Old thread, but thought I would resurrect it.

T1's cell phone went off recently when I was on the phone with her (she has a land line that I call). It was strange because all of the sudden I heard crickets chirping and was like, "Wait...where are you? it sounds like you are outside but I am talking to you on your landline so I know that's not possible" and she laughed and said she was sorry, that it was her cell phone ringing. That particular session was on a Friday, it was a second session for me that week and she doesn't normally meet with clients on Fridays so she hadn't turned her phone ringer off. That made sense. but I wouldn't like that if it happened regularly.

T2's phone rings sometimes but it is in another room so it is not too distracting.

In the beginning of this thread some people mentioned that their Ts read text messages or even answer their phone during a session. That would be grounds for firing them as a T as far as I'm concerned. They can check their texts and voicemails in between sessions. In the extreme situation where they might need to take a phone call from a suicidal client, I would be understanding but to sit there and read texts from other clients during a session is very unprofessional.

I have to agree with LadyGrey on this topic. I've had my session held up for a noticeable amount of time only once, and that was due to what I truly believe was a client that my therapist (and a P working in the same office) thought was in immediate danger/crisis. I have seen my T weekly for a couple of years now, and her phone has never gone off in session, and she certainly does not take text messages. Now, she has also never offered to let me call/text/e-mail her, so perhaps it is a trade-off. I appreciate this being presented as a boundary issues. If I had a T attending to texts or calls (outside of emergencies) during session, I would move on. I am too sensitive to that sort of thing to be able to get work done during session with that going on.

My T does allow texts, phone calls to her cell, and emails, but she also can take a considerable amount of time to reply. Sometimes she replies within a few minutes. Other times it may be 7 hours later. She welcomes the texts and encourages me to send them to keep her updated on my crazy life so that we don't have to spend the entire next session going over all that has happened but can focus more on processing.

I don't mind that she can take a long time to reply to a text. it can be difficult waiting and waiting and checking my phone repeatedly, but ultimately I think it is a good lesson for me to learn to be patient. To learn that people do care and will still be there for me even if they are busy. I used to freak out when my exhusband didn't text me back for hours. He would tell me that he was busy and that was understandable, he was a business owner after all. But I would totally go into a panic and it would ruin my entire day. So now with T....when she takes a while to text back, its like an exercise in patience and faith for me.