Hi Sleeps and everyone,

Thanks for bringing this up and talking about this - I really appreciate it because it's an issue I'm wrestling with in counseling right now. My counselor did have a policy that I could call him in an emergency, but last week he finally said that he's decided it would be a boundary violation on his part to return calls when there is an emergency. This is after a number of incidences this past two years when he did not return calls without explanation, and it was really confusing. His clinic is small and there are no backup plans in an emergency, or in fact when he is traveling (which is frequent) and it feels unsafe to me. Like some of you have mentioned, I'm just supposed to go to the ER if I am in a big emergency, but my problem is that I know I can't afford that. So I try to deal with it alone as best I can, I guess, but I don't think that's the ideal solution.

I also know that with me, at least historically, if I've dealt with things along the way before it gets to that point, sometimes I can avert that extreme emergency. I can see it coming, and I can "stem the tide" if I work on it. But that does generally involve some contact with other people and some various activities and never seems to be a simple process. I don't know if this is just me or if it is true for other people as well. I guess I wish contacting my counselor could be part of the process, but even if it isn't, I wish we could discuss the process of trying to deal with these thoughts and feelings better, and at this point, he doesn't really want to discuss how I can deal with it independently. This also feels unsafe to me, because it seems like it is important to have a plan for dealing with it one way or another, even if my counselor isn't involved. It just seems like that would be healthy planning.

Thanks for listening.

Take care,
ErinBear