Sometimes yes this is normal. for example my therapist has on her voice mail message that it may take her up to two days to call the caller back and that if it is an emergency call the main office number. the main office number has people answering the phone 24 hours a day and there is always a professional on call with a beeper. the person calls the main number and either the person on call takes the call.

Years ago I learned that what may be an emergency for me may be down time for my therapist and therapists also have their own problems and families to take care of.

so I choose a "back up" therapist. that way I am never without help when I am in crisis.

I choose the back up from the same therapy agency that I recieve my therapist at so that the back up has access to my therapist and my files so that no matter what is going on that therapist knows what my therapist and I are doing. I usually sign release forms for the back up and my therapist to talk to each other at any point too.

This time I did not have to sign any release forms because the agency decided for continuity of care purposes that LL would have the same supervisor for my case that my past therapist SKR had because E (Supervisor) had been on the case fot the full three years that I has SKR.

So anyway LL asked me if I felt comfortable having E as my "back up" (my previous one had gotten laid off 6 months before SKR did). E is like a guardian angel on my case. I have never met her but she had no problem jumping right in there and going to bat for me and SKR when we needed her help against a DHS caseworker. So right away I said yes to E being my back up.

Now no matter what is going on all I have to do is call the main number and tell the person who answers the phone to call my therapist and ask her if she would take the call or if I should talk to my back up.

In all the years that I have done things this way I have never been left hanging for the odds of two therapists having a family crisis, on vacation and any other reasons, at the same time is slim to none.

Its easy to choose a back up. when in the waiting room I watch as the other professionals interact with each other and how they greet their clients and so on. then when I have a couple in mind I approach them and tell them I would like them to be my back up person if in an emergency my therapist cannot take my calls. Then I tell my therapist that I have chosen a backup and we sign the release of information forms and the two therapists meet to discuss me and so on.

Maybe you can set up a back up that way you will not have to wait when you are in crisis just because your therapist is out to dinner with the family, on vacation, having some down time so they don't get burned out, seeing their own therapist, dealing with another person who happens to be in crisis when you are and so on.

Therapists are human and they can't expect to be everywhere at once. having a back up has really helped me and my therapists over the years out.