My understanding was that sending an email was free, but she'll only reply if Waterbear pays the money. My T technically has a policy (which he's not following while the pandemic is still going on) that if an email takes him longer than 15 minutes to read and reply, he'll charge at his hourly rate at 15-minute increments. He said it's to keep him from feeling resentful of his time being used.

At first this bothered me, because my former and and former marriage counselor both never charged for outside email, calls, or texts. However, in both cases, there were conflicts at some point because the T thought I was sending too much. And they often didn't reply or would just send a sentence or two. The maybe 10 times I've gotten a paid email from my current T, it's been multiple long paragraphs in response, so it generally felt I was getting my money's worth (well, except for a couple times when his replies upset me).

Most of the time, he doesn't charge, and he still writes more than ex-T or ex-MC would--generally a few sentences, sometimes a couple short paragraphs. And he *always* replies, usually in the mornings (so it's within 24 hours of my sending it). I actually have found I prefer this method, as it also makes me really think if I want a detailed (paid) response or something brief (like a sentence or two of support/validation, which would be free). Or if I just want to get some thoughts out, and we can then discuss in session. And I generally say which thing I'd want, like, "free, brief reply preferred" or "longer, paid response OK, but please keep it under $x." It also helps me figure out what I want.