Posted by raisinb on August 19, 2008, at 17:42:44
In reply to Worried and not sure if I should call, posted by Suedehead on August 19, 2008, at 12:35:29
I am all in favor of calling your therapist when you need to. Most are great about it. That said, therapists have different phone call policies, and some have boundaries stricter than others.
As I see it, you have two options: 1) Call him and (probably) get what you need, though this does carry the risk of rejection, or 2) Next session, tell him about your dilemma and get some clarification.
Whatever you do, don't do what my therapist and I did. She never told me I could call her, so I never did (for a year and a half). Meanwhile, I stewed endlessly about how crappy it was that she was only available to me in these little fifty-minute increments. Then she started asking me why I never called her--I said she'd never told me I could--she was shocked and "thought it was assumed." Boy, did I yell at her!
Since then, she always urges me to call her if I need to, or even if I just get sad or lonely and need to talk. I don't do it very often, but I know she is happy when I do. It sure would have been smarter to ask her what her policies were in the first place, though.
poster:raisinb
thread:847212
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20080810/msgs/847256.html