cell phone etiquette

I've heard her phone vibrate once or twice, and it is slightly disconcerting, though she does ignore it. Once when I started a session she apologized because apparently her husband was trying to find bathing suits for hte kids for a birthday party, and she needed to text him back. I was fine with that. Other than that, it sits behind her on her desk unless she is showing me something on it.

Ugh.... yes. This was a huge pet peeve of mine with my previous T.

10 years ago (approximately) - none of the Ts that I saw had their phones on during session, unless it was an accident, or they were expecting an emergency call. If they were expecting an important call, they'd mention it, as in, "I'm so sorry, I need to keep the phone on... my daughter is in the hospital and I may need to take a call."

This last T charged $250/hour, and kept his phone on, and checked text messages as they came in. Routinely. As in, every session.

It seems so hugely unprofessional and un-therapeutic to me. Nothing says, "you're not a priority" like glancing at a text message in the middle of a session.

Hm... you know, that's interesting to me. I just heard someone saying that the way you build trust is for your words and actions to match over time. My T told me, several times, that I was important, a priority, he cared, etc. Little things like this make me understand why I had trouble believing him. Interesting, thanks for bringing this up!

Pdoc always answers his phone during sessions. Usually it's the ward he's the head of calling, and he'll say "I'm in an appointment right now, but I'll be back around 16.00" and that's that. T sometimes picks up the phone and sometimes she doesn't. It doesn't really bother me either way.

By the way - I do look at my phone in session if it rings. If they are allowed to, so am I.

I had two therapists who answered the phone. One was to give directions for a furniture delivery, which I found deeply irritating, but she was a terrible therapist anyway. If She had been helpful it probably wouldn't have been that big a deal, as she had warned me in advance and I can understand the conundrum of such a thing.

The other was this very bad therapist who answered the phone when a new prospective client was calling. That was a very stupid thing to do but I felt sorry for the guy as he was such a bad therapist. I didn't stay with him long.

My current therapist usually has his phone on the table but on silent and turned upside down. He's apologized the few times he's forgotten to silence it and did so immediately. I wouldn't tolerate a therapist who answered the phone or texted. It's a very strange thing to do when I'm paying three bucks a minute for someone's time. I appreciate a therapist with some self-awareness and impulse control.

My T never has her phone in session, she works from her home office and occasionally I'll hear the land line ring but she never wavers in paying attention to me. Every now and then the postman will put something through the letterbox or something like that but it would take a near disaster for her to interrupt my session for something happening outside the room.

That would really tick me off! To me, it's rude and inconsiderate of your time together. T's focus should be completely on YOU! I can only think one time in almost 2 years that T's cell phone has rang. He silenced it immediately and apologized for not putting it on silent before the session. I never even notice his phone on his desk, but I'm guessing it's there, just out of sight. I'd bring it up for sure!

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I usually hold on to my cell for deal life when I'm in session because it actually calms me down, I fidget with it and stuff. It's always faced down and on my lap and on silent. My T usually leaves her cell phone on her office desk, so if she needed it she would have to get up to grab it.

A few times though it has rung and my T was so upset and told me that she didn't know how to turn it on silent so I had to teacher that :P Now she leaves it on that desk and on silent. The only time she takes the phone is whenever she wants to show me some anxiety soothing apps or when I have to pay I need to sign on the phone.

After teaching her how to turn it on silent I haven't had a problem with it again :P

It would bother me though if my T picked up a call (unless of course it was an emergency) or answered texts. It would make me feel uncomfortable and that my T isn't present with what im saying.

I've never seen or heard my t cell phone.

My was exactly the same, it drove me crazy, and I let her know it. It pissed her off when I called her on it. I'm like, excuse me, this is MY time, not yours.

I've never seen or heard my T's mobile phone. What's holding you back from talking to your T about this?

My therapist has his phone around but it is on silent. If he occasionally forgets to change the settings and it does happen to ring, he apologizes and sets it to silent. He has once answered a semi-ersonal call but it was befoee we began the session and he asked for my permission first. I like his way of dealing with this. I think he mayu have mentioned the possibility of an urgent call about 5 years ago or more, in the beginning of our therapy; that only happened once and he warned me he might have to pick up but the phone did not actually ring that session.

I have had only one experience with a phone ringing and my pdoc looked so embarrassed I felt bad for him. Needless to say, he didn't answer it. My T has her cell phone hidden somewhere because I never see it or hear it.

I would be very upset if either my t or pdoc had their phone close by and even thought of looking at them during my session. I would like to think I would have the courage to comment on this to them but I am a bit timid when it comes to confrontation. It would depend on if this was a chronic problem or just a one time situation. If chronic I would be pissed off enough to say something.

I would be very upset. Any disruption in t can essentially the theraputic conversation to end for the topic. T had her phone on the table next to get her chair forever she never looks at it. It did ring once in a session. She was upset and went to torn it off and realized it was an elderly friend who never calls her during business hours. T was concerned it might be an emergency so I told her to take the call. It was not an emergency so t immediately told her she was in with somebody and would call her at the end of the day. T apologized multiple times.

T encourages me t keep my phone on as I have busy teens and a kiddo at college. She knows I stress about being unavailable to them in am emergency. If I get any notifications she asks if I need to take it. I have twice..

My T keeps her phone on her desk behind her. There has only been one time during a session that it started going off and she got up to put it on silent and kept apologizing. I have only heard her cell phone go off once. I record my sessions so I have mine on the arm of the chair I sit in.

It would really bother me and be a deal breaker for me if a T answered the phone or was reading texts during a session. Emergency calls are fine. I would feel like she was not giving me her undivided attention and that she didn't find my time important.

For years I wasn't sure if my therapist had a cell phone, but in her new office it is always on her desk, face down and has never made a peep.

My t keeps his cell by him. It does occassionaly vibrate....he glances at it...and thats it. It doesnt break his train of thought . He continues....i lose my thought n get distracted. I start thinking somebody needs him right now. Its another client. Or family maybe. N i even wonder if hes now thinking about this caller and its reasons for calling.
Not sure y he would choose to put it on vibrate rather than silent?

Its pretty cool that some of u have never seen your T's cell phone.

My therapist once asked me if it was ok for her to have her cell phone out as her husband had just been released from the hospital and she wanted her phone nearby so she could have piece of mind around that situation. I thought it was considerate of her to ask me if it was ok. Of course I was fine with it in that situation. On any other non-emergency situation, I don't want to see my t's cell phone out at all. Not even for time usage (hello, clock).

I would take my t's cell phone being out as a sign that something far more important than dealing with my stuff might come up for her. I would just find it rude and disrespectful. Pretty sure an adult can wait 90 minutes to check their text messages, especially if I'm paying for that time. Rude, rude, rude. Sorry - cell phone usage is a major pet peeve of mine.

I would say that generally speaking, the t hour is your time and yours alone. If your T cannot provide you with undistracted attention for the hour, s/he should reschedule the appointment for a time when that is possible. If s/he will not do that, maybe it is time to find another T.

My T keeps her cell in her purse. It's gone off once or twice during session, and she's apologized profusely and gone and turned it off.

Marriage counselor keeps his cell in his pocket, and if he gets a call/text, he'll often just say "I just need to look at the number." His wife has had some serious health issues, so I assume it's a case where he needs to make sure it's not a call about that. Or maybe one of his teenage kids. He's usually very quick about checking, but I will admit it can disrupt my train of thought. One time he did have to return a call, but it was right at the start of session and was, I believe, related to his wife's illness (at the time, just knew it was a family emergency), but then he came right back in and made up the time at the end.

He does seem to check his cell between clients, which I appreciate, because it let him get back to a text of mine today within an hour (it was 5 minutes before the hour, so presumably between clients) after a distressing session with my T.

Cell phones are a deal breaker for me. If I were looking for a therapist now I would tell them they are to put away their cell phones, computers, and turn off the ringer and silence their voice mail if we are going to work together.

That said, I had all sorts of alarms on my cell phone and iPad go off in therapy when I was really scattered, and we dealt with it. Usuallythe phone ringer was turned off, but once I forgot, and my mom called. The therapist got to see a typical interaction between us. As I complained and finished she did Give me her observation; what my mom was saying came from a caring place. There was a big positive shift in my relationship with my mom.

Generally T has his phone somewhere close to him.. Whether it be in his pants or shirt pocket, or sitting next to him on his side table. It is always on silent, but he has sometimes looked at it when a call or text came in. He has two teenagers who are at home by themselves afterschool and one of them has a chronic medical issue so, I have no problem with him just checking to see who is texting or calling him. He has once taken a call from his cell in the middle of my session.. I was very thrown by that, after he came back and apologized and said something like it has just been one of those days. So, he was dealing with something. He has answered his office phone a couple of times too, but he can see it is the receptionists in the office calling and if they are calling during the middle of session it is something that needs answer or be dealt with right then or they wouldn't have called him. And maybe I am so forgiving of phone usage because I keep my phone close and check it when a text or call comes in mainly because my kids are generally in the care of somebody else when I am at T's and I want to make sure there are not emergencies and my son has a number of chronic medical issues too, so that is why I keep mine close.