You are unreachable for fifty minutes of every hour
A therapy practice has the worst phone problem in healthcare and the least capacity to fix it: the clinician is in session almost all day, the person calling has usually spent weeks working up to it, and the callback goes out four hours later to somebody who has changed their mind. Vandial answers, books the intake, and gets a crisis to a hotline in seconds.
From $99 a month · Robocalls are never billed
Incoming callTomasz Wierzbicki“I'm looking for a therapist. I've never done this before.”
Booked: intake Tue 6pm, sliding scale noted, insurance to verify
- 50 minutes
- of every hour a clinician is unreachable, which is when intake calls arrive
- 988, first
- A crisis call gets the hotline before anything else is asked
- No confirmation
- It will not confirm that anyone is a client, to anyone, ever
This is what your callers hear
The same receptionist a therapy practice gets, answering as the trades we already run. Yours is in the middle — press play.
One therapy practices call, and what it left behind
Answered on the second ring. Every field below was captured during the call — nobody typed it in afterwards.
“I'm looking for a therapist. I've never done this before.”
Classified: new intake · self-referral · non-crisis0:17
Captured: anxiety · self-pay fallback · sliding scale flagged · insurance to verify0:56
Booked: Tue 18:00 intake · intake forms sent · no reminder to work number1:04
Booked: intake Tue 6pm, sliding scale noted, insurance to verify
Read the whole therapy practices call, line by line
- 0:03Tomasz Wierzbicki: I'm looking for a therapist. I've never done this before.
- 0:07Vandial: I'm glad you called. Are you looking for yourself, and is this something we can book you in for?
- 0:15Tomasz Wierzbicki: Myself. It's anxiety mostly. Work stuff.
- 0:17Classified: new intake · self-referral · non-crisis
- 0:24Vandial: We can help with that. Would you be using insurance, or paying privately?
- 0:33Tomasz Wierzbicki: I've got insurance but I don't know if it covers this. It's tight either way.
- 0:39Vandial: We can check the insurance before your first session, and there's a sliding scale if it doesn't cover it. Evenings or daytime better?
- 0:56Captured: anxiety · self-pay fallback · sliding scale flagged · insurance to verify
- 1:04Booked: Tue 18:00 intake · intake forms sent · no reminder to work number
Answered, understood, booked
One number, picked up on the second ring — at 2am, on a Sunday, while you're already working. By the time the caller hangs up, it is in your calendar.
It answers
The intake call is answered while the clinician is in session, by something that knows your fee, your sliding scale and whether you are taking new clients.
- 0:00Incoming call
- 0:02Answered by Vandial2 rings
- 0:05“Hello, Marlow Plumbing.”
It understands
It establishes what they are looking for, insurance or private pay, availability, and whether it is safe to text, and any sign of risk stops the call and produces a crisis number instead.
- Job
- Water heater — leaking
- Where
- 14 Marlow Street
- Access
- Side gate, dog in yard
- Urgency
- Today if possible
- Still on
It books
The intake is booked into the right clinician's calendar with the forms sent, and the reminder goes only to a number the caller confirmed was safe to use.
Text to Dave · 13:01
You’re booked for today, 1–2pm. Reply R to move it.
It asks what you would ask
These are the questions the agent runs for therapists, and the operational reason each one exists. Change them, add your own, or take them out — they are configuration, not code.
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.
More than a answering service for therapists
An answering service takes a message and charges you for it. Vandial knows your prices, your patch and your diary — so it books the job, or puts a real emergency straight through to you.
It picks up out of hours, and while your line is busy
The person calling a therapist for the first time has usually spent weeks getting to the point of dialling. A voicemail at that moment does not produce a callback; it produces someone who decides they will do it another time.
It knows your prices, your patch and your hours
Cancellations get filled. A slot that opens on Tuesday morning is worth nothing by Tuesday afternoon, and working a waitlist is exactly the kind of task a practice never has time for.
What it knows
Intake session
50 min
Sliding scale
Available, means-tested
Telehealth
In-state only
Crisis
988 immediately
What matters reaches you. The rest waits
The crisis path is the fastest thing on the page, and it runs before the agent asks anything else. Nobody in distress is asked about insurance.
Your rule: if they say gas, flood or no heat — ring Sam, then me.
Every call written up, tagged and searchable
Confidentiality is enforced by having no path to a disclosure at all, rather than by a policy somebody has to remember at seven in the evening.
Dave Whitfield · Sunday, 4m 12s
Water heater, leaking
Leaking from the base. Booked for Tuesday 1–2pm. Side gate open, dog in the yard. Asked whether the service call fee applies — told $99, waived on repair.
January, September, and every Sunday night
Intake demand is seasonal in a way that maps onto how people's lives restart: January, and the first weeks of September. Underneath that is a weekly pattern nobody staffs for. Enquiries cluster on Sunday evenings and Monday mornings, because that is when the coming week becomes real. Both peaks are made of people who have finally decided to call, and both arrive when the practice is closed.
When it happens · January, early September, Sunday evenings
A normal month, then a surge month
- Billed per minute
- Your baselineTriples with the calls
- The bill peaks in the same week your phone does.
- Billed per call, like a human service
- Per call, every callEvery extra call, billed
- Including the robocalls and the wrong numbers.
- Vandial
- From $99 a monthThe same
- Call flows are unlimited on every paid rung, and there is no per-minute billing. The rungs differ only in how many unique customers you answer for — and a surge is mostly more calls from the same people.
Robocalls and sales calls are identified and zero-rated on every plan. They never count toward your included customers and never create a customer record.
What it will never do
You are handing your phone to something that talks to your customers when you are not there. These are the lines it does not cross in therapy practices, and the 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 job lands where you already work
Google, Outlook, Apple, Exchange, CalDAV — whichever calendar you already keep. Then your payments, your CRM, and whatever you automate with.
…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 therapists say before they say yes
Three objections, in the words they are usually put in. Where the objection is right, it says so.
“Somebody in distress should not reach an automated system.”
They should not reach a voicemail either, and today that is what a great many of them get at seven on a Sunday evening. The crisis path here is the shortest one in the product: any mention of risk stops the conversation and produces a hotline number in seconds, which is faster than a callback and faster than a human operator working through a script.
“Our clients would be uncomfortable knowing it was software.”
Some would, and it never pretends otherwise. It is also worth being honest about what it is replacing. For most practices that is a machine already, and one that does not answer, does not book and does not tell anybody about 988.
“Everything about this is confidential. That's the whole practice.”
Which is why it discloses nothing, to anybody, including people who plainly know the client. On the point that matters most here, Vandial makes no compliance claim at all. There is no HIPAA certification and no BAA on offer, and any vendor in this category who tells you otherwise should be asked to show you the agreement.
Therapy practices questions, answered
What therapists ask before handing over their phone number — and what a answering service for therapists can and cannot do for you.
What happens if somebody in crisis calls?
Everything else stops. Any mention of suicide, self-harm, harm to another or immediate danger produces 988 or your configured protocol straight away, the agent stays with the caller, and it escalates. No booking, no screening question, no insurance detail.
Is Vandial HIPAA compliant?
No, and we will not tell you otherwise. There is no certification and no BAA on offer. What the product does is refuse to disclose anything: it will not confirm a person is a client, to anyone. It is worth deciding for your own practice whether that is sufficient. Several vendors on this search result imply more than they hold.
Will it give a diagnosis or advice?
No. It does not name conditions, comment on medication or say whether a modality suits a problem. It books an appointment with someone qualified to do that.
Can it fill cancellations?
Yes, from your waitlist, which is where most of its value is in a full practice. A slot that opens on Tuesday morning and stays open is an hour of revenue that cannot be recovered.
Does it handle insurance verification?
It captures the insurer and the plan and flags what needs checking. It does not tell a caller they are covered, because a wrong answer there is a first session somebody is unexpectedly billed for.
Can I control what gets texted?
Yes, and it asks the caller before anything goes out. Whether it is safe to text, whether a message can be left, and which number to use are captured on the intake call rather than assumed from caller ID.
Already decided you want AI to answer it?
Then the question is which one, and that is a different page: what a generic AI receptionist gets wrong on a therapy practices call, and what is configurable about this one.
Not your trade?
The agent's questions, urgency rules, escalations and vocabulary are all configuration. Nothing about a trade is hard-coded, which is why there are 31 of these and not one.