Just to clarify, my T works in a community mental health agency that employs probably at least 8 or 9 therapists. According to my T, each therapist is required to have the cell phone for an entire week and they take turns. My T told me that they have to keep it on them at all times just in case someone calls, but she said it has only rang during a session a couple of times. The emergency line is for clients as well as anyone in the area that is in a desperate situation. I don't know for sure whether or not the person that called was a client of my T's, so she could have been dealing with her own client but I'm not sure.
I definitely think that the agency needs to address this issue and make changes because it felt really awkward and horrible to me when she had to take the call and made me leave the room. I felt bad for the person on the other end of the line who really needed someone to talk to, but I had an appt that I was paying for and felt like overall the "split session" was not worth my money because of the anxiety and frustration it caused me.
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Originally Posted by Miswimmy1
That would seriously piss me off so much. I would be so triggered that I would shut down. I think u were really brave to continue your session.  that sounds so tough! My ts phone has gone off before, but she either ignores it or gets up to turn it off... And even that is so triggering. So I can't imagine having to go back out into the waiting area
When u went back in and told her how it triggered u, what did she say? Was she apologetic? Because its one thing to state the fact that she is on crisis duty and offer to help u work through whatever it caused. It's another to be on duty, not tell u, and then dismiss your worries. |
When I went back, at first she tried to act like all was fine but I couldn't. I was shaking and really anxious so I just told her how it affected me. She apologized and we talked about it for much of the session.
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Originally Posted by Anne2.0
I sincerely doubt that an agency expects a T to answer the emergency line when they are in session. The T's probably all schedule their sessions around their responsibilities, but sometimes there is probably an emergency with the T in the agency-- s/he is sick, or they have to leave to care for a sick kid in school, etc. Your T obviously got stuck with this responsibility when she didn't expect to, and decided it was probably better not to cancel your session and take the chance that no one would call during that hour. Obviously that didn't happen, but my guess is that she was between a rock and a hard place, and didn't intend for things to work out as they did.
However, I would have also felt unnerved by the lateness and the phone disruptions, so I get how you feel. At the same time, I'd encourage you to talk to your T about how you felt because it will help you understand that she mostly likely got stuck when she didn't expect to, and she had to make a decision that she thought would be best for you and her other responsibilities, and it turned out badly. Sometimes that happens, and learning to be okay regardless of things going wrong in session is an important skill to have.
And having this conversation will also help you understand your interpretations of what happened and how they might be skewed and distorted and unhealthy. Once one of my T's next client after me knocked on the door about halfway through the session, and T answered it and explained to him that he was early for his session (for some reason he thought he was late). It freaked the beejeezus out of me, because I happened to be talking about something related to my CSA perpetrator. When the knock on the door came, I was sure it was him-- which of course doesn't make sense because he is disabled and doesn't know I'm in therapy, much less where it is.
Since my goal is not to be triggered by innocuous occurrences, it did actually have a silver lining in that this experience (and there have been a few other disruptions during sessions for different reasons) has helped me be less reactive to nonthreatening events outside of therapy too.
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It was my T's responsibility to answer the emergency cell phone because they all take turns keeping it for a week. She told me that this was her week. She also said that it usually doesn't ring during sessions, but it has happened a few times.
This is why I think what the agency is doing is wrong because when Ts have a session with a client, they shouldn't be expected to have the cell phone in the room where it could ring. They need to develop a better system.
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Originally Posted by sunrise
It sounds very strange to me. Can you ask to not be scheduled on days she has this additional responsibility? I would think the T could return the emergency calls between sessions, like maybe leave a couple of slots free on the days she must do this duty for just that purpose? I hope you can discuss a solution to the problem when you see her again.
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Actually I think I will make sure that the times I schedule an appt with her don't coincide with her having the emergency cell phone that week.