Closed art therapy groups over several weeks

Let people book an information meeting or an individual pre-group interview online, then book the members you accept into every session of the cycle yourself. The group sessions themselves shouldn't be open for public booking: a closed group only works if the same people start and finish together. Set the capacity of each group slot to the number of members, so once they're all booked the sessions disappear from your page, and adjust the capacity if someone leaves.

People who want to join a group need to know what it involves, and you need to know whether the group is right for them. A short individual meeting before the cycle does both. Make it a service people can book online, with a clear description: dates of the cycle, theme, number of places, price and what the meeting is for.

Lengths and prices are examples: set your own. On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page, and each slot belongs to one service with its own start and end.

Book slots sit within one day, so a cycle is simply a series of weekly slots, one per session. Once every place in a session is booked, it's full and hidden from your public page. If a place is still free when you share your page, it will show; either finish booking members first, or lower the capacity to the number already accepted.

Group sessions take longer than individual ones: arrivals, a warm-up, creative time, a round of sharing, and a longer clean-up with several people's materials. Include your set-up and tidying time in the slot, or book your room for longer than the session itself. The room and table space also set the size of the group, as much as the clinical choice does.

Members sometimes stop before the end of a cycle. When that happens, cancel their remaining bookings from your list. Each cancellation frees a place, and since the group is closed, you don't want that place to appear online. Lower the capacity of the remaining group slots by one, so they stay full and hidden. Book lets you edit a slot's capacity at any time.

For a single missed session, keep the booking as it is; the member keeps their place and the group stays closed. Track attendance in your own records.

A cycle can have a theme, such as self-esteem, grief, or stress at work, and a clear end. Announce the next cycle in the pre-group meeting's description, with its dates, and open new pre-group slots a few weeks before it starts. Members who want to continue can book individual follow-up sessions, or join the next cycle after a new meeting with you.

If you cancel a session, cancel the bookings from your list and tell each member yourself: Book doesn't email clients about changes. Book doesn't take payments either, so say in the pre-group description how and when the cycle is paid. Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.