Posted by mair on September 30, 2004, at 22:20:20
In reply to Telephone policies... » mair, posted by Racer on September 29, 2004, at 12:23:21
" Something that tells me that I can call, but doesn't tell me up front that the therapist expects that I may abuse the priviledge."
Racer - I think this is really hard for Ts and hard for those of us who have that Stubborn Gene (me too). When my T and I finally aired some of this out, she kept saying things that she thought were magnanimous like "you can call anytime you think (fill in the qualifier)" and then she'd realize that stubborn me would never see an emergency, for instance, unless I was sitting in a motel room somewhere with a loaded gun pointed to my head, and then it would only be an emergency if I really thought I was about to pull the trigger. In fact I'd probably be saying to myself "why should I bother her if I'm not really going to kill myself." We finally arrived at the policy that I could call anytime I felt like talking to her. I'm sure we got to that wide open door because she knows I'll practically never call.I've thought alot about what she should have said at the beginning to make someone like me feel that it was ok to call her and yet not expose her to those who really might go overboard if offered too liberal a policy. Maybe I should give her your suggestion of the open door and a periodic review.
Mair
poster:mair
thread:396496
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040925/msgs/397655.html