I think that most Ts are very limited contact out of session for many reasons unless they are trained for it like DBT therapists.

I interviewed a lot of therapists and the majority didn't allow outside contact unless you paid for it. That seems to be common in my area. I think a lot of people don't like to do therapy over email and I know in my state, it wasn't allowed actually for a long time. (Now my insurance company is pushing teletherapy- probably cheaper for them).

Considering my last therapist- who to be clear started emailing me, not vice versa- i can see where emails can actually hamper progress unless SKILLFULLY handled. Otherwise I think you can run into dependency issues and focusing energy outside of the therapy room instead of bringing it in.

I've always been given paperwork when meeting with new therapists. Some are quite long- especially if you are paying with insurance. And I think my state has a couple forms to sign as well. I think the paperwork is a good sign. And because I am quiet and withdrawn, and because of the brain damage, it's really useful for me to just be able to give a little written intro to myself. That's how i did the 8 sessions I did to just hash out my anger over my last T. I felt like I gave enough info to get things rolling, got a lot of reaffirmation, learned about cycles of abuse and being a frog in a pot of boiling water, and was able to walk away after 8 hours doing better but not needing any more. I didn't develop any attachment or guilt issues. Had no outside contact or emails with the short term therapist. And most days I don't even remember everything I talked about. Word vomit.

I see my psychiatrist in private practice and we do email for scheduling purposes and we do therapy on the phone every once in a while which I pay for- usually 125 for about 25 minutes. He's the only one who didn't take a lot of info from me in the beginning, but I think he has a lot more leeway in private practice. Instead we did like an almost 2 hour intake session, which he talked and asked a lot of questions, explained what therapy is, expectations, asked me what I wanted to work on, what my goals for success would look like. Lots of explaining what good therapy between us would look like. It took a really bad therapist for me to appreciate the things a good therapist does.