more on almedafan's post (alex_k, I hope this is not too off topic for your thread):

almedafan, I do believe it is up to the therapist to set his boundaries regarding phone calls and emails. If he doesn't want them or thinks they are harmful to the client, he should not permit them or set limits.

I am very careful of my T's boundaries and have really only called once for support, and it did cause me some angst, as he didn't call back when he said he would (he called 3 days later), and it made me feel ignored/abandoned. But in the end it worked out OK. We have an understanding of our boundaries and he knows I will not abuse the phone and call him all the time, but save the hard work for the sessions. (Phone calls when in dire need of support only.) Yesterday I really went into a tailspin due to crisis events and even then I didn't want to contact my T (I had just seen him for 50 minutes the night before, for gosh sake). I wasn't sure he could help me anyway, so I sent a desperate email to my lawyer. She phoned me back immediately and that was sooooo helpful. It made me feel good I had reached out to her when I needed her (for support and legal advice) and gotten such an immediate response. Then later I got an email from my T with the header "I'm here/call me!!!" and that made me feel so good. (My lawyer had called him to say sunny needs to talk to you or something along those lines, who knows, probably "sunny is a basket case, help her!") After a few crossing emails and missed phone calls (gawd, I hate the phone), we were able to connect briefly, and we have a longer phone call scheduled for today. So I felt like when I reeeeeally needed my T, he was there, and very anxious to help out.

So I think it is partly up to the T to establish phone/email boundaries and partly a matter of learning to judge for ourselves when do we really need our T versus when it would be helpful to talk to our T but we can hold out to our session. It's a learning process, and if one's T is withdrawing phone/email privileges he previously offered, it could be he is trying to help a client "learn" since he has experienced too many "non-essential" calls and emails from that client. If a T is OK with phone calls and emails all the time, but the client still experiences harm from them (as almedafan suggested might be happening), then I think it needs some discussion in session. Maybe the T can be recruited to help the client stop making the harmful emails/phone calls (by setting firmer boundaries).

Very good post, almedafan. Thought provoking.