Give a number, not an adjective. "One business day" sets an expectation. "Promptly" sets whatever the client already assumed, which is usually a couple of hours.

Then pick the number you can hold on your worst week rather than your best one, because the expectation you actually set is your fastest reply, not your stated one. This is the part that fails, and it fails at the therapist's end. A client told "one business day" who gets an answer in eleven minutes has learned that eleven minutes is available. Every reply after that which takes a day feels to them like being ignored.

Say it in four places: at intake out loud, in the communications agreement they sign, in your voicemail greeting, and in whatever automatic reply goes out outside your hours. Same number in all four.

And attach the two things that make a response window fair rather than withholding — what to do if it can't wait, and confirmation that the message was received. A window is only tolerable if the client knows their message landed.

Who sets the number — you or your College?

You do. That is the part people are surprised by, and it is the more useful half of the answer.

No Ontario regulator publishes a response time. The social work College asks that registrants "deliver client services and respond to client queries, concerns, and/or complaints in a timely and reasonable manner" (OCSWSSW, Interpretation 3.4), and that is the whole of it. The psychology and behaviour analysis College publishes nothing on reachability at all.

What the psychotherapy College asks for is disclosure. Its electronic practice guidance lists what to cover with a client at the outset, and one item is "the therapist's usual hours of work and average response times to between-session communications from clients." Where there is no written agreement, those terms "must be documented in the clinical record" (CRPO Electronic Practice Guideline).

The counselling and psychotherapy association's standards — the ones Registered Counselling Therapists in Nova Scotia practise under — put it most concretely. A written policy on electronic communication is required, shared with clients as part of informed consent, and "anticipated response times" is one of four things that policy must convey (CCPA Standards of Practice).

So the duty runs mostly to your own disclosure rather than to anybody's clock. What is asked is that the window be reasonable, that the client be told what it is, and that you then hold to it. Unstated is the version that causes trouble — for the client waiting, and for you afterwards.

What number should I pick?

Something you can meet on a week where two people are in crisis and your child is home sick.

Common answers among practitioners run from same-day on session days through to two business days, and the variation is less interesting than the specificity. One therapist tells clients they only check the phone on days they hold sessions and only use text for scheduling — that's a rule a client can understand and a therapist can keep.

Two structural choices to make explicit:

Business days or calendar days. If you don't say, they'll assume calendar, and Friday afternoon becomes a problem.

Whether it varies by channel. Some practitioners answer voicemail within a day and text more slowly, or the reverse. That's fine, but only if you say so. Otherwise the client uses whichever channel they think is fastest, which is usually the one you least want them on.

Why do expectations drift?

Almost always because of an exception you made once.

You reply on a Sunday because it was quick. You answer at ten at night because you happened to see it and it seemed easier than leaving it. Neither felt like a policy change. Both were.

The second cause is silence during the window. A client who sends a message on Monday morning and hears nothing until Tuesday afternoon spends thirty hours not knowing whether it arrived, and often sends another one. That reads as impatience; it's usually uncertainty. An automatic acknowledgement removes most of it, and costs you nothing.

The third is the gap between what you said and what your greeting says. If the consent form says two business days and the voicemail says "I'll get back to you as soon as I can", the second one wins, because it's the one they hear at the moment they're waiting.

How do I say it without sounding withholding?

Pair the limit with a route and a reassurance, in one sentence.

"I check messages on days I'm in the office and reply within one business day. You'll get a confirmation that your message arrived. If something can't wait until then, please call 911, or call or text 9-8-8 — and we'll pick it up together at our next session."

The confirmation clause is doing quiet work. It converts your response window from "I might be ignoring you" into "this is a process with a known shape."

What about response times for new inquiries?

Different question, different stakes, and worth deciding separately.

Prospective clients contact several practices and go with whoever replies first — that's stated repeatedly by practitioners, including one who says openly that replying reliably within a day or two boosts their practice because so many colleagues don't reply at all.

You don't have to compete on speed to benefit from this. What you have to do is reply at all, and tell them when. A greeting that says "I return calls on Tuesdays and Thursdays" is slower than most and still better than most, because the caller knows.

The distinction to keep is that a new inquiry needs a fast acknowledgement and can tolerate a slow conversation. Those are separable, and separating them is most of what makes a slow practice feel responsive.

What happens when I miss my own window?

Say so, briefly, without a paragraph of explanation.

"Sorry for the delay — replying now" is enough. Over-explaining invites the client into your schedule, which is not a place they benefit from being, and tends to produce reassurance in the wrong direction.

If you're missing it consistently, the number is wrong. Change it, once, and tell people it's changing rather than quietly running late forever. A stated window you meet is worth more than an ambitious one you don't, and clients read the pattern rather than the policy.

The short version

Pick a number you can hold on a bad week. Say it out loud, in the agreement, in the greeting, and in the automatic reply — the same number in all four. Make sure messages get acknowledged even when they aren't answered. And don't break your own window by replying fast, because that's the version of this that clients remember.

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