Dont answer that phone!

i agree that is completely unacceptable. my t's desk phone rang once at the beginning of a session and he disconnected it. it's never rang since but i would be furious if he answered it. totally inexcusable.

(((Trin)))

I am so sorry. You are not over reacting, that is some distressing s h i t. My t's phone buzzes a lot...he used to read the text messages during my session but someone on here told me to ask "am I boring you?" when he did it. I tried that and it worked, he hasn't read a message since. I remember how I felt totally unimportant when he used to do that.

I hope you find a new T...I wish I could help you find one, this is sucking more and more each week. And so what if it's free...you deserve to be respected.

we were hoping to wake up feeling even a little better today but if anything we feel worse this is just so stupid we shouldnt be reacting this badly to it!

I am sooo sorry that happened to you! My T's phone rang during session once but she got really embarrassed and shut it off and apologized. I hope you find someone new, and what happened to you is inexcusable! I pray you will find who you need, and someone who you can trust to value your time and your emotions.

Hugs to you

I would be terribly upset in your position. I am glad you wrote and expressed your wish that your sessions be abut you--she's getting paid to be focusing on you for that set amount of time, after all!

My T's office phone rings once and goes to voicemail; he has never answered it. Twice he has told me at the beginning of session that he has a personal emergency and may have to take a call. Both times he stepped outside the office and handled it promptly, and although it felt weird, I believe him that they were badly timed emergencies. I would have been very uncomfortable if he had spoken on the phone in front of me when I was in the middle of sharing something big! You have a right to be irritated and a right to ask that your T respect your time.

I hope she handles it well!

I'm glad you sent her a note letting her know how unprofessional she has been. It's one thing to have someone interrupt a session with something URGENT (like the building is on fire) but short of an emergency your session shouldn't be interrupted, shocked that your therapist even has her phone ringer on.

As regards phone being on, my T works from home and her landline needs to be on for messages etc. Obviously as I've said she doesn't answer it and the door between the room we're in and the one containing the phone is always shut, so it is mimimally intrusive. He mobile phone is never turned on in session. Not sure of OP is refering to landline or mobile, but just thought I'd mention this.

it was her cellphone,dont think she has a landline at her office♥

I'm sorry that I've only just seen this, Trinity.. and I'm even more sorry that you were put in such an awful situation!!!

Has she replied to the e-mail you sent yet? I'm very interested to see what she has to say for herself!



Edit: Apologies for the silly question, I quickly skimmed over the posts and somehow managed to miss that you'd already answered my question!

no she hasnt replied and chances are very likely she wont until the very earliest on monday as her work week is only mon-weds

thank you so much everyone for validating that we are right in feeling the way we do♥

sorry was reading through this topic and something you said TD caught my eye, I dont know if anyone else responded to it but I jumped to respond: you mentioned that you are seen for free and then something along the lines of its to be expected, not at all! my T i see for free and she would never dream of answering her phone in a session, infact she does not even bring her phone into a session, ive only seen it once and that was because we couldnt access the computer so she done a google search on her phone with me.

there is no reason other than an actual emergencie that a T should answer a phone call/email or even a knock at the door during sessions. im sorry your T was so rude *hugs*

so now we still sit with the feelings left from the session and its only getting worse....this is not what we asked for

TD, sounds like you have been doing really good work. You worked up the courage to tackle this and you wrote that very good email to your T! I agree that you have every reason to be upset with what happened.

Additionally, I'm wondering if you got triggered too? All of us who grew up with issues and dysfunctional families, we felt/feel unimportant because of how we were treated while growing up. It sounds like what your T did could have triggered this feeling of not feeling important? So you feel bad because of that instance with your T PLUS you feel bad from a lifetime of bad choices of others that affected you deeply?

yes thats a definite possibility. we felt like her outside things had more value than we did and that is very much how we felt from childhood on-unimportant and having zero worth and value. as if we just were non-existent even if only in that moment.

she replied-we posted it in a new thread if anyone wants to see it♥

TD, I was wondering if there is a patient advocate where you recieve therapy, that you could talk to about the way you are being treated by your therapist?

The MH Center I go to for therapy has a client/patient advocate. When ever I have felt that I needed to talk with her about an issue, I did not hesitate to contact her. She has always worked with me, till the problem was solved to my satifaction. Most of my issues where financial, but others were from when I was in the inpatient hospital.

The Center also has a sliding fee scale. I currently have a 0 copay on that scale, because I am currently out of work. But I feel I get treated with the same amount of respect as the highter paying clients.

There was only one time in the middle of January, when my T's furnace went out, she asked if she got a phone call, would I mind if she answered it. She then explained about her furnace, and I was more then happy to let her have the time she needed on the phone, if her repairman called during our session.

thornsandroses,she is a private counselor so unfortunately we have no recourse there. if we tried to report her we most likely will come off looking and sounding like disturbed idiots.

I'm so sorry!!!!

Trinity, I read your other thread and I agree with you, an animal by no means should trump a human. If she feels that she needs to attend to a family emergency the she should have them text and just say it's a human emergency or an animal emergency. If it's a animal emergency, then she can all them back AFTER the session! Texting would still interrupt the session but only for a second or two. I am wondering if this is something she would consider. I read in the other thread where she projected the issue back onto you, when it was her unprofessionalism that was the issue here! Again I am so sorry,