I'm also someone who finds outside contact helpful. My current T charges for e-mails if it takes him longer than 15 minutes to read/respond (he'll charge $45). But in those cases, he responds really thoroughly, like multiple fairly long paragraphs. I've had maybe 4 or 5 of those in the course of 8 months working with him. He doesn't charge for shorter e-mails, like if he responds with a sentence or two (even if what I wrote him was somewhat long).

At first I was bothered by the charging when he told me about it because my ex-T and ex-marriage counselor never charged for any outside contact. (I also mistakenly thought he wasn't OK with the shorter, no-charge e-mails.) But in talking to him about it, I realized it's actually helpful, because, as he puts it, for the longer ones, he's getting paid for his time. It's not like he's just doing me a favor. So it feels safer to me in a way.

This is mostly because, as I mentioned, ex-T and ex-MC allowed outside contact (e-mail, text, and occasional phone calls) with no charge. I often wrote quite long e-mails to them. Ex-T didn't usually respond, or would just say something like "good thoughts, let's discuss in session." Then at one point, I was upset that she hadn't responded to an e-mail where I was really distressed about something. She replied, in a frustrated tone, "Your e-mails have just gotten longer and longer, I only have so much time!" Yet she hadn't said anything till I asked. I felt hurt. So, then I backed off quite a bit.

With ex-MC, he replied more often, but with something brief (and would often take a few days to get back to me. (We also had phone calls maybe once every month or two, lasting from 15 minutes to 45 minutes, for no charge). After what happened with ex-T, I kept checking in with him to make sure I wasn't contacting him too much or writing anything too long. He continually reassured me that it was fine, as long as I understood that he couldn't always read or respond right away. Then we had a sort of falling out in December (too complicated to get into here), and at the end of the brief phone call during that, he said, "And you need to reduce outside contact with me." Which really hurt (and which he kept insisting was not his rejecting me--there was lots of transference going on there). We terminated a couple months later.

So all of that is why I feel better/safer with current T charging for longer e-mails. He also, for longer or shorter ones, has always responded within 24 hours--once was to apologize for not having time to write yet (was a weekend), but that he'd reply in full the next morning, which he did. Which is nice because the others either didn't reply or were very inconsistent in how long they took to reply. And current T has reassured me recently that his e-mail policy hasn't changed, that it's always OK to e-mail him, he'll just charge if it's over certain length (whenever I send him a longer e-mail, I say something like, "If you choose to reply at length, I accept the charge." Or "brief, free reply is fine, then we can talk more in session.") He also only allows texts for scheduling and tends to only do phone calls for out of state clients (like students away at college), but will schedule an extra session if wanted and he's available, which he often is. This structure has helped me get out of the habit of sending frequent long e-mails (or texts with expectation of quick reply) and also makes me less worried that he'll decide to change the rules on me or get annoyed if I contact him too much. Incidentally, he did let me know once when a text--that I thought was about scheduling--was "a bit intrusive" because of the timing/content, so he seems pretty true to his word that he'll be honest with me.

So, all that being said (that was probably more detail than you were looking for!), I do think paying for e-mails could potentially help you. However, be prepared that your T may be unwilling to accept payment for them. Also know that insurance generally does not cover written communication, if that's a factor. (For me, knowing the $45 is coming entirely out of my own pocket makes me consider how important an e-mail really is.) I think it would be a good discussion to have though.

Edited to add: Forgot to mention I've also been seeing him twice a week for the past few months, which has also really helped. I'd been used to seeing ex-T and ex-MC in the same week, so as he put it, my therapy time had basically been cut in half by seeing MC less (like once a month for a bit), then terminating. So he offered twice a week if I wanted, so I'm doing that for now.