This winter when my therapist was in the hospital, I had a "substitute" therapist who I saw for two sessions. The lady at the front desk was the one who suggested this as an option while I waited for her to get better. Otherwise I would have just gone without (and been sad).

I thought it would be a superficial waste of time, but it wasn't. The first session was "getting to know you and your issues". It helped me to verbalize what my problems are. She had my therapist's notes, but of course hadn't committed them to memory. She also asked about what things we'd been working on, and I was able to think about my progress and recemt failures. We also spent some time talking about my therapist and how I felt about her illness. That helped me get my fears off my chest.

The second session was more advice-giving.

When my therapist came back, she was pleased that I had trusted someone. I think she must have also gotten some helpful feedback based on some of the things she said. It's been several months now since I saw the substitute.

But when I had an suicidal emergency early this year and my therapist wasn't answering her cell phone, the phone service dialed the substitute and she contacted me. So now I feel like I have two people at the office who know who I am. That's nice.

Having never done therapy with anyone but my therapist, it was kind of cool to have someone else to compare her against. I like my therapist's style more, but now I don't feel like it would be the end of the world if something bad were to happen to her.