Hello everyone! I'm Hireath, but you can call me H. I'm a twenty-something young adult, currently in therapy for anxiety and ptsd, among other things. I've seen therapists before, but none of them were very good (one was not empathetic at all, another gaslighted me and made me feel even worse, etc. etc.) and I just started seeing a T again after a year-long break. I've only had a handful of sessions but so far I like it. My new T is very empathetic, always listens and gives me her full attention, and is very validating... but since I've never had a truly good T before, I have a couple questions about what a "normal" therapy session and therapist/client relationship is supposed to be like.

First off: Is there even a baseline for what a normal therapist/client relationship would look like? I'm scared of overstepping boundaries and becoming a burden to T, because so many other people in my life have just dropped me for that very reason.

In addition: what about contact with T between sessions? Is that a given, not at all, or does it depend on the therapist? I asked my T at the end of our session yesterday if I could e-mail her during the week if I was feeling overwhelmed. She said yes, of course, and gave me her work e-mail. I wasn't intending to e-mail her unless things got really bad, but last night I got into an argument with my emotionally abusive/neglectful parents (who I, sadly, cannot escape contact with) and I was told repeatedly that our family's problems were my fault. I was so hurt, and I wrote all my feelings out and just ended up e-mailing it to T to see if she had any advice to offer me. This was last night.

This morning, she responded to me and read things over, and basically said she may have misunderstood the request about emailing. I think she thought it was about getting in touch about appointments. She said that she'd prefer if I didn't e-mail big things like that and keep it for scheduling purposes to protect my privacy and make sure her responses were thoughtful. Is this normal? Did I overstep and do something wrong? I felt so guilty reading her e-mail, all I could think was, "Oh, gosh, I just shouldn't have sent it." Do you all have contact with your T between sessions?? Am I just plain crazy?