Clearing the calendar is not the hard part. The hard part is that the line stays open, and a line that stays open means you are working whether or not anyone calls.

That is not a figure of speech. Practitioners consistently describe the availability itself as the stressor — quiet evenings cost as much as busy ones, because the possibility of a message is enough. A holiday where you are still carrying the phone is not a holiday; it is the same job in nicer weather.

So the work is closing the line properly, and it is mostly done before you leave:

• Tell clients in advance, in writing, with the exact dates

• Change the greeting and the automatic reply so both state the dates and when you are back

• Decide what happens if something urgent arrives, and say it in the greeting

• Decide whether you are checking messages at all, and if so, when — then hold to it

• Take the practice line off your own phone if you can, or turn its notifications off entirely

The one that makes the biggest difference is the last one. Everything else is communication; that one is the mechanism.

Why "I'll just check occasionally" fails

Because reading a message makes it yours.

Once you have seen an after-hours or on-holiday message, you are on the hook for it clinically, and arguably in your record-keeping. Some practitioners deal with this by deliberately not looking at their phone — a workaround that works until the one time it doesn't.

Checking occasionally has the worst properties of both options. You carry the alertness of being available and you do not get the benefit of actually being reachable, because your reply time is unpredictable. If you are going to check, check on a schedule you have told people about. If you are not, do not look.

What to set up before you go

A greeting with dates in it. Not "I'm currently away". The dates. Someone hearing it should know exactly when you are back without doing arithmetic.

An automatic reply that says the same thing. Any message arriving on the line should get the same information as a caller. Whatever the line normally says about response times, this replaces it for the period.

Somewhere to send anything urgent. Your greeting should name the resources you want a distressed caller directed to, and it should be specific rather than "seek help". Two of them work anywhere in Canada. "If you're in immediate danger or need urgent medical support, call 9-1-1." And: "If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call or text 9-8-8. Support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week" (Government of Canada). The crisis line takes texts as well as calls, which matters for someone who will not speak to a stranger. Add whichever local service you would refer to yourself.

A decision about new inquiries. They can wait, and most will. If you would rather not lose them entirely, the greeting can invite them to leave a message and say the date they will hear back — that is honest, and it works better than silence.

Coverage, if you use it. No Ontario regulator requires a solo practitioner to name a covering colleague for a holiday. Searching the social work College's standards for absence, vacation and coverage turns up nothing of the kind, and the psychology and behaviour analysis College publishes nothing on absence coverage at all.

What is published is narrower and about notice rather than cover. Registrants who anticipate "the termination or interruption of service to clients shall ensure that clients are notified promptly and that arrangements are made for the termination, transfer, referral, or continuation of service in accordance with clients' needs and preferences" (OCSWSSW, Interpretation 3.12).

A two-week holiday you have told clients about is not an interruption of service in that sense. A sudden absence with active clients mid-course is closer to one, and that is where the sentence starts to bite — which is an argument for the unplanned-absence plan rather than for holiday cover.

Telling clients

Tell them earlier than feels necessary — far enough ahead that the last session before the break is not where they hear it.

Say it twice: once when you announce it, once in the session before you go. Put the dates in writing somewhere they can find again, because the session where you mentioned it is not searchable.

For most clients this is genuinely unremarkable. For a few it is clinical material, and knowing which is which in advance is more useful than any administrative arrangement.

Then say what to do in the meantime — in the same plain terms you would use for after-hours generally. A client who knows what the plan is does not need to test it.

Do I need someone to cover?

Depends on your caseload more than on your comfort.

If your work is short-term and low-acuity, a well-signposted closed line with clear crisis routing is a coherent arrangement. If you carry acute risk, active crisis presentations, or clients for whom a two-week gap is clinically significant, coverage is a different conversation and belongs with your supervisor or a colleague in your profession rather than with a guide.

Two practical notes if you do arrange coverage:

• Make sure the covering clinician actually receives what clients send. Coverage arrangements that pass on calls but not texts are a documented failure — clients message the line, the covering clinician never sees it, and everyone believes it is handled.

• Tell clients who the person is, by name, before you go. A stranger calling back is not reassuring.

When you get back

Do not open the line and your calendar on the same day. Whatever accumulated is in front of you, and the first day back is worth spending on it rather than on sessions.

Change the greeting and the auto-reply back, immediately, before anything else. A greeting still announcing that you are away is a small thing that costs inquiries and makes the practice look unattended.

The short version

Close the line properly rather than carrying it quietly. Dates in the greeting, dates in the auto-reply, dates in writing to clients, a specific place to send anyone in crisis, and notifications off. Decide once whether you are checking messages and hold to that decision, because checking occasionally gives you the cost of being available with none of the benefit.

About Rivet

Rivet is a Canadian practice line built for therapists — a separate number for calls, texts and voicemail, with video sessions and clinical tools in the same place. Your data stays in Canada, and transcription runs on Rivet's own hardware rather than a third-party AI service.

One plan, $65 CAD a month, everything included. Fourteen-day trial, no card.

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