Couch 162: Let's Play Ball! (The Baseball Couch)

I wonder how squirrel is doing. And bay brony. And ellamae.

Morning couch! It's Friday morning here and I'm ready to head to work for a lil more overtime today and then it will be the weekend and I am looking forward to it! My discussion posts are due Wednesday, so I'm going to work on those.

Have a good day/night all and hugs/headnods as appropriate.

Oh, and Anais. I'm hoping she's too busy being deliriously happy with the new dude.

It’s been forever since I’ve seen bay brony around. Ellamae comes on in spurts-every 6 months or so. Haven’t seen squirrel since she mentioned she got the high school teaching job.

This work week is crazy. I do what I do because I like children as long as I can give them back to someone else at the end of the day. I make a good nanny, I would not make a good mom. But this has been a long week. And I don’t have any energy left. Today I only work 9 hours instead of 10 so I’m done at 5. 4 1/2 hours to go. I love the kids I take care of. But I’m ready for the weekend and be around adults.

Good: Found out today that my T does have a plan in place in case he dies or is incapacitated. Slightly less good: It involves his wife going into his client list and sending a form e-mail. Which I feel a little weird about maybe. Plus...I mean, what if something happens to both of them?

Of course I asked him this right at end of session, since he'll be away next week. I apologized for being morbid, but he understood. I did wish him a "safe travels!" when I left. (Seemed a bit less morbid than "Please don't die.")

His wife? Is she a licensed mental health care professional who knows the legal expectations like privacy? He doesn’t have a colleague who can do it?

Between a grieving wife who might not be thinking about clients in the immediate aftermath of her loss and a form letter, that’s a lousy plan. The best that can be said of it is it’s better than nothing.

ETA: all the ones whose plans I knew had a designated colleague who would make personal contact (phone call).

I don't know what his wife does for a living, but he's never suggested that she's a T (or other mental health professional). Hm, and the fact that he said the e-mail would say that his files would be transferred to another licensed mental health professional whose contact info would be in the e-mail implies that she isn't...Because I'd think otherwise, they'd be transferred to her.

My guess is...maybe he has a file somewhere that she has access to that has all of his clients' e-mail and/or physical addresses (maybe without other identifying info? Hopefully?) But yeah, that does seem bad to put on her...almost like it should go to an attorney or something like that instead.

He's in private practice, like it's just him (his name, LLC), no official coworkers (other T's work in the same office space, but he owns the space and rents that space to them--it's not a practice, like with MC/ex-T). But still, I'd imagine he could have another T do it...that his wife could contact.

My t didn't have a plan til I kept pestering about it during our phone session years. She made one, gave my info to her sister who is a nurse to contact me in the event. That's been quite a while ago she may have something more formal in place now I haven't asked.

All of mine with plans have been in private practice by themselves. And yet they all found a colleague who would take on responsibilities if something happened to them. I don't understand why the person receiving the files can't do it. It seems like an unnecessary step to me to involve the wife.

eta: and DBC's husband was her office manager, but she still had a designated colleague.

Ime, t spouses often handle the billing.

Oh, I hand my credit card directly to T, so pretty sure he handles that

Does the receipt have a cheery message like some stores put on them? I used my credit card a few times with No. 1, and her receipts said at the bottom, "Please come again!" Which I found hilarious.

*sigh*

This week I needed a day between therapy and pottery, but I never work that out until I get to pottery and experience failure of brain and hands. Will be discussing this with R next week, so that we can schedule future sessions more helpfully.

I'm always a little overwrought after a deep session.

"Thank you for your business - we appreciate it very much."

Which sort of amuses me...especially because it's just him. Who is this "we"? Unless he means his family?

I never ask my t for receipts, I should next time to see if it has a message.

I've sure been thinking about her a lot this week. I wonder why...

I would push back hard against this. He isn't allowed to disclose your identity to his wife while he's alive. Why can your privacy be breached just because he's dead? (Assuming here that she is not a licensed mental health professional.) I also think the caring thing to do is to give your clients a personal phone call from somebody who can help break the news kindly and offer immediate support. A dead therapist is a big deal, and a form letter randomly popping into your inbox sounds completely traumatizing. I agree with @@ that his plan is only slightly better than nothing.

Also, private practice or no, I hope he has at least one other therapist colleague nearby who could be his designated informer. I'm sure he is friendly with at least a few local therapists with whom he trades referrals. This isn't something a grieving widow should be tapped to do.

On a lighter note, I checked my T's emailed receipts and they have no cheery message on the bottom. Does she not appreciate my business or wish I would come again? I guess it just depends on how much rage I dumped into her lap that day!

Blondie’s cheery receipt message is “The full fee will be charged if a session is cancelled with less than 24 hours notice”. She didn’t have that earlier.

Oddly, I have absolutely no desire to know or even have that conversation with Blondie on what’ll happen if she kicks the bucket.

I have always paid by tossing cash (the first woman) or placing a check (the second one) on their table as I leave. The first sent me a monthly receipt and the second did for awhile but then lost her accountant and stopped doing it. I never thought about getting a receipt at the time of the appointment or by paying with a credit card.

Well, I am off to beard the wood nymph in her den. Lair? Tree trunk? Aerie? Wherever it is that the wood nymphs hang out.

I think in a cowslip's bell they lie.

Can we do that if we're being monogamous? Asking for a friend...

Guys, any thoughts on this? So my T texts with me on fridays and we did again today, I found out he is going to this new local cat place next weekend, it opens this weekend but its gonna be busy, anyway my sort of friend that I sometimes hang with had asked me over a week ago if I could go with her to check it out, also next weekend. I've been trying to push myself to do things besides lay around and mope, so animals get me out.

Anyway, as much as I love the idea of potentially running into him, I know I'm not allowed to, all these rules give me such stress. so is it best to just cancel on her ? i don't wanna make life uncomfortable for him.

I didn't just toss a la SD one time when I was mad I may have frisbee'd my debit card at t.