Well, Bats, getting hospitalized is a bit harder than you imagine. Also, your therapist does not have the authority to "hospitalize" you. Inpatient psych beds are in short supply everywhere, while "suicidal ideation" is rampant among the despondent. There simply is nowhere near enough space in psych units to take in all the folks who reveal to therapists that they've been musing about doing themselves in. If you are an adult who appears rational, then the expectation is that you can take some responsibility for yourself. You would be asked whether or not you have a plan for how you would commit suicide. Even having a concrete plan and the means to carry it out won't necessarily get you hospitalized. Next you would be flat out asked what your intention is. If you dither on that, you would be asked to make a commitment to not harm yourself for a short period of time. You would be asked to agree to notify someone if your intention becomes more serious. Your answers are documented.

Your therapist can recommend that you go to an emergency room for a psych evaluation, usually performed by a social worker or a nurse (ir a psychiatrist in an actual psych facility.) If you seem utterly distraught, your therapist could call police to intervene. They would ask you some questions. Depending on your answers, the police can decide to forcibly bring you to a hospital E.R. or the crisis unit of a psych facility. Only a doctor can "hospitalize" you. If the interviewer doing the psych evaluation thinks you are an imminent danger to yourself, that person would notify a doctor. The doctor has the authority to mandate that you be involuntarily hospitalized for a short stay.

During this whole process, you are given ample opportunity to make a "contract" for safety, whereby you are released based on you agreeing to stay safe, or call for help, if you feel you are about to commit suicide. Unless you're practically psychotic, the assumption is made that a rational adult can make a commitment to be responsible for his or her own safety.

In unusual circumstances, an individual may be deemed unable to make that commitment. For instance, if you get arrested and incarcerated for causing an auto accident, in which someone is killed, the jail may choose to regard you as having a high potential for suicide, regardless of what you say. You might be automatically placed on a "suicide watch." That might mean you are kept under close surveillance and your condition documented every 15 minutes.

So you can go right ahead and be very forthright is discussing exactly what your thoughts have been on the subject of suicide. For that to lead to you getting involuntarily hospitalized involves quite a process that has built in opportunities for you to agree to be responsible for your own safety, which is what everyone engaged in the process hopes you will do.