMS, scheduling them yourself as recurring calendar tasks. Most therapists use a mix of Google Calendar reminders and direct texts. This works at low volume but doesn’t scale, and relies entirely on you remembering to do it.
The better approach is automation — writing one template that personalises itself for each client and fires on a schedule you set once.
How automated reminders work in Counselling Buddy
Counselling Buddy sends email and SMS reminders automatically before every session. You write the template once — including placeholders like %CLIENTNAME%, %SESSIONDATE%, and %SESSIONTIME% — and the platform fills them in for every client.
By default, reminders go out at 24 hours and 1 hour before each session. You can adjust the timing, create different templates for different session types, and override the settings for individual sessions if needed.
If you’re taking leave, a single switch in your account settings pauses all outgoing communications until you’re back.
What a reminder template looks like
Hi %CLIENTNAME%,
Just a reminder that your session is booked for %SESSIONDATE% at %SESSIONTIME%.
If you need to reschedule, please get in touch as soon as possible.
See you soon,
[Your name]Every email goes out with the right details for that client — no manual editing, no copy-paste errors.
Setting it up
- Go to Settings → Communication Templates and write your reminder template
- Go to Settings → Session Types and attach the template to each session type
- Book a session — reminders will fire automatically from that point on
That’s the full setup. You don’t need to touch it again unless you want to change the wording.