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alexandra_k said:
if i couldn't do something (phonecalls say) because of the cost factor then i'd feel very hurt if my therapist kept bringing up the possibility of a phonecall - because it wouldn't really be a possibility, you see

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Good point, Alex. It would be like every time she mentioned you can call, it is as if she is hawking her wares and services. On the other hand, if she doesn't encourage calls at all, then it seems different (more ethical).

My daughter's therapist charges for calls longer than 10 minutes, and has this policy in her informed consent form, so everyone knows from the start. FP, I can see how your situtation is causing hurt, as it seemed you had one policy to begin with and now that is taken from you. I'm glad you are doing better today.

My own therapist has never encouraged me to call him for support, but I know he has a voicemail I can leave a message on. When I have called him, our conversations were always less then 2 minutes. I know he is crazy busy so I try to be brief. I think it is not a bad policy to allow free calls up to a point, say 5 minutes at least. Because sometimes you have to talk about business stuff, like canceling and rescheduling appointments. If the client routinely needs supportive phone calls of 10 minutes or more, another solution would be to increase their number of sessions per week, instead of charging for the phone calls.