[confusedondid]

OK, I have found the poll on how often you have contact with your therapist outside of session very interesting but has led to more curiosity.

There seems to be a lot of the contact for scheduling reasons, changes, being late etc... and not for support.

If you will indulge me one more time, I would love to see how often you contact for support and NOT scheduling related. Also how often you have sessions. I realized the out of session contact is greatly situational to how often you actually have sessions. If you meet once a week and contact never, you had once a week contact which would also be for the person that meets once a month and then contacts out of session weekly.

I would also be curious on the typical response rate of your therapist.

Feel free to add to anything you wish in comments, I would love to see details and that's what made me realize last time that it needed more details...LOL

SOOO, this poll will be large and I understand if you don't want to mess with it, but I think the information would be VERY interesting to see. I will try to organize the best I can and into categories as follows:

1. how often you see therapist for regularly scheduled in person sessions
2. what method of out of office contact do you have: (call office and leave message, call personal phone, text, email; any of the above)
3. how often do you contact your therapist outside of sessions
4. how quickly your therapist contacts you back
5. Last section is WHY you are able to contact: Scheduling ONLY, if you are in a crisis situation which either requires outside help such as hospitalization, to help bring you down/calm you from crisis situation to prevent hospitalization, help in extreme support situations but NOT only if it is life/death, you can reach out because you are feeling stressed or bad and need to hear an encouraging word or need to just know somebody is out there and you are not alone, anytime you want for any reason you want (you found a picture you wanted to share with your therapist or heard of something you thought they might like, etc....)
6. ***** edit**** this would not fit in poll but I would be interested in responses left in replys ...... Does your therapist ever initiate the out of session contact to check in on your well being for therapeutic reasons (NOT just scheduling related though) or for nontherapeutic reasons like sending a meme they thought you would enjoy or something like that (not inappropriate in nature and the appropriateness at all can be in discussion if you want, but I just mean as a 'friendly' gesture but not related to session material)



thanks

I do want to add, because as writing this, it seems it might appear I am looking for complaints on my therapist contact policy and it is quite the opposite. For the record, I have a wonderful therapist and I do contact whenever necessary which averages about once a week, with sometimes more and sometimes less I just got wondering what the 'typical' therapists policies are. I know every therapist and every client will have different needs but it interesting to see.

[confusedondid]

ooooook, I am hoping this worked and submitting this first message to see if it worked right. Also, does anybody know if I can have an admin erase the other attempts so it doesn't clutter the board. I am so very sorry if I did the poll creation wrong or if there was some way to fix the earlier tries and I hate to have so many threads up.

Thanks

[Inner_Firefly]

Thank you for this fun poll! This is very interesting!

1. how often you see therapist for regularly scheduled in person sessions
On an as needed basis

2. what method of out of office contact do you have: (call office and leave message, call personal phone, text, email; any of the above)
office phone and leave a message

3. how often do you contact your therapist outside of sessions
I'm only allowed to call to schedule sessions. But I break the rules
max. once or twice a year for non-schedule related emergencies.

4. how quickly your therapist contacts you back
in 1-3 days usually

5. Last section is WHY you are able to contact:
Scheduling only

6. ***** edit**** this would not fit in poll but I would be interested in responses left in replys ...... Does your therapist ever initiate the out of session contact to check in on your well being for therapeutic reasons (NOT just scheduling related though) or for nontherapeutic reasons like sending a meme they thought you would enjoy or something like that (not inappropriate in nature and the appropriateness at all can be in discussion if you want, but I just mean as a 'friendly' gesture but not related to session material)
Never, I WISH SHE DID!!!!!!!!!

[stopdog]

A pollster's lot is not an easy one.
None of the #5 responses fit why I do it.

[confusedondid]

Originally Posted by stopdog

A pollster's lot is not an easy one.
None of the #5 responses fit why I do it.

sorry Stopdog, it only allowed my 25 choices so I didn't have room for adding "to say he/she sucks at job or to tell him/her to leave me alone'.... LOL

seriously though... I had 40 options the first time I tried and it was really cool, but I have been 'poll' making for 3 hours and had to edit it a great deal of the options. I thought about making multiple polls with more specifics and options for responses, but I really wanted as much as possible to see in one place and was having a hard enough time getting this one done... LOL

[waterlogged]

I can email, but my T doesn't respond (she will bring it up in session). She says I can call if I have an urgent need, but I never have, so I don't know how quickly she'd reply.

[ScarletPimpernel]

#6 No, she never initiates contact exceot for scheduling.

[skysblue]

I missed question #2 and #4 because I got confused with the number of questions. Geez, college educated me can't even understand a simple poll - ah vel

So, add to the list on #2 - I contact my T by email, text, and/or voicemail on her personal phone.

For #4 - we have an agreement that I don't expect a reply unless I ask for it. Even so, she often replies. If I ask for it, she'll respond during the same day.

#6 (not part of your poll) My T has contacted me a few times on her own initiative. Maybe 3 or 4 times in the past 6 years but each time it was an outreach that was needed and very much appreciated.

[LostOnTheTrail]

1. how often you see therapist for regularly scheduled in person sessions

I have weekly scheduled sessions.

2. what method of out of office contact do you have: (call office and leave message, call personal phone, text, email; any of the above)

I can email, text or call. I have not yet called, but have used text messages for scheduling and email for matters arising from sessions.

3. how often do you contact your therapist outside of sessions

Depends on the content, but usually once a fortnight or so.

4. how quickly your therapist contacts you back

She will respond within one to three days.

5. Last section is WHY you are able to contact:

I can contact for scheduling or for matters arising from sessions.

R has contacted me once for a scheduling mix up, but has not yet enquired as to my wellbeing between sessions.

[ruh roh]

I didn't reply to the other poll attempts, but I can see that you really want this info. I only answered two of your questions because the others didn't fit. I go twice a week and email between sessions. For me, the way it works is that I email many days of the week, but not all. Sometimes, a lot, sometimes just a sentence or two. It depends.

My therapist responds to many of my emails, but it's not guaranteed, and I am fine with it if she doesn't. Sometimes she's not available or just chooses not to for whatever reason (same way I am with people who email or call). If it's a big deal and I am really in trouble, then she does email to get me through it. For me, a sign of being in trouble is when there are calls to law enforcement (by me--usually have had an incident due to being triggered) or I have a medical appointment (which often results in a public meltdown).

I like that it's not set in stone that she will reply X number of times or to only certain types of messages. It seems to build more reliability through the unpredictability of it--sort of like the main thing is that the relationship is constant even if the communications are not. I can email as much as I want or need to (so far--it's been a little over 2 and a half years) and she doesn't freak out about that and will reply at some point. I just never know when.

Sometimes I email just for connection, although that's not what I state. It's nothing urgent, so sometimes she replies and sometimes she doesn't.

I like that she doesn't have a formula for this. For me, it has been working.

Me likee large and detailed polls!!

1. how often you see therapist for regularly scheduled in person sessions Originally weekly sometimes twice a week, currently every two weeks, but am about to take an extended break.
2. what method of out of office contact do you have: (call office and leave message, call personal phone, text, email; any of the above) I can call, text and email. I call/text only for scheduling purposes or if I really really need support. I pretty routinely email at least once the evening of or the next day following a session - my introverted self doesn't always have responses to things until later. Except for yesterday. Yesterday it all came out in session. Ugh.
3. how often do you contact your therapist outside of sessions Pretty much only the after-session emails. I am paranoid of becoming a pain in the butt.
4. how quickly your therapist contacts you back Depends on the time of day. If it's in the morning, I usually hear back the same day. If it's late in the day, usually the next day. There have been times where she has not responded at all and she told me why in the following session.
5. Last section is WHY you are able to contact: She's never put any rules on it other than making it clear from the beginning that she does not do therapy via email and she prefers to use it only for scheduling. I imagine since I've been seeing her for such a long time, she doesn't tell me not to send other stuff.
6. ***** edit**** this would not fit in poll but I would be interested in responses left in replys ...... Does your therapist ever initiate the out of session contact to check in on your well being for therapeutic reasons (NOT just scheduling related though) or for nontherapeutic reasons like sending a meme they thought you would enjoy or something like that (not inappropriate in nature and the appropriateness at all can be in discussion if you want, but I just mean as a 'friendly' gesture but not related to session material)
She does, yes. I recall back in 2013 I'd been on a break from therapy for a couple of months when my Dad passed away. I called her that morning for support, and we had a brief conversation, and then that was it. Then a couple weeks later she emailed to check on my well being. I went back to therapy maybe a month after that email. There are other times when she has sent something funny after a session that relates to what we had just talked about. I don't think she's ever initiated contact that had nothing to do with something that came up in a session.

[feralkittymom]

Didn't do the poll because too many responses assumed info that just doesn't apply for me.

Almost always one session a week. Occasional deviations.
Contact always by phone: service, personal, or office phone that only T answers.
Outside contact has always been pretty rare.
Call back within minutes to a few hours; depends upon the time I'd called.
Why? For any reason I felt necessary to call. I've never had a T restrict in any way my contact.
I've never had a T initiate contact.

My therapist and I live in different countries and we are both incredibly busy people. We dont have regularly scheduled sessions. We call/ text and say "hey can you talk?" and if we both have time, then we might talk for a couple hours. Never know when the next time will be. it could be later in the week, or two weeks later. it could be the next day. never know.

I email and text t. email daily. text maybe a couple times a week. sometimes just to say hi. sometimes to say i need to talk to her. I dont have crises anymore so that is not an issue. T gets back to me when she can. Its usually a day later, sometimes a few days or a week. We are both just so busy with many things.

[Salmon77]

I see my T twice weekly. No out of session contact for support purposes. I'm not sure if that's a policy or whatever, I just never contact him unless it's a scheduling issue.

My T has never emailed me first. I don't think I'd like it if he sent me random memes or whatever.

[velcro003]

I see my T once a week, and am allowed to email/call or text. I only use text if i really need a response quickly. Emails she sometimes responds to, sometimes not. If I call, she will always call back, sometimes not until the next day if I call late into the evening.

I put that I contact her if I am stressed or need to hear I'm not alone in the world, but I bet I would contact her if something good happened that was relevant to something in therapy.

#6: she only contacts me for cancellations.

I had an disorganized attachment style and my therapy for 18 months consisted of an attachment component. I had liberal contact by all means except text but she is a Luddite. (I used to be one myself.) One day I sent about 30 emails and she responded to 21 of them. I could see her as often as needed. In the beginning we averaged 3- sessions a week that lasted 2 1/2-3 hours each session with a one hour family session. People said it was wrong, she was a bad therapist, yada, yada, yada...they were wrong. My life has turned itself around and now I actually enjoy my life and its challenges. Previously, I woke every morning for 40 years wanting to be dead. Suicide is not even make my bucket list of a 1000 things I want to do. I'm doing things that most people do in their youth and young adult years. I do count myself lucky to have a therapist like I had. One important question for me was, "How long is this snake oil going to take?" She said 18 - 24 months. I did not believe her. But she was right, I was done in 18 months.

[satsuma]

I think it's hard to separate life and human experience into discrete named categories, although sometimes it's necessary to try. Because life is complex!!
Maybe it's also interesting and fun to try?
I will have a go at the poll.

[confusedondid]

wow, this was very interesting to see how varied all the theraputic relationships are