The first thing it has to know is when to stop being a receptionist
A therapy practice's phone carries two entirely different calls. One is administrative: availability, fees, whether you take a particular insurance, moving Thursday. The other is somebody in crisis, and for that call the only correct behaviour from software is to stop, say the crisis line number, and get out of the way.
From $99 a month · Robocalls are never billed
Incoming callWithheld“I don't really know why I'm calling. I'm not doing well at all.”
Crisis line given · Therapist alerted · No booking attempted
- Crisis first
- Any indication of risk ends the flow and gives the crisis line, immediately
- Never clinical
- It does not assess, counsel, reassure or ask a caller to explain how they feel
- $0
- billed for robocalls and sales calls, on every plan
The call this line cannot afford to get wrong
Every AI receptionist on this results page books appointments and speaks well. This is the therapy practices call where that stops being enough.
The caller says
“I'm not sure I can keep going like this.”
What a generic AI receptionist does
A general purpose AI receptionist is built to keep a conversation moving toward a booking, so it does. It offers sympathy in a synthetic voice, asks a follow up question about availability, and proposes a slot next Wednesday. Every second of that is a person in crisis being processed by a scheduling flow, and no amount of tuning the voice makes it acceptable.
What this one does
Risk indicators are a hard stop with a stated sentence. The agent gives the crisis line number your practice uses, says clearly that it is not a person and cannot help with this, alerts you under your rules, and does not attempt a booking, a follow up question, or a reassurance. Stopping is the correct output.
AI receptionist for therapists: what is actually configurable
Each of these is something the product does on a real call. Where it refuses to act, the refusal is the design rather than a limitation.
It answers the questions that stop people calling at all
Are you taking new clients, what do you charge, do you take this insurance, do you do evenings, is it in person or remote, how long is a session. Those are the questions that go unanswered on a voicemail and they are the reason a prospective client rings the next name on the directory.
It handles cancellations and your notice policy
Late cancellations are the economics of a private practice and the conversation nobody enjoys having. The agent states the policy you wrote, offers to move the session first, and records what happened, so the boundary is held without you having to hold it personally.
It never asks a caller to explain what is wrong
An intake call is not a clinical conversation and it should not be treated as a data gathering opportunity. It takes what is needed to book and nothing else, and it routes anything that is not administrative.
It protects your session time completely
You are unreachable for fifty minutes at a time, all day. That is the correct way to work and it is also why so many of these calls reach nothing. The line stays answered, and nothing interrupts a session.
What it asks on a therapy practices call
Not a name and a preferred time. Each of these has an operational reason behind it, and every one of them is yours to change.
“Is this for you, or for someone else?”
A parent calling about a teenager, a partner calling about a spouse, and a person calling for themselves are three different intakes with three different consent positions.
“Insurance or private pay?”
The single commonest reason an intake never becomes a first session. Establishing it on the call, and mentioning a sliding scale where one exists, stops the caller disappearing between booking and Tuesday.
“What are you hoping to work on?”
One sentence, in their words, to route to the right clinician. Not a history, not a symptom list, and never a follow-up question. The agent takes what is offered and stops.
“Daytime, evening, or weekend?”
Availability is the second commonest reason an intake fails. Most people who need evenings cannot do daytime at all, and finding out after booking wastes a slot somebody else wanted.
“Is it alright to text this number, and to leave a message?”
Asked before any confirmation goes out. A reminder text landing on a shared phone, or a voicemail on a work number, is a disclosure the caller did not agree to.
“In person, or telehealth?”
It decides the clinician, the slot length and whether the licence covers the state the caller is sitting in.
What it will never do on a therapy practices call
You are handing your phone to software that talks to your customers when you cannot. These are the lines it does not cross, and the exact words it uses instead.
A crisis call stops everything
Any mention of suicide, self-harm, harm to another person, or an immediate danger ends the intake conversation on the spot. The agent gives 988 or your configured crisis protocol, stays with the caller, and escalates. It does not take a booking, ask a screening question, or collect an insurance detail first.
What it actually says
“I want to make sure you're safe right now. Please call or text 988. They have someone available immediately. Can you do that while I stay with you?”
It gives no clinical opinion
It does not name a diagnosis, suggest what someone might have, comment on medication, or say whether a modality is right for a problem. It books an appointment with a person who is qualified to do all of that.
What it actually says
“That's really a conversation for the first session. I don't want to guess at something this important.”
It discloses nothing, to anyone
It will not confirm that a person is a client, that they have an appointment, or that they have ever called. Not to a spouse, a parent of an adult, an employer or an insurer. Confirming the relationship exists is itself the disclosure.
What it actually says
“I'm not able to confirm anything about who we see. If you'd like to book for yourself, I can do that now.”
The four things it answers from
Configuration rather than something a model has been asked to remember. Change one at eight in the evening and the next call uses the new value.
Intake session
50 min
Sliding scale
Available, means-tested
Telehealth
In-state only
Crisis
988 immediately
What therapists say before they say yes
In the words they are usually put in. Where the objection is right, it says so.
“I cannot have software answering these calls.”
The alternative today is voicemail, which answers them too and answers them worse. What is being proposed is narrow: fees, availability, insurance, scheduling, and an immediate stop with a crisis number when there is any indication of risk.
“Confidentiality is everything in my practice.”
It collects the minimum required to schedule, records under your retention settings, and is not used to train anything. It also never asks a caller to describe their situation, which is the most common way a phone line collects information it should not have.
“What if it gets the crisis call wrong?”
Then hear it first. Build the agent, set the crisis rules and the sentence, and talk to it in the browser on the free tier before any number points at it. This is the page on this site where testing before going live matters most.
It books into the calendar you already keep
Google, Outlook, Apple, Exchange, CalDAV. An AI receptionist that emails you a summary has built a nicer voicemail; this one creates the appointment and texts the caller.
…and a lot more besides
- Warm transfersWarm transfersAnnounced — who is calling and why, before you take the line.
- Spam never billedSpam never billedRobocalls are spotted, zero-rated, and never become a customer.
- A number per sourceA number per sourceVan, yard sign, Google listing — see which line brings the work.
- Team & on-callTeam & on-callTries you, then a second number, then whoever is on call.
- Run it by textRun it by textReply to a text to move a job, block a morning, clear a day.
- Clear a day, everyone toldClear a day, everyone toldCall off a wet Tuesday; every customer is told and re-offered.
- Never invents an answerNever invents an answerNo price or slot it was not given. It takes a message instead.
- Any trade, no codeAny trade, no codeGoal, questions and guardrails are settings, not a rebuild.
What happens if somebody is in crisis?
The flow stops. It gives the crisis line your practice uses, states plainly that it cannot help with this, and alerts you. No booking, no follow up question, no reassurance.
Does it ask callers about their situation?
No. It takes only what is needed to schedule and routes anything clinical. It does not gather a history.
Can it tell people your fees and insurances?
Yes, from your settings, along with availability, session length and whether you work remotely. Those are the questions that decide whether somebody calls back.
Will it hold my cancellation policy?
It states the policy in your words and offers a reschedule first, so the boundary is held consistently and without a difficult conversation.
What does it cost?
From $99 a month, flat, with unlimited call flows and a monthly talk time allowance. There is a free tier for building and testing the agent before it answers anything live.
Comparing against a human answering service instead?
That is a different question with a different answer, and it has its own page: the answering service for therapists, with a full therapy practices call played second by second.
Trades that answer the phone the same way
The same archetype, which is what the product actually branches on. Every trade has one of these pages.