Keep the number. Everything else is negotiable.

The temptation on a long leave is to cancel the things that are costing money while no money is coming in, and the practice line looks like an obvious candidate. It is the one thing on the list you may not get back. A number that is on your directory listing, your website, your business cards and in the address book of every client and referral source you have is not a subscription — it is the address of your practice.

Cancelling it is reversible only in theory. Practitioners have described numbers being reclaimed for insufficient use even without cancelling — one wrote that they wished incoming calls counted as "use", because the provider discontinued the number anyway. Another cancelled a service that had not worked out and was left holding cards printed with a number she no longer controlled.

So the plan is: keep the line alive, make it say the right thing for the length of the leave, and take it off your own phone so it is not quietly working you.

If money is the problem, ask about a reduced plan rather than cancelling. That is a conversation worth having with any provider — and how they answer it tells you something about them.

What the line should do while you're away

Say the dates. A greeting and an automatic reply that both name when you stopped and roughly when you expect to be back. "Currently on leave" ages badly; a month named in the message does not.

Send urgent things somewhere. Name them specifically. Two 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). Add whichever local service you would refer to yourself.

Handle new inquiries honestly. Either invite them to leave a message and say when they will hear back, or point them somewhere else. Both are respectable. A line that takes a message and never responds is the only bad option.

Come off your own phone. Notifications off, or the line removed from your device altogether. This is the mechanism that makes the leave real; everything above it is communication.

What to tell clients

The same content as for a holiday, further in advance, and with one extra decision made explicitly: are they waiting for you, or are they being referred on?

Say which, plainly, and say it early enough that it can be worked with clinically rather than delivered as logistics in the last session. For some clients an extended break is straightforward. For others it is the material, and it needs several sessions rather than a note.

Put it in writing too — the dates, what happens to the line, who to contact, and whether their slot is held. A message they can find again in month four is worth more than a conversation they had in month zero.

If you are referring people on, be clear about whether the door is open on your return. Practitioners often leave this vague out of kindness and it produces exactly the uncertainty they were trying to avoid.

The people you haven't met yet

Someone will find your listing in month three and call. This is the argument for keeping the line answering rather than dark.

A greeting stating a return month converts that caller into someone who might come back, instead of someone who concluded the practice had closed. It costs nothing beyond keeping the subscription alive, and it is most of the reason the subscription is worth keeping.

If you would rather not accumulate a backlog, the greeting can say so and refer them elsewhere. That still leaves a professional impression, which the silent version does not.

What has to keep running regardless

A leave does not pause everything.

Your record-keeping obligations continue, and so does the requirement that records stay retrievable and secure while you are away. What the Colleges publish is about planning rather than about leave as such. Registered psychotherapists "have a contingency plan in place to promote continuity of care in the event of an unexpected interruption to their practice", and the plan is expected to include "backup and storage of contact lists and, where possible, client records, directions for contacting clients or their authorized representatives, and contact information for alternative service providers" (CRPO 6.4.2 and commentary).

For social workers and social service workers the published duty is about notice: anyone anticipating "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 3.12).

A leave you announced months ahead is not the situation either of those was written for. They are written for the version nobody announces.

Practically: whatever system holds your records has to stay paid, and you have to still be able to get into it. That is not a good subscription to let lapse on a missed card either.

Insurance is the one people assume they can pause. Asked directly whether a registrant who is not currently practising still needs professional liability insurance, Ontario's psychotherapy College answers: "Yes, CRPO's by-laws require that you have PLI, regardless of whether you are practising" (CRPO). Registrants who move to the inactive category are pointed at run-off coverage instead, for a minimum of two years after they last practised.

If you are in another profession or another province, ask your own College and your insurer before you cancel anything. It is a cheap question with an expensive wrong answer.

The arithmetic, honestly

Keeping a practice line and a records system alive through a long leave is a real cost against zero revenue, and it is fair to look at it hard.

The comparison to make is not "subscription versus nothing". It is "subscription versus rebuilding". Rebuilding means a new number, updating every listing and every printed thing, telling every past client and referral source, and accepting that whoever calls the old number in the meantime reaches a stranger. Against that, several months of a subscription is usually the cheaper side of the ledger.

Ask about pausing or downgrading before you decide. If a provider will not offer anything, that is useful information about what leaving them would look like too.

Coming back

Change the greeting and the auto-reply the day you reopen, not the week after. A greeting still announcing a leave is the most expensive thing on your practice.

Re-announce. People who paused with you need telling that you are back, in writing, with the date and the number. Do not assume they are watching.

Tell the referral sources. They are the ones who quietly stopped sending people and will not restart without being told.

Turn the line back on your own phone last, and deliberately, with whatever hours you actually want now — not the ones you had before.

The short version

Do not cancel the number. Keep the line alive, make it state the dates and where to go in a crisis, and take it off your own phone. Tell clients early and in writing whether they are waiting or being referred on. Keep the records system paid and accessible, because those obligations do not go on leave with you. Then change the greeting back on day one.

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.

See what's included · Start the trial