Yes, my T calls certain elements "the frame." I think of these as the nuts and bolts of the therapy arrangement: time of session, length of session, cost per session, how payment will be made, and site of session. The frame is elements agreed upon by the T and the client as being the way therapy will proceed (even though the client may wish for longer sessions in her/his ideal therapy world). I think of these as being different from boundaries, although this is probably just semantics. Boundaries might be whether I can ask my T how his weekend was and whether he answers. Has he established a boundary for clients knowing about his personal life? Boundaries would also include whether the T gives you a hug. If the T and client have established at the outset of therapy that there will be no physical contact, then this might be part of the frame. The client also has boundaries, such as whether physical touch is allowed, whether a T is allowed to know certain things about the client's life, etc. I think the frame also includes things like who T can tell about what goes on in your session (e.g. only when you or others are in danger because of you or if he has a signed release to communicate with someone else).

Not all Ts offer only one option for length of session to clients. I think how rigid a T is has a lot to do with that T's theoretical approach and personality. Ts that are more analytical may favor a less flexible frame. Regardless of approach, some people are just more punctual and a-n-a-l about those things, and I think this will be reflected in their sticking to the minute to a schedule, not offering sessions of different lengths, etc. Of course there is also the desire to keep on schedule for the sake of the clients who come later so they won't have to wait. My T's standard appointment is 50 minutes, with 10 minutes in between clients. He is not a super punctual sort of guy, so this slides a lot. He uses his 10 minutes between clients to make up the lateness and sometimes takes no break. Ever with this accommodation, we still frequently start late. My T never shorts me time, though, but puts extra minutes onto the end of my session. There are many times we have session last longer than 50 minutes. My session probably starts on time, to the minute, less than 10% of the time. I am OK with this. I do not interpret it as meaning he doesn't care about or respect me, and it doesn't make me feel insecure (safety is sometimes touted as a reason Ts should stick rigidly to a frame). I am pretty easygoing with time myself, so my T and I are a good fit in this regard. I just budget into my session some extra "slop time" on the end of the session. I know there are clients who would be upset if their T was so consistently late. They might do better to seek a different T who is a better fit for their need for tight scheduling. When I need to end my session very promptly due to an obligation that follows, I email T the day before and tell him this, and he makes an effort to get me my full time by the agreed upon end to the session. He appreciates these heads up emails from me. Last session, he ran late, and wanted to talk about that. He said that the reason why is that sometimes there is an important breakthrough near the end of a session or that the person is going over very sensitive material, and he wants to provide extra time. He has done the same for me. I think this shows he has a desire to move therapy along for the client. If he abruptly ended the session at a key time, it might be hard to return to that moment of importance, trust, and openness the next time. This just helps make progress. (I think he is a savvy enough T that he would know if a client consistently tried to manipulate the frame just to get more minutes, and he would handle this.)

I don't know why, but I once thought the only option for a session with my T was 50 minutes. When we began meeting less than weekly, I had a hard time with the longer period between sessions. It was only 2 weeks (now we often do 3-4 weeks), but it seemed sooo hard to maintain the connection. T and I discussed this, and it turns out he had noticed the problem too. He proposed a solution: we would have 90 minute sessions. This was such a great idea and has helped us so much! So I don't see rigidity there from him. He sometimes also schedules EMDR clients for longer sessions.

The child therapist I saw for my kids during my divorce gave me a 4 hour session the first time. She just let us go as long as we needed. We got through a ton of material. It was very efficient and saved me the time and effort of going to see her 4 times spread out over a month. She told me the reason she does this at the first meeting is for efficiency.

So I think there is variety out there with how Ts manage time and schedules. Some Ts are more rigid. My daughter's T, for example, wants her to come weekly all the time. But my daughter wants a more flexible schedule. She may go weekly for a few weeks at a time, then take a break of a couple weeks, then go every other week for a while, then back to weekly. It's what she needs and too bad the T wants her there weekly, LOL. So the client does have some control. My daughter has just never agreed to her T's most preferred "frame" so it is not really part of their frame.

I think you may know all this, SAWE, but this page contains an official explanation of why:
http://www.jung-at-heart.com/jung_at...tic_frame.html

Sorry to go on so much. For some reason the "frame" is a fascinating topic to me!