Any of your Ts holding their summer vacation?

Mine is and I’m feeling slightly worried. It’s silly, I mean, I did okay all those years before I met her.
It’s 3 weeks. Last summer I had a temporary therapist in the meantime I could text if I had to and who I had sessions with..

It's not silly.

R goes away the whole of august and did so last year too. But he gave me email contact and a full session online whilst he was away.

Temporary one sounds like a good idea to do again, Mat, if you can manage it, considering what you're going through right now. Knowing you had someone you could contact, even if you never did, might be a helpful mental prop.

My t is going away for just a week and a half. Next week actually. And while it’s not a long time, it’s coming at a time that I have been relying on him a lot with weekly appointments and some outside contact so it’s coming at a not so great time for me.

Mine does have a vacation scheduled for the Summer and I do understand that. I know if I have issues during that time I am to immediately call my Psychiatrist that I see on a less frequent basis.

My T is going to a training... but it seems like he is out of the office at least one full week every other month. He knows it bothers me and it making the process slower for me and he feels really badly. A lot of these things were planned before he took me on as a client though and most of them are trainings so he can be a better T. This last time he felt so badly he told me he was missing an annual family trip because of this training.

I asked her and she said she wasnt sure. She might go visit a friend in California, her family might go visit her husband's friend down south or her husband may go with the child and she stays home. Her mother-in-law is coming for a visit she may or may not take time work. IF she does any of it, she would only do a weeks vacation.

What do you mean by "holding?"

Well I have mentioned before our mentalhealth care workers are humans. They deserve the same rights and freedoms we have. Would you feel it right if your employer and/or clients expected you to not take a holiday or personal time? I am pretty sure you'd be irate.

But I do understand the anxiety of not being able to see them. A professional therapist would recognise this and make arrangements for such while they were away.

By the way, I would personally never make contact with my own therapist or psychiatrist while they are away. They deserve to be free from work responsibilities while on their personal time. Again, wouldn't you expect this? So, if it were me I'd do everything I could to respect this. Afterall, there are supports out there if I am having a difficult week or two - other therapists in the office (many will provide their clients an on call temporary therapist while away), a crisis line, and even your personal family physician. Ultimately there is the hospital. However, I am pretty sure that one can manage being apart from their therapist for a week or two. If the situation is bad enough that they can't then the option of the family doctor or hospital is likely the most realistic thing to do.

What would you not appreciate if your roles were reversed? What would you tell a friend in the same situation to do.

In the meantime, I hope that you can get through the holiday without any events. Great luck and perhaps you can make the most of your own time away

I agree about the Ts needing vacation and to get away. I also agree they should be on vacation, howver, it can be very difficult. The few times that T took a vacation she always wanted me to email her to check in especially when we were in the middle of some deeply emotional work. I always told her I wanted her to enjoy er vacation and not worry about me. She told me it was her vacation and she got to decide if she wanted patient contact or not. If she offered / asked me to email her it was vecause she was making that choice.

We agreed I would email her and that she would email me back when she had time in between whatever she had going with family.

Well, I wouldn't jump to conclusions and rain judgement down on my friend. And I don't think it's my place to "tell my friend what to do" unless they ask for my advice.

I don't know what you took from OP's brief post that gave you the impression they needed to be informed of their therapist's right to a vacation. I also don't know why you wrote a whole paragraph as if OP said they were going to contact said therapist during the vacation (and was soliciting opinions on that). OP stated that last summer they had a temporary therapist during the vacation whom they could text if needed. They said absolutely nothing indicating any sort of beliefs about their therapist going on vacation or intentions about contacting their therapist during that vacation.

Maybe you're not aware and are truly trying to be helpful, but frequently your replies come across as attempts to subtly shame people in the guise of gentle correction. Yet nobody here can claim to be the ultimate authority on how to do things in therapy, including you.

Do you think someone will be covering for your therapist that you can contact if you need to, Mat?

Hi Mopey. Yes I have a session with my psychiatrist in about a week, so that’s good. He’s part of the team I’m seeing.
Maybe we’ll schedule again after that.

Good to hear, Mat. That sounds positive.