Thanks for all your support, everyone!!! Sorry that was so brief, I didn't really have time to write more last night.

Basically, what caused this whole situation to blow up is that last week I got confused about the date of my appointment, and i realized my mistake 15 minutes before the appointment. (Keep in mind I have been seeing this T for a year and have never missed an appointment before, so this is not like it is a continuing pattern.) Anyway, I called immediately and left a message saying what had happened and that I was very sorry, but it would take me a while to get there and I would be very late, and if there was any chance she might possibly be willing to reschedule, I'd appreciate it; if not, I'd do my best to get there as soon as ever I could. (I had a 35 minute drive to the appointment.) As soon as I called, I left immediately for the appointment (skipping lunch to do so, resulting in a whopping migraine that lasted for the rest of the day). She called back while I was driving, and said that there was no chance of rescheduling without a $50 fee, so I'd better come for what time there was. So anyway, I'm scrambling to get there, and I hit an absolutely horrendous traffic jam, and I'm realizing that I will be getting to the appointment just as it's ending. I call her to tell her my situation and she's just like, well tough, I'm leaving exactly at the end of your 45 minutes, and I'm charging you a $50 fee if you're not there by then.

So I can understand that she was miffed by the fact that I mistook the date, but here's what gets me. Besides the fact that I spent a full hour trying to get to this appointment, and missed lunch and got a migraine trying to do so, there's the fact that not two weeks prior to this SHE had stood ME up completely. On that occasion, I was sitting there in her office for like 25 minutes wondering where she was, having driven all the way there just for the appointment on a day when I was in the midst of something of a crisis: my computer had just died with all my class notes for an exam in 2 days time, an exam based entirely on class notes and worth 50% of my semester grade. By going to that appointment, I seriously jeopardized my chances of finding someone to get my class notes off of my hard drive, as I very nearly missed the only time the computer shop was open that day. And with all that, I show up and she isn't even there.

So after she stands me up like that, she's charging me $50 for missing an appointment, when I really tried my hardest to get there, and she knows I have $10,000 in medical bills that I'm struggling to pay off and I'm a full time student with no job (I spend my "free time" working for no pay in a lab) and I really can't afford that $50. I asked her if she would be willing to do a reduced rate for that fee based on my financial circumstances, and she said no.

I told her that given the situation, I didn't really think that was fair or right, and I hoped that she would reconsider; and if not, I wasn't sure I could continue seeing her, as this whole thing really made me feel like she didn't care about my well being at all, but only about her paycheck.

Well, I guess her response shows that I was right in thinking that all she cared about was her paycheck. I was hoping I was wrong about that; I had had some previous indicators of that fact, but I had really been hoping that I was mistaken.

WePow, I think you're right - given what the situation has taught me about her, it probably is a blessing in disguise. It's still a little upsetting, though, when you trust someone enough to open up to them and then find they really don't give a hoot about you. Even though they are getting paid, I don't think that people should become therapists if they really won't care about their clients at all.