Healthcare · Waitlist open
Therapist answering service with a crisis protocol built in
Short answer
A therapist answering service picks up your practice’s calls while you’re in session: it books first appointments, moves sessions and takes messages, and the moment a caller shows any sign of crisis it stops and gives 911 and 988. Ours is 100% AI, says so in its greeting and never counsels, assesses or asks why someone is seeking therapy. You get a summary of every call, and a flagged call reaches your on-call clinician by the channel you choose.
This is a phone-answering service for medical offices. It doesn’t give medical advice, and callers with an emergency are told to hang up and call 911. If you are in crisis right now: call or text 988, or call 911 if you or someone else is in immediate danger. En español: llame al 988 y presione 2, o envíe AYUDA al 988.
No payment needed to join the waitlist.
Example call: booking a first appointment
Northwoods Therapy Collective · Booking a first appointment
- AI
- Northwoods Therapy Collective, this is AI Receptionist, the practice’s AI assistant. How can I help?
- Caller
- I’d like to set up a first appointment.
- AI
- Of course. Would you like to meet in person or by video?
- Caller
- Video, in the evening if possible.
- AI
- There’s an opening Tuesday at 6 p.m. Can I have your name and number?
- Caller
- Noor Thurston, 555-0121.
- AI
- Thanks, Noor. You’re booked for Tuesday at 6 p.m. by video. The practice will be in touch about intake forms before your appointment.
Summary sent to you
- New client
- Noor Thurston, 555-0121.
- Booked
- first appointment, by video, Tuesday at 6 p.m.
- To do
- send intake forms; no other details taken.
When therapy practice calls come at the wrong time
It’s 2:10 on a Wednesday at a group practice in Duluth. All four clinicians are in back-to-back sessions, phones silenced, and there’s no front desk. Someone who has meant to call for months finally dials between meetings at work. It goes to voicemail, she hangs up, and she doesn’t try again that week. A current client calling to move Friday’s session gets the same recording. At 4:50, a clinician walks out to six voicemails, three with no number left.
How the call goes
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Answer as your practice
The caller hears your practice name and that they’re speaking with an AI assistant.
The AI says: “Northwoods Therapy Collective, this is AI Receptionist, the practice’s AI assistant. How can I help?”
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Listen for any sign of crisis, the whole call
If a caller says anything that suggests they may harm themselves or someone else, or that they’re in danger, the routine questions stop and the fixed crisis protocol takes over: 911 for immediate danger, 988 to talk with someone now, your on-call clinician alerted, and the AI stays on the line. The full protocol is on our crisis call protocol for therapy practices.
The AI says: “If you’re in danger right now, please hang up and call 911. If you’d like to talk with someone now, call or text 988.”
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New or current client
Current clients are found by name and phone. New callers are welcomed without being asked why they’re calling.
The AI says: “Have you worked with someone at the practice before, or would this be your first appointment?”
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Only the details you need to book
The type of appointment (individual, couples, family; in person or by video), a clinician preference if they have one, and whether they’ll use insurance, noted for your team to verify. Nothing about symptoms, diagnosis or history.
The AI says: “Would you like to meet in person or by video?”
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Book, or leave it with the right clinician
It books first sessions only with the clinicians and slots you allow, confirming only once it’s saved. Everything else becomes a message for the client’s clinician.
The AI says: “I’ll pass this to your clinician so they can get back to you.”
What counts as urgent
On a therapy line, urgent means a possible crisis. Everything else is scheduling.
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Caller says they may harm themselves | Crisis message: 911 for immediate danger, 988 to talk now; on-call clinician alerted; the AI stays on the line |
| Caller says someone is in immediate danger | “Please hang up and call 911”; on-call clinician alerted |
| Caller is worried about a family member | Crisis message, including that 988 also helps people calling about someone else; on-call clinician alerted |
| A psychiatry patient asks about a medication | Message for the prescriber; no answer on the call, and 911 and 988 given if there’s any sign of crisis |
| New client asking for a first appointment | Booked with the clinicians and slots you allow |
| Current client moving or canceling a session | Moved in your calendar, or a message to their clinician |
What it never says on these calls
- Advice, coping techniques or any opinion on how serious things are.
- Questions about why someone wants therapy, their diagnosis or their history.
- Whether someone “needs” therapy, or which kind would suit them.
- That a specific clinician is taking new clients, unless your schedule says so.
- Anything about a client’s treatment, sessions or records.
What your practice decides
- Who’s on call for flagged calls, at which hours, with a backup, and how each is reached.
- The exact wording of the crisis message, in English and Spanish, within the fixed rules.
- Which clinicians take new clients and which first-appointment slots the AI can book.
- What it asks new callers, and which messages go to each clinician or to billing.
We set it up the way you want and you approve the final version.
Why this works for therapy practices
Our call protocols come from nearly two decades of running phone reception for small businesses. Two rules decide everything on a therapy line. It escalates real emergencies: 911 and 988 first, your clinician alerted, and it never hangs up on someone in crisis. It never promises what you don’t: no counseling, no assessment, no promise of a callback time. The rest is on our method, and how a call is passed to your clinician is on call transfer.
What it costs
Calls are billed per answered call, not per minute, so a call that needs the crisis message is never cut short to save time. There’s no contract. A practice’s rate is agreed only after we’ve reviewed the crisis protocol with you, when your turn on the waitlist comes; plans for other kinds of business are on pricing.
Questions therapists ask
What happens if a caller is in crisis?
The routine questions stop. The AI gives 911 for immediate danger and 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, to talk with someone now. It alerts your on-call clinician, puts the caller through only if they agree and you’ve set that up, and stays on the line. It isn’t a crisis line: it doesn’t place calls to 911 or 988 for anyone, and no system, human or AI, catches every crisis.
Is a therapist answering service run by AI safe for new clients?
For scheduling, yes, and that’s all an AI receptionist for therapists does here. It books first appointments without asking why someone is seeking help, and it never counsels. If anything in the call suggests a crisis, it stops and gives 911 and 988. Your own crisis plan stays in place; the AI is one more safety net, not the only one. Healthcare practices join through the waitlist for now, because a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) isn’t signed yet.
Does it work as a psychiatric answering service?
Yes, for the administrative side. It books evaluations and follow-ups and turns medication questions into messages for the prescriber, without answering them. If a caller mentions any sign of crisis, the same rule applies: 911 for immediate danger, 988 to talk now, and your on-call clinician alerted. Healthcare practices join through the waitlist for now, because a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) isn’t signed yet.
Can a solo psychologist use it?
Yes. A psychologist answering service for a solo practice usually means one calendar, one on-call person and a voicemail that never gets checked mid-day. The AI answers between sessions, books first appointments in the slots you allow and sends you a summary of each call, so nobody waits days for a callback. Healthcare practices join through the waitlist for now, because a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) isn’t signed yet.
How is this different from answering services for mental health practices with people?
An answering service for mental health professionals staffed by people can talk a caller through a hard moment; ours doesn’t, by design. It gives 911 and 988, alerts your clinician and handles the scheduling, on several calls at the same time, day and night. If you need a person on every call, a live service fits better. If you need every call answered and booked, ours does that.
Join the healthcare waitlist
Therapy, psychology and psychiatry practices join through our healthcare waitlist. Tell us in the form on this page how many clinicians you have and who covers on-call today; when we can set up your line, we review the crisis protocol with you and test it before it answers a real call. Other practices are on healthcare, and how setup works is on how it works.
Free to join · No commitment