Posted by pegasus on September 29, 2004, at 14:28:34
In reply to Telephone policies... » mair, posted by Racer on September 29, 2004, at 12:23:21
I agree that this is a biggie. I had a major conflict with my old therapist about calling policies. He was not very clear about it, until about a year into therapy, and then one day when he was worried about me he laid it all out in detail. And then I called him that night, and he didn't follow his own policy (i.e., he didn't check messages as late as he'd told me he would). So I waited 24 hours for a reply to a message that I thought he'd get within an hour. And let me tell you, that was not a pretty 24 hours.
He always maintained that he said "usually" when he explained it all to me, but I never heard that. So, IMHO, they need to not only clearly explain their policies, but then also make sure you got it all. Especially when they wait until you're having a really bad time to explain it to you, but really it would be good as a general policy.
My new T had her calling policy written into her disclosure statement, so I have a copy of that to refer to now whenever I want. Her policy is that she checks messages between 8 and 5 M-F. So, she's protected from phone abuse, without having to actually say anything to any clients about worrying about them calling too often. It works for me, but I recognize that there is a lot of no contact time that might not work for other folks. She has also at particularly bad times offered to call me to check in, or for me to call her on the weekend.
pegasus
poster:pegasus
thread:396496
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040925/msgs/396875.html