Curious if anyone might understand my therapists tactic here?

Be braver than I was and confront him about it Petra. Otherwise the pain will keep following you around.

Thanks everyone for your replies. I feel like I gave the impression he's texting every session, and he's not. Very sorry if I was misleading, I was very emotional when I made the post. What I meant was, I know he reads emails and is tech savvy, and I guess as pointed out I assumed he is also emailing texting clients. He's not texting throughout my sessions. It's happened a handful of times and it is never more than a 20 second distraction. I feel much better about things now, I really think a lot of this is me and my issues.

Part of my problem is not knowing how to confront him, if that makes sense. All that comes to mind is yelling something, or a passive aggressive comment, or downplaying it to the point it's like I never confronted him at all. I'll have to try now won't I!

Thank you, this was very very helpful. We're doing good work.

I'm glad you get this feeling from your therapist! I'm jealous really, this sentence hurt quite a lot, because I don't really have anyone that I think would be there for me in a crisis, I suppose it would depend on the crisis. If the crisis is emotional, then yes, I've never felt I had someone who wouldn't leave me. I only emailed the therapist to begin with because I had no one else at the moment, it is extremely pathetic. Anyways, I'm done with my self pitying now... overall thank you so much!

I will.

I'm sorry that I wrote that. I was trying to help, not make you feel worse...but I never think things through adequately.

Actually, my therapist would probably tell me to go to a hospital ED if I was in a real crisis. I was referring to his responding when i text about similar feelings that you described. I don't even know what a 'real crisis' for me would consist of but can't see myself ever going to a mental hospital. I have supplies of short-acting antipsychotics and anxiolytics for if I ever got suicidal, psychotic, or panic attacks. So I bet I'd have to take care of myself if things got too bad.

I still think you should really tell him everything and also ask him about texting instead of e-mailing. Nothing has to be confronting. Sometimes I say - I felt sad, like you didn't care when you did ____. Just describing how you felt would be a good start.

Hope you are having a better day.

OMG, seriously don't be sorry!! I ended up getting a much delayed response from my T, but your post actually got me over it before he replied... reading through those questions you had I realized I never explained to him I was feeling in a crisis mode in my email, I just sent cold facts, and also I have done a bad job telling him how I feel. I actually checked your page to see if you were a therapist, lol!

(((Petra5ed)))

I wouldn't say a bad job. It makes us so vulnerable to talk about this kind of stuff...

In my view, the stuff you talked about here *is the content of the therapy*, so it should be front and center, rather than the other way around.

I hope you tell him EVERYTHING you said here...Let us know how it goes.

All else aside, even a "handful" of times where he was using his phone is unacceptable, unprofessional, and just plain bad therapy. Also RUDE. You are paying for a certain amount of his time and attention. I would confront him about this, and if necessary, file a complaint. It is NOT acceptable.