Yes, exactly. My T uses a policy where he bills for his time (at same rate as sessions, but in quarter hours) for emails over a certain length and frequency (though he's mostly suspended it for all clients during the pandemic). But he's said he does that so he's still getting paid and won't come to resent clients for taking up time with emails. Texts are only for scheduling, and he only does scheduled, paid phone calls, except if it was a client trying to determine if they need to go to the ER or not (even then, he said he turns off his phone at 8:30 or 9).

So he allows emails, but has boundaries. I could see a T handling it where there's a charge for time spent on any email that isn't billing (like, "Could you please send me the invoice for last session? I haven't received it" or scheduling-related). My T is just a bit more lenient.

I think as long as any billing policies for outside contact are laid out from the start of working with a client, it's fine. And the client would just need to decide whether or not they could accept it. To me, the problem arises when a therapist is unclear about their policies--or doesn't have any to begin with (ex-T and ex-MC, in my case)--and then it can get messy. Or if they don't communicate with the client that the client is contacting them too much until they're at a breaking point.