I use to be afraid to talk to people on the phone. My group therapist gave me the name of my individual therapist to call and make an appointment to and, the first time, the phone number was part of a group where they had receptionist, etc. and they answered the phone and put me on hold and then never came back (and, I was afraid to hang up so I was on there 15+ minutes until the phone company severed the call!). I didn't know what to do! I called my group therapist and told her what had happened and she said.

That would have made me angry. Don't wait on hold that long, hang up and call back!

If you want to talk to your T but it is not "his" phone number, you have to keep calling and waiting a reasonable period of time (a couple hours so you know if he has back-to-back sessions that he has had at least one break and gotten at least 1-2 messages that you have called) and then calling again. If you call two or three times, then you start working on the receptionist :-) so she starts working on him or giving you better information ("well, he isn't actually scheduled to be here until 2:00 so it will be after that when he calls you" or, "I really haven't seen him today, he may not be here."), etc. Then, when he finally calls you, the first words out of your mouth are, "Darn you're hard to get ahold of! Is there anything you can do about that?"

Now, I understand it is easier to do nothing and blame the other person for the problem but it is not the other person who wants to talk to us, it is us who wants to talk to them?