How to Schedule Group Therapy Sessions Without the Admin Nightmare

TL;DR

• The Challenge: Managing seat limits and payments for 8+ people manually is a nightmare.
• The Fix: Use "Multi-Seat" slots with a hard cap (e.g., Max 8).
• Scarcity: Display "3 spots left!" on your booking page.
• Payment: Require upfront payment to prevent last-minute flaking.

Group therapy is a fantastic business model. You help more people at a lower cost per head, while maximizing your hourly revenue.

But scheduling a group is chaos.

• "Are there spots left?"
• "Can I pay later?"
• "I forgot the zoom link."

You need a system that handles Multi-Seat Bookings.

The Logistics of Group Scheduling

Unlike 1:1 sessions, a group session has a Capacity Cap. Once 8 people sign up, the door must close automatically.

Manual Way: Email back and forth. Update a spreadsheet. Manually invoice via PayPal. Result: You overbook or underbook because you didn't reply fast enough.

Automated Way (OnlyCaly):

1. Create a Service called "Anxiety Support Group".
2. Set Max Participants per Slot to 8.
3. Set Price to $50/person.
4. Publish the link.

Key Features to Look For

1. The "Seats Left" Counter

Your booking page should show "3 spots remaining". This creates scarcity (good for conversion) and clarity.

2. Upfront Payment

Always charge for groups upfront.

• Groups rely on cohesion. If 3 people flake because they didn't pay, the group dynamic suffers.
• OnlyCaly integrates with Stripe to require payment at booking.

3. Unified Reminders

You want to send one reminder to all 8 participants, but addressed personally ("Hi Sarah", "Hi Mike"). A dedicated scheduler handles this via "Merge Tags" in the email template.

Setting Up a "Waitlist" Workaround

If your group is full, you don't want to lose potential leads.

• Strategy: Add a question to your contact form: "The group is full. Add me to the waiting list for next month."
• Manually email this list first before opening public bookings for the next cohort.

Common Group Mistakes

1. Pay-Later: People sign up aspirationaly but don't show up. Charge them.
2. Reply-All Disaster: CCing everyone on the welcome email. Use BCC to protect anonymity.
3. No "Session Zero": Not screening group members separately before the first group calls.

Managing Group Privacy

Ensure your calendar invite doesn't reveal everyone's email addresses to each other!

• OnlyCaly sends individual invites.
• If you use a generic text blast, use BCC. Never CC.

---

Scale Your Impact Ready to launch your group? OnlyCaly handles the headcount, payments, and reminders so you can focus on facilitation.