When it comes to time, we seem to have less and less of it these days.  So spending time in a therapy session can seem a luxury. Time can often feel like a very scarce commodity.  Or perhaps it’s that somehow we often waste it all too easily.

One whole hour for a therapy session is a significant amount of time to set aside.

So here’s a leftover Christmas cracker riddle for you......

Question:  When is an hour not an hour?

Answer:  When it’s a 50 mins therapeutic hour.....

I have worked with an organisation where I was required to run 3 sessions for 50mins with 10 mins between each session for notes.

I have also seen clients in private practice, and in other organisational settings, where I always offered a full hour, and set a session interval appropriate for me.

Now I know some approaches will work with a 50min hour.  And many organisations need to maximise session availability for clients.  And it’s certainly a good discipline to work with a number of “back to back” sessions, making sure notes get written up as well.

After all, the client pays for a full therapeutic service which includes a session, notes and an element of supervision as well.

So I acknowledge both logistic and financial benefits to therapists in various approaches to the time element.  But what about clients?

For me personally, an hour is an hour.  On occasions when I have been looking for a therapist myself, one of my questions is always “do you do a full hour or 50mins?”  It might sound cheeky, but it’s important to me.

I once worked with a therapist whose sessions were 1hr 15mins.  Now that’s taking it to another level.

And just perhaps 50mins makes that whole hour manageable.

I think it matters less how long the session is though, and much more on the quality of relationship and process of that session.

When was the last time you took an hour for yourself?  Well....50mins at least!