Why the 50-Minute Hour Exists (And What Happens When You Go Over)

Learn why time boundaries matter in counselling. Practical guidance for CPCAB Level 2 students on establishing and maintaining therapeutic time limits.

If you're training at CPCAB Level 2, time boundaries will feel unnatural. Rigid. Even cold.

You're learning to end sessions at an agreed time, whether or not the conversation feels finished. In training, those sessions might be 15 minutes for practice. In qualified practice, they're typically 50 minutes (the "psychological hour"). Either way, the time is fixed.

This goes against everything you know about caring conversations. You don't tell a friend "you have five minutes" and then stop listening. So why does helping have to be so boundaried?

Let's explore why students question time limits, what those boundaries actually create in the therapeutic relationship, and what happens when they aren't clearly established.

Why Students Question Time Boundaries

It's Deeply Uncommon

The difficulty with holding time boundaries starts here: it's deeply uncommon to pretty much any or most aspects of our living lives.

You don't go into a call or conversation with someone saying "you have five minutes and then I'll stop listening to you." It's unnatural. You're unprepared for it.

When someone says "you've got two minutes," those two minutes often become more. You're not typically expecting to hold boundaries or put time constraints around conversations.

This is a different frame you're learning. Something uncommon, unusual in your life.

It's an important point: this is about something you're not used to. You have to learn to develop it. It's not something you naturally think "yes, we'll put some time around that and then maintain it."

It Feels Cold or Uncaring

Rigid time limits seem clinical. Transactional. Like you're prioritising your convenience over their needs.

The comparison to friendship is strong. Friends don't have time limits. Therapeutic work shouldn't either, right?

Students think: "Why can't we just go with the flow and see what happens? If someone needs more time, shouldn't I give it? What if they really need just 10 more minutes?"

The Anxiety About Being Inflexible

There's anxiety that strict time boundaries will make you seem inflexible or rule-bound. This feels especially hard when working with people in distress.

But this anxiety comes down to your own material. Being mindful of what that is. As we've explored in previous posts about your own stuff, it's about your perceived idea that when someone sets boundaries with you, you're seen as inflexible, maybe rude.

That speaks to how you've been treated when you've set boundaries. That's what's familiar for you as a helper. When you've said something, you've been perceived that way. This isn't to do with the helpee at this point. This is to do with your own experiences of your own boundaries being rejected or criticised.

But We're Not an Emergency Service

You have to remind yourself: you're not an emergency service. Yes, you hold distressing conversations. There are ways of ethically closing sessions in a timely manner without taking on responsibility of soothing someone out of distress.

You help them put their emotional skin back on. That's collaborative. But ultimately, the response sits with the other person and how they manage that time.

It's their distress. It's not yours.

What Time Boundaries Actually Create

Here's what students miss: time is not simply administrative. It's therapeutic.

No matter how long the session lasts, by containing it within time, you're saying: you have my focussed attention for that period on whatever you feel is important.

That doesn't mean you're going to answer your phone or get distracted. The invitation is to use that time, that focussed time, to focus on the critical key things.

It Galvanises Attention

Psychologically, if someone is told "you have 15 minutes to talk about something" or "50 minutes to talk about something," and you're clear about that, you're saying: this is the time to talk about it.

That galvanises their thinking. It focuses on the key elements they wish to discuss or bring up.

You're putting a boundary line around something that allows them to contain their thoughts and feelings on an experience they're going through and share that.

As time runs, as the session begins to end (however long it is), there's an invitation to the helpee to use that time, to be aware of that time, to actively engage with that time.

That galvanises the attention of the helpee onto the particular areas they wish to focus on rather than thinking it's going to be an outpouring.

We're Good at Avoiding What We Need to Talk About

If you begin to just create space to talk and listen, kind of let it flow, you'll be very good at moving away from the very thing you need to talk about.

You can divert yourself away. Get distracted. Have segues. Eat up any sense of time through other things rather than what you're there for.

You don't get to the heart of things.

Counselling is more than just a space to vent or rant. It's to actively work with the material being shared by the individual. To do so requires that time limit around it so there's focussed attention.

This isn't just a conversation. This is an act of engagement with material or issues the person is presenting. That requires the professional frame and approach and consideration as well.

This isn't just a chit chat. This is potentially a deeply focussed conversation.

It Sets Your Standard as a Practitioner

It's setting the standard for you as a practitioner. You're saying: I respect the time. I'm putting effort and concentration and focus in.

That's why you use the time. You're enabling that conversation to happen, providing the environment for it to happen. Making it conducive to the other person's self-expression.

You hold yourself to an ethical standard. If you're members of the BACP or the NCPS, you uphold that by saying: I respect and have integrity for my role.

These are the qualities, the attitudes you'll develop further on Level 3 and into Level 4, but they're entertained and brought into focus on Level 2.

When Someone Asks for "Just 10 More Minutes"

The belief that if someone needs more time, you should give it misses something crucial.

Time is extraordinary in a therapeutic space. It evokes many things in terms of what happens in the here and now between you and your helpee. Analysts call this transference and countertransference.

The challenge of a helpee who wishes to extend time, and how you maintain your boundary line, is a deeply therapeutic opportunity.

It's more than simply giving time. There are so many more layers within this you have to be mindful of before that's offered.

It's not about being unkind. The helpee pushing those boundary lines, and you being willing to allow them to be quite soft boundaries, may not be a therapeutic intervention on behalf of the helpee. It may only perpetuate their patterns in relationships.

If someone asks for more time (10 minutes, 15 minutes, 5 minutes), there are ways of managing this. You might say: "How do we end this session now in a way that feels enough for you to pick up next time?"

That encourages them to know it's coming to an end. They initiate how it ends.

Alongside that, look at the intention. What could you really cover in 10 minutes that would be valuable enough that it couldn't wait for a proper amount of time?

Ten minutes is incredibly brief. That would be my first response. Let's hold it until the next session.

The 50-Minute Hour (or 15-Minute Practice Session)

In training, you won't hold 50-minute sessions for Level 2 or Level 3. You'll have an average time limit, depending on how sessions or lessons go, of around 15 minutes. Ideally more, but say 15 minutes. That allows everyone a chance to take each of those roles.

The 50-minute hour (called the psychological hour) is part of the language, part of later training. It's one where there's 50 minutes of helpee time and 10 minutes where the therapist makes notes.

The 50 minutes was arbitrarily chosen as being a reasonable time. There are other approaches. Jacques Lacan, for instance, would end sessions when the helpee had a moment of epiphany or revelation. That's where it stopped. It was about the experience of the individual sometimes.

But primarily, for you at Level 2, whether it's 15 minutes or 50 minutes:

psychologically, 45 minutes of any concentrated time is plenty for anyone before you find yourself limited to go any further.

There's not a huge amount of progress sometimes after that.

Predictability Creates Trust

If someone is consistent and predictable in what they do, they become more trustworthy.

Even if that feels upsetting to the helpee initially, the predictability is welcomed because at least they know they can rely on that person. They know what's going on, when it happens.

How a helpee would perceive a lack of boundary around time will often devalue how they perceive their helper. "If they don't care about their time, what do they care about me? If they don't hold their boundaries, does their value seem to drop in my eyes?"

Whilst it may feel generous from your point of view for the helpee, this comes across as detrimental to the relationship. It maybe unconsciously signals that you don't value yourself, your time, or your profession.

It Protects Both of You

Time boundaries protect the helper practitioner with their own wellbeing. How much may be shared in that time. The amount of concentrated effort towards that.

If you have a helpee straight after, going over time impacts other helpees as well.

Self-care for both. Making sure material is contained. Respecting the process. Respecting the profession. Meeting ethical standards.

Time Creates Freedom Within the Session

Time boundaries paradoxically create freedom within the session.

If you have guardrails of time, you're free to do everything else in between that. The boundary enables freedom of expression.

We do well psychologically when we have constraints. Given a blank bit of paper, you find it overwhelming. With some direction or heading, you find it more navigable. You know where your limits and edges are. That creates psychological safety too.

Going with the flow creates anxiety, not safety.

Clear Time Allows Planning

Clear time allows the helpee to plan what to bring. It's about effective use of the time together.

They think: "Right, 50 minutes (or 15 minutes). What do I want to focus on?"

There's an expectation rather than a wooliness that rolls anywhere. Wooliness creates opportunities to avoid rather than getting to it.

Time Connects to Everything Else

Time boundaries connect with everything that feels therapeutic: the definition of roles, confidentiality, the disclosure from the helper.

A time boundary is so much more than about duration of time. It's to do with ethical, safe practice for both the helper and the helpee.

What Happens When Boundaries Aren't Clear

In the Training Space

In training, students struggle with unclear boundaries. They overrun. It impacts the learning. They feel anxious and worried about how they've left sessions. This causes further consternation and worry.

The relationship shifts from a training therapeutic space into a training friendly space. That alters the relationship and avoids direct contact with maybe more important or substantial material.

Helpees shift focus away from what it needs to be.

The helper might also feel resentful if the other person hasn't maintained the time boundary equally or pushed the boundaries of it. This creates animosity possibly if they've continued trying to end the session and yet the other person keeps going.

The Oscillation Between Friendly and Therapeutic

Whilst training, you oscillate between a friendly and therapeutic environment. You come from a training space where you're conversational, discussing things, then move into a skills training space.

You don't demarcate that well enough as Level 2 students.

You could say: "Now I'm a helper practitioner. Now I'm creating space to do it. I'm not the person that was talking to you in that training lesson half an hour ago. This is who I am now."

Role boundaries and standing attention to that is crucial.

Inconsistency Creates Confusion

When time boundaries are inconsistent, it becomes confusion. Unreliability. Trust is broken. Lack of depth occurs as well. The helpee isn't going to be sharing as much.

Setting Matters Too

Setting matters in as much as it's a private space that isn't free from interruption. That's crucial because it secures a place for free exploration and discussion that isn't overheard.

This is closer to confidentiality.

There's something about consistency in locations being important as well. That creates reliability and trust. Not detrimentally if it's not consistent, but it's favourable.

The relationship between the helper and the helpee is always going to be the key component.

Boundaries Will Be Tested

An important part of Level 2, but definitely on Level 3, is about testing the boundaries. How do you maintain them? How are they then tested? How do you maintain the boundaries when challenged?

If someone says "it's 15 minutes for our session," you get to the 15 minutes and you end the session. "Just one more minute." How do you reinforce it?

It will be challenged. Time is going to be more revelation about self than you realise.

How to Establish Boundaries in Contracting

You establish boundaries in the contracting phase where you discuss clearly what the time is. Share responsibility for that time.

You may mention a few minutes before the session is coming to a close. "We have three minutes, four minutes, ten minutes." Very light touches that simply indicate there is a time.

Ideally, both people have access to a clock so they can see the time and flag up when the session will end. Everyone takes responsibility for that.

Time is part of the therapeutic relationship. What comes up inside that as well.

The Language That Works

Clarity works well. "We have four minutes remaining" or "We have four minutes left."

That sentence is enough.

Being clear is crucial and critical. Whatever you are clear or unclear about will be maintained going forward.

Why Boundaries Show Care, Not Coldness

Time boundaries are about care. Ethical safety. Appropriateness. Defining roles. Support. Active engagement by the helper.

A variety of things which are just crucial.

This is more therapeutic than people realise. It's import for both and how it's actually more therapeutic than people realise.

Ready to Progress Your Training?

If you're navigating CPCAB Level 2 and learning to establish clear time boundaries in contracting, maintain them even when uncomfortable, and recognise that those boundaries create safety and focussed attention rather than coldness, you're developing the professional frame that underpins ethical practice.

When you're ready to progress to CPCAB Level 3, where you'll explore the therapeutic relationship over multiple sessions and work with transference and countertransference around boundaries, we'd love to support your journey. Our approach values the predictability and consistency that time boundaries create, recognising that constraints paradoxically enable freedom within the therapeutic space.

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About The School of Counselling

The School of Counselling is a CPCAB-approved training centre and BACP member organisation, specialising in person-centred counselling training. We support students through their journey from Level 2 helper skills through to qualified practice, with experienced tutors who understand that time boundaries are therapeutic, not administrative. We're committed to helping you develop the professional frame and ethical standards that protect both you and those you help.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why does counselling have to have such rigid time limits when friends don't?

Because counselling isn't friendship. Time boundaries galvanise the helpee's attention onto the key elements they wish to discuss. Without time limits, people are very good at moving away from what they actually need to talk about through diversions and segues. The time limit creates focussed attention on material that matters. It's also about effective use of concentrated time. Psychologically, 45 minutes of concentrated effort is plenty before you find yourself limited to go further. Time is therapeutic, not just administrative.

Doesn't going over time show I care more about the person than the clock?

It shows you can't maintain boundaries, which devalues how the helpee perceives you. "If they don't care about their time, what do they care about me? If they don't hold their boundaries, does their value drop?" Going over may feel generous but actually signals you don't value yourself, your time, or your profession. Predictability creates trust. Inconsistency creates confusion and breaks trust. Maintaining time shows you're giving them your full, precious, focussed attention for the agreed period because they deserve that.

What if someone really needs just 10 more minutes?

Ten minutes is incredibly brief. What could you really cover in that time that would be valuable enough that it couldn't wait for proper time? Ask: "How do we end this session now in a way that feels enough for you to pick up next time?" This encourages them to initiate how it ends. Also consider: the challenge of a helpee wishing to extend time, and you maintaining your boundary, is a deeply therapeutic opportunity. Allowing soft boundaries may not be therapeutic. It may only perpetuate their patterns in relationships.

How do I establish time boundaries without seeming cold or clinical?

Establish them clearly in the contracting phase. Discuss what the time is and share responsibility for that time. Make sure both people have access to a clock. Give light touches: "We have ten minutes left." Being clear is crucial. Whatever you're clear or unclear about will be maintained going forward. Time boundaries aren't coldness. They're care, ethical safety, appropriateness, defining roles. They create the professional frame that allows focussed, deep work to happen. Constraints paradoxically enable freedom.

What happens when time boundaries aren't maintained consistently?

The relationship shifts from therapeutic to friendly, which alters the dynamic and avoids deeper material. Inconsistency creates confusion, unreliability, broken trust. The helpee shares less because they don't feel the predictable safety. You might feel resentful if boundaries keep getting pushed. It impacts other helpees if you have someone after. It signals you don't value yourself or your profession. Time boundaries will be tested, and how you maintain them reveals more about yourself than you realise. This is part of the learning.