Therapists & The Phone

[DontGiveUpOnMe]

My therapist is only available office hours. She has a special phone she keeps in her office and only checks that phone for her clients. Basically if you are in crisis....she is not available. All there is, is an answering machine (which drives me crazy). She is the first T I have had in many many years, when I had my last T I was still a little kid so I wasnt really using the phone. She actually expressed to me that she doesnt like people calling her, which is why she has the office phone.
It did make me feel kind of messed up because (I kind of wish I could call her), or at least have her be available in some way. But my T is not even really available office hours because she checks the messages at night and calls back the next day. =\ *I hate it*

 

[Michel]

I once felt very upset and thought of calling my therapist. I remembered that she had said some people feel better when upset just leaving a message for her, not to be a returned call. I did that and did feel better, just to say what I needed to say, let it go, give it away... Then I came to this site and wrote. That helped too. Then people wrote back and, as I got involved in these exchanges, I calmed down.

Maybe you could talk to your therapist about other ideas for when you are in a crisis.

 

[TLight]

I know when I was in the midst of a very stressful living situation and job.........I called my therapist. But it was during office hours and it did not disrupt her schedule.

I was suicidal and sitting there with pills. I called and she had to call the police.

In my situation, I knew I could call her when things were bad and I'd hear from her. This made me feel like I could hang onto something to make it through.

I think Therapist's sign up for crisis work. The nature of their business revolves around emotional crisis.........they should be availiable.

If the phone stuff is obviously making their patient overly dependent,then it is part of their job to set clear boundaries and they will do that when necessary. They are the one to make that call since the patient is obviously too sick to recognize the dysfunctionality of that situation.

I never was dependent and made a ton of calls at my worst. After a crisis when I'd called once, she called for the next several days checking on me, making me feel like I wasn't alone, standing by my side.

I don't feel like we should ever feel ashamed that we want our therapist availiable in a crisis to call us back. That's part of what we are paying for.

So I guess I disagree with others on here. Find a therapist who is availiable for crisis calls.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Update

I've decided to go with this therapist, even though she doesn't have emergency phone hours. To be honest, she is one of the best therapists I've ever had. And that says a LOT, seeing as how I've been in therapy since the age of 10!