1. Cancellation fees mean we can stay in business. Like all businesses, we have costs to cover that do not disappear because someone has not attended an appointment. As a health practice, our biggest expense is wages - paying our clinical and admin teams for their time, and labour (as well as their superannuation, annual leave, sick leave, etc). Our team members enjoy being able to pay their rent, mortgage, bills, groceries, and other life expenses just as much as everyone else  - they still need to get paid, even if no one shows up. We haven't yet asked our psychologists, occupational therapists or admin team to take a pay cut if their clients haven't attended an appointment, and we don't think it would be neuroaffirming to our team to ask them to do so. How do we pay our clinical and admin teams? Through appointment fees! We're a small business - we don't receive any government dollarbucks; we only survive if we can pay our wages and other business expenses. The reality is that we need to bring in appointment fees, or cancellation fees, to stay in business.

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2. Cancellation fees mean more appointments attended. Enforcing our cancellation policy means that clients are more likely to attend their appointments, and appointments are less likely to go to waste. A late cancellation affects three people - your clinician who has spent time preparing for your session, other clients on the wait list who are in need of an appointment, as well as you from missing out on the chance to connect with your clinician. Appointments​ cancelled at late notice mean it is harder for our admin team to fill those appointments - that our equally-deserving clients on the waitlist else could have booked if there had been more notice. 

3. A no-exceptions cancellation fee policy makes it fair for all our clients. By charging cancellation fees for all late-cancelled or no-show appointments, our admin team are not put in the position of judging who has more valid or less valid reasons for not attending their appointment. Charging cancellation fees to all clients regardless of the reason means that it is fair for all clients, especially for our clients who are less able to argue their way out of paying cancellation fees, whether by disability, literacy, education, or just through being decent people.
(Fun fact! Did you know that the clients who are most likely to get upset about having to pay cancellation fees are other health professionals?)

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4. Clients are well-informed and consent to paying a cancellation fee when they use our services. Our cancellation fees are not a secret, hidden charge - we are very upfront about them. We give our clients multiple methods to cancel appointments without incurring a cancellation fee - you can cancel via email, SMS, or through the 'cancel appointment' link on the appointment confirmation email. We remind all our clients of our cancellation policy when appointments are booked and changed and then send additional reminders via email and SMS before the appointment. In fact, if you have already signed our consent form, which is attached to all our intake forms, you have already consented to us charging you a cancellation fee if you cancel with less than 48 hours' notice. Our services are voluntary, and people only attend our appointments if they consent to our business terms and conditions. However, you don't need to consent to our business terms and conditions if you don't wish to do so; you are welcome to choose a business whose terms and conditions align with your own values.