I can text or email. Technically, texting is supposed to be just for scheduling, but my T has seemed more relaxed about that lately (but perhaps not as relaxed as I'd thought, based on something recent that happened...).

Emails are always fine (even when he's on vacation), and he tends to reply to them in the morning before he starts seeing clients, though sometimes replies sooner.


He used to charge for emails that took him longer than 15 minutes total for reading and replying or would potentially charge if I sent a certain number of shorter emails within a certain time frame--he never gave specifics of that, and he ended up developing a system of green, yellow, orange, and red for me. So I could check in on where I was on that chart, so that if I might want to send an email, I would know if he might charge for it. I managed to never get in the red. He said he charged so he wouldn't get resentful of clients taking up his time (ex-T, who didn't charge for emails, eventually did get resentful).

But he stopped charging for any emails (for all clients) when the pandemic started (which I do appreciate) and hasn't resumed yet. I just had a discussion with him about this to confirm. I do try to keep any emails pretty short now and make it clear what I'm looking for from him, which he's said he appreciates.

He said he generally prefers discussing things in person rather than over email because there's such a chance of misunderstanding. And some of our conflicts/ruptures have either started or gotten worse due to an email exchange. So I try to generally wait to meet in person for bigger issues, maybe asking for an earlier session depending on what it is.

I guess his policy is rather complicated...