Answering Service for Therapists

When you are in session, between clients, or away for the evening, your practice line usually goes to voicemail. AllDayDesk covers those gaps. You save your practice's information once: hours, address, parking notes, fees, insurance and payment questions you want answered, and what to say about scheduling. The AI uses those saved details to answer calls.

Setup starts by choosing your business or entering your website, checking the details it found, and listening to a personalized sample call. The sample is a demonstration only and does not create a real booking. When you are happy with it, you choose your phone setup. You keep your public number; you simply forward calls to AllDayDesk, and the exact steps depend on your phone service.

Everything the AI does is visible in your dashboard: the call, a transcript, a summary, and any appointment booked. You review messages and bookings on your own schedule.

• Answers questions from your saved practice details, such as hours, location, and fees
• Takes a message with the caller's name, callback number, and reason for calling
• Books new appointments once you have configured your services and availability
• Transfers calls to you when you have set up a transfer destination and rules; pickup is not guaranteed
• When it does not know an answer, a price, or an opening, it takes a message instead of guessing

Honesty matters in mental health, so here are the limits in plain terms. AllDayDesk is not HIPAA certified. It is a business phone tool, not a covered compliance program, and you should evaluate how it fits your own privacy obligations before forwarding calls. We do not claim any compliance certifications.

It does not provide medical advice, symptom triage, or crisis support. It will not assess whether a caller is in danger or route emergencies. A caller in distress is treated like any other caller: the AI takes a message for you or transfers the call if you have configured a transfer destination and rules. Neither pickup nor an immediate response is guaranteed, so your voicemail greeting and website should point people in crisis to 911 or 988.

It also does not connect to electronic health records, practice management software, or industry scheduling tools. The only external calendar it supports is an optional Google Calendar connection, which you set up and authorize yourself in Settings after your account is working. By default, new appointments go to the built-in AllDayDesk dashboard calendar. Changes to existing appointments are passed to you as requests; the AI does not confirm reschedules or cancellations on its own.

• Not HIPAA certified, and no compliance certifications are claimed
• No medical advice, symptom triage, or crisis intervention
• No EHR, practice management, or industry software connections
• Google Calendar is the only optional external calendar connection, configured by you in Settings
• Existing-appointment changes are requests for you, not confirmed changes

A therapy practice's phone rings with a predictable mix, and it helps to decide in advance which ones the AI should handle fully and which should become messages for you:

New-client inquiries usually want to know whether you take their insurance, what you charge, whether you have openings, and what your specialties are. AllDayDesk answers the questions you have saved, and books new appointments into your calendar once services and availability are configured. If a caller asks something you have not saved, it takes a message rather than improvising.

Existing clients call to reschedule or ask about billing. Reschedule and cancellation requests are captured and passed to you as requests, since the AI does not change confirmed appointments. Billing questions are answered only from what you have saved; anything beyond that becomes a message.

After-hours and between-session calls are where forwarding helps most. Instead of voicemail, callers reach an assistant that knows your practice and can capture the details you need to call back.

• New-client questions answered from your saved details
• New appointments booked into your configured calendar
• Reschedule and cancellation requests collected for your review
• Unknown answers, prices, or openings become messages
• After-hours callers get your saved information instead of a bare voicemail

You do not need a new phone number. You forward your existing practice line to AllDayDesk, and the steps depend on who provides your phone service. If you use a mobile carrier, forwarding is usually done with short codes dialed from the phone itself. For example, Verizon mobile uses *72 plus the destination for all-call forwarding and *73 to turn it off, while T-Mobile uses codes like **21*1 followed by the destination and # for unconditional forwarding.

Landline and business VoIP providers differ. Verizon business landline uses *72 and *73 from the line. Optimum Business Phone uses *72 with a confirmation step and *73 to disable. Spectrum Business Voice manages forwarding through its web portal rather than star codes, and Vonage Business Communications enables forwarding to a phone number from its Call Forwarding settings. Identify your exact product first, because codes for one product often do not work on another from the same company.

One important exception: Google Voice does not support forwarding calls from a Google Voice number to an automated system, so a Google Voice line is not a workable path to AllDayDesk. If you are unsure which type of forwarding fits your practice, all-call forwarding sends every call to the AI, while conditional forwarding (busy or no-answer) keeps you as the first answer and uses AllDayDesk as backup.

• Keep your existing public number and forward calls to AllDayDesk
• Mobile carriers typically use short codes dialed from the phone
• Business VoIP and landline products vary: some use codes, some use a portal
• Google Voice to an automated system is unsupported by Google
• Choose all-call or conditional forwarding based on whether you answer first

Before picking any service, human or AI, decide what you need covered. If you are a solo practitioner who only wants after-hours messages, a simple setup may be enough. If you want new-client booking while you are in session, check that the service can book into a calendar you actually use, and ask what happens when a caller asks something the service cannot answer.

For a therapy practice specifically, ask three questions of any provider. First, what does the service do with a caller in distress, and can it be configured to transfer or message rather than engage? Second, what are its privacy practices, and does it claim any certifications? AllDayDesk is not HIPAA certified, and we state that plainly so you can make your own judgment. Third, what does it cost when call volume is low, as it often is for a solo practice?

Human answering services exist too, and they handle judgment-heavy calls differently. Published starting prices for human services tend to run higher; for example, Ruby advertises plans starting at $245 per month as of October 2026, though starting prices alone do not show included minutes or overage rates. AllDayDesk is this site's own product, and any comparison here reflects documented features, not hands-on testing of competitors.

• Decide what to cover: after-hours only, overflow, or all calls
• Ask how distressed callers are handled and whether transfers are configurable
• Ask about privacy practices and any claimed certifications
• Compare included minutes and overage rates, not just starting prices
• Confirm calendar support: AllDayDesk supports its built-in calendar and optional Google Calendar