I’m converting my after-school appointments to 30-minute sessions starting in 2026. I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while as I’ve seen my waiting list for after-school appointments climb to 50 families while my during-school list has remained at 5. I decided to go for it when my student loan payments skyrocketed from $30/month to $350/month (a month after the premiums for my bronze-level healthcare plan would have increased from $200/month to $500/month if New Mexico hadn’t enacted their own subsidies).
For most of the kids I see this means we’ll have the same amount of time to get our work done, but they’ll have less “choose time”/reward time once our work is completed. I’ll keep an eye out for ways to help the kids acclimate to this change and my highest priority is maintaining treatment quality. I also need to work on being less chatty with parents!
My appointments at/before 2:00 will remain 45 minutes long.
Treatment in the community and in clients’ homes will also cease in 2026 due to concerns about liability, safety, health, budgeting, and scheduling. Beginning in the new year all appointments will be provided either from my office or via telehealth.
Between both of these changes I’ll have several openings on 2026!