Managing Your Schedule and Availability on Mind a Porter

This guide explains how availability works on Mind a Porter, where you can change it, and what clients can actually book.

Where to change your availability

There are two main places therapists may update availability:

During onboarding

When you first join the platform, you can set your regular working days and hours in the Availability step of onboarding.

In your therapist dashboard

After onboarding, go to your Therapist Dashboard and open Availability / My Schedule to update your live working hours.

This is where you can usually:

• turn days on or off
• set your start and end times
• choose online, in-person, or both
• set your gap between sessions
• add blocked periods or breaks
• save changes to your live bookable schedule

If you need to stop bookings for holidays, leave, or one-off unavailability, use your calendar blocks / time-off area as well.

How the system works

Your visible availability is not just your working hours. The platform builds bookable slots using:

• your weekly availability
• your one-time availability (specific dates)
• your session duration
• any gap between sessions
• any blocked periods / breaks
• existing bookings
• any active calendar blocks or time-off

Think of availability in layers:

1. Weekly availability sets your working window

This is the broad time range when you are open to work.

Example:

• Monday: 09:00–17:00
• Wednesday: 10:00–18:00
• Friday: 09:00–14:00

If a day is turned off, clients cannot book on that day.

2. Session duration determines the size of each bookable slot

The platform uses your session length to decide how long each appointment should be.

Example:

• 50-minute sessions create 50-minute bookable appointments
• 60-minute sessions create 60-minute bookable appointments

3. Gap between sessions is added automatically

A gap between sessions is automatic time after each appointment. Use this for notes, transitions, a short reset, or to avoid back-to-back bookings.

Example:

• Working hours: 09:00–17:00
• Session length: 50 minutes
• Gap between sessions: 10 minutes

Possible bookable pattern:

• 09:00 session
• 10:00 session
• 11:00 session

In this example, the client books the session start time, and the platform keeps the 10-minute gap hidden in between.

4. Blocked periods remove time manually

A blocked period is time you do not want to make bookable. Use blocked periods for:

• lunch
• admin work
• supervision
• personal appointments
• teaching / training

Example:

• Working hours: 09:00–17:00
• Blocked period: 12:00–13:00

Clients will not see slots that overlap with 12:00–13:00.

5. Existing bookings remove overlapping slots

Once a client books a time, that slot is no longer available to others. If the booking also creates a gap afterwards, the affected time is also protected.

6. Calendar blocks and time-off can also make time unavailable

If you create time-off blocks or holiday blocks, those periods are removed from your bookable schedule so clients cannot book during them.

What clients actually see

Clients do not see your full working window. They only see the final set of bookable start times left after the platform applies all rules.

So even if you work 09:00–17:00, clients may only see:

• 09:00
• 10:00
• 11:00
• 13:00
• 14:00
• 15:00

That is normal. It simply means the platform has already accounted for session length, gaps, blocked periods, or existing bookings.

How to set weekly availability

In your therapist dashboard:

1. Open My Schedule or Availability
2. Turn on the days you want to work
3. Set your start and end times
4. Choose whether that day is for online, in-person, or both
5. Set your gap between sessions
6. Add any blocked periods you want to protect
7. Save changes

If you are still in setup, you can do the same in the Availability step during onboarding.

How to add one-time availability (specific dates)

Not every therapist works a fixed weekly pattern. If you offer sessions on a specific date — for example, one Saturday a month, or a one-off clinic day — you can add a one-time availability slot without setting up a recurring weekly schedule.

This is ideal for:

• psychiatrists or specialists who offer occasional slots
• clinicians who work one Saturday per month
• covering a one-off clinic day or extended hours on a single date

How to add a one-time slot

In your therapist dashboard:

1. Open My Schedule or Availability
2. Scroll to the One-Time Availability section (below the weekly grid)
3. Select the date you want to offer
4. Set your start and end times
5. Choose the session format (in-person, online, or both)
6. Set the session duration
7. Click Add One-Time Slot

The slot appears immediately on your public profile and in the booking flow for that specific date only. It does not repeat.

How clients see it

Clients selecting that date will see the one-time slot alongside any weekly availability you have set. If you have no weekly availability on that day, clients will see only the one-time slot.

Removing a one-time slot

Each one-time slot has a delete button. Removing it does not affect your weekly schedule. Past dates are shown greyed out and can be cleaned up at any time.

Gap between sessions vs blocked periods

These are different tools and they serve different purposes.

Gap between sessions

Use this when you want the same automatic gap after every appointment.

Best for:

• completing admin after every session
• having a short breather between clients
• avoiding back-to-back sessions all day

Blocked periods

Use these when you want to hide specific times only.

Best for:

• lunch from 12:00–13:00
• school pickup from 15:00–15:30
• supervision every Thursday at 16:00
• admin time on Friday mornings

A simple rule:

• use gap between sessions for repeated automatic spacing
• use blocked periods for fixed chunks of time

Examples

Example A: Standard clinic day

• Availability: 09:00–17:00
• Session length: 50 minutes
• Gap between sessions: 10 minutes
• No blocked periods

Clients may see a clean sequence of evenly spaced start times through the day.

Example B: Lunch break included

• Availability: 09:00–17:00
• Session length: 50 minutes
• Gap between sessions: 10 minutes
• Blocked period: 12:00–13:00

Clients will see morning and afternoon slots, but nothing that overlaps lunch.

Example C: Admin time protected

• Availability: 10:00–18:00
• Session length: 60 minutes
• Gap between sessions: 0 minutes
• Blocked periods: 13:00–14:00 and 16:00–16:30

Clients can only book around those blocked times.

Online, in-person, and both

For each day, you can control whether you are available for:

• online only
• in-person only
• both

This helps ensure clients only see formats you actually offer on that day.

Example:

• Tuesday may be online only
• Thursday may be in-person only
• Friday may be both

Holidays, leave, and one-off unavailability

If you are away or unavailable, create a time-off or calendar block. This is the best way to stop bookings during:

• annual leave
• sick days
• training days
• conferences
• one-off personal commitments

For longer periods away, create the block as soon as you know your dates.

Exporting your Mind a Porter appointments to an external calendar

Mind a Porter does not synchronise bidirectionally with external calendars (Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, etc.), and there is no automatic two-way sync or Google Calendar integration on the platform.

The only calendar-related feature available is one-way export: you can download an individual Mind a Porter appointment as an .ics file and import it into your external calendar manually.

How it works

• Open the appointment in your Therapist Dashboard
• Use the Add to calendar / Download .ics option to save the file
• Open the downloaded file, or import it into your external calendar (Google Calendar, Outlook, Apple Calendar, etc.)

This adds that single appointment to your external calendar as a one-off event. It does not subscribe your external calendar to Mind a Porter, and changes made in Mind a Porter after the export are not reflected in your external calendar automatically.

Why Mind a Porter does not import or sync external calendars

This is a deliberate privacy choice. In line with the privacy by design and data minimisation principles of the GDPR, Mind a Porter does not import, read, or process the contents of therapists' external calendars. We have no control over what professionals record in their personal calendars, which may include health information or other special-category data under Article 9 of the GDPR. To avoid acquiring or processing such data through third-party calendars, the platform only exports Mind a Porter appointments outwards and never imports external events inwards.

Best practices

• Keep your weekly hours realistic
• Add a gap between sessions if you need reset time or note-taking time
• Use blocked periods for lunch, admin, supervision, and recurring personal commitments
• Add holiday or time-off blocks early
• Review your schedule every week
• Make sure your timezone and working pattern are accurate

Common questions

Why does my client not see every hour inside my working day?

Because the platform is applying your session length, gap between sessions, blocked periods, and existing bookings.

Why does a slot disappear after one booking?

Because that time is now occupied, and any protected gap after it may also affect nearby availability.

Should I use a gap between sessions or a blocked period?

Use a gap between sessions for automatic spacing after every appointment. Use a blocked period for specific chunks of time like lunch or admin.

Can I sync my Google Calendar or other external calendar with Mind a Porter?

No. Mind a Porter does not offer two-way calendar synchronisation or a Google Calendar integration. You can only export individual Mind a Porter appointments as .ics files and import them manually into your external calendar. See Exporting your Mind a Porter appointments to an external calendar above for the privacy reasons behind this choice.

Why am I showing as unavailable when I expected to be free?

Check:

• the day is turned on
• your start/end times are correct
• your session format is correct
• you have no blocked periods overlapping that time
• you have no existing booking affecting it

Troubleshooting checklist

If something looks wrong:

1. Check the day is enabled
2. Check your start and end times
3. Check your session format for that day
4. Check your gap between sessions
5. Check blocked periods / breaks
6. Check holiday or time-off blocks
7. Check whether an existing booking is already using the slot

Related articles

• Mark holidays and out‑of‑office time
• Understanding invoices and payment history
• Payment timing and scheduling