when a therapist interupts the session

with a phonecall or something else, how many people question him/her about it? (and if so, what's your response?), and how many people just leave it

when my therapist interupts the session for a phonecall, I always ask if I can have extra time (given some of my original time was used for her call), but quite often I am told no, the call was urgent, it needed to be taken, but that doesn't entitle you to extra time

I have had a few get nasty, 1 completely ignore me, and 1 who knew I hated so much so while she was talking to me she texted (because she knew I hated it)

what's your experience

My T has only taken, that I can remember, 1 phone call during my session--in 30+ years. It was when she was dealing with bladder cancer. I said nothing about it after she came back to the room. Other times she's accidentally left her phone on, but now remembers to turn it off, or, if not, looks at it briefly, but doesn't respond.

My therapist has never taken a phonecall, answered a text, or checked her phone during one my sessions. For her to do so would be exceedingly strange and I would feel marginalised. Very rarely, there have been other interruptions such as her landline phone ringing or a knock at the door, but she has acknowledged the interruption (I have stopped speaking when that has happened) and she has made no attempt to answer it. On one occasion, her partner's phone started ringing loudly in another room and she was visibly annoyed by it. Anyway, on the rare occasion when these interruptions happen, she uses the opportunity to stress that I am her priority at that time and that she won't divert her attention. Very nice, but it makes me question why she doesn't minimise the chance of these interruptions by silencing her landline or ensuring her partner's phone is muted, but whatever, she doesn't pay attention to detail and that's just her.

I don't remember that ever happening in all of my years of therapy with multiple therapists.

My psychiatrist would occasionally get interrupted because he headed the hospital's mental health in-patient unit and had patients who occasionally had emergency needs that the hospital needed his input on. That didn't bother me because I didn't use him for therapy - really not a big deal.

A couple of times years ago, he was 'on call' but he warned me about it. I think he only took 1 call and apologised and gave me extra time. Otherwise his phone was always off.

What sort of calls is she taking?

Long term T answered the phone once because she thought it was an emergency when it wasn't, she quickly told the caller she was with a client and needed to go. She apologized and we moved on.

Both of my Ts have done way over our session time so I wouldn't ask them to go over.

I definitely remember No. 2’s phone ringing once, and she reached out and turned it off.

I think if the call is long, like more than five minutes, you should get your time. I also think that if the call is from another client, they should not be talking to them in front of you for privacy reasons. And if it is not from a client, they should warn you at the start that they may need to take an emergency call from a family member or whoever.

My therapist never took a phone call or texted during session in my four years with her.

In fact, often she was using her phone when I arrived but always put the phone away instantly.

I've had four therapists and I would have been really shocked if any of them had just answered a call during my session. Their phones were put away and silenced.

I would feel disrespected if my therapist was monitoring her calls and answering them during my sessions.

The few times a therapist forgot to silence their phone and it made a noise in my session, they were really apologetic.

Current T's phone has rang once she was visibly embarrassed, I told her to check it because it could have been an emergency with her child. She looked at it and realized it was not so she turned the phone off and apologized. She explained that her phone was normally off. She also explained that she has her phone set up so that even while off if her husband or child's daycare has an emergency the will call twice in a few seconds which will cause the phone to ring

My T has never really interrupted my session. There's times where his phone rings multiple times, he'll then ask for a second and quickly switch it off. There was also one time when another therapist knocked to ask whether my T is around so he doesn't have to lock the door, that one bothered me, but only because of that other therapist, my T just gave a one word answer and then focused on me again.

I'd probably not call a T out when they'd take a phone call or something else, but depending on whether I had been seeing this T for a while or not, either I'd tell them if it bothered me some time later (probably the session after) or I'd go search for a new one unless they had a good explanation.

Current T has never answered the phone or anything during session. Last session I told her I needed to keep my phone on because my cat was at the vet and they could call me (they had already called me twice that day, once to see when Esther had eaten, and once to have me approve an additional test). She was fine with me having my phone on for that reason, though I apologized and told her I usually have it off.


Current T was interrupted once by someone pounding on the outer door. This was in her last office before this one that she is in now. She excused herself from me, calmly told the client she was not done with her current appointment and to please have a seat in the waiting room. She apologized to me and we finished our session, going over about 10 minutes as I recall. She usually runs a bit late but she makes up the time with me.

Former T was occasionally interrupted by the phone. She would be annoyed, likely at herself for not having turned it off, and would apologize to me. There were a few other interruptions during our ten year time together but she always apologized, made them as brief as possible and made me feel like I was the center of her attention for the therapy hour.

Thankfully none of the T's I've seen ever answered the phone during session. I'd be shocked and upset if they did because barring the possibly of receiving an urgent call regarding a family member or something, it's not really acceptable under any circumstances.

I did have someone literally burst into the session when I was seeing a former T at an agency - the woman went into the wrong room! It totally scared me and horrified my poor T who was really upset that it had happened. It was a one off but left me on edge for a while.

I had someone knock on the door on two occasions when seeing my first T and both times she answered it but told them to come back another time. I didn't like that she even answered it but at least she didn't engage with them.

The part about your receiving calls has me curious. Like you if I think I may receive a call from somebody I will tell my T up front as i feel it would be rude not to. My T seems almost surprised that I mention it because it is my hour I dont need to clear anything like that. Once my daughter did call and we stopped the appointment foe a couple of moments while I took the call. After I apologized and T said I never have to be sorry for being a good mom.

We paused a session once because someone was yelling in the waiting room and he went to check what was happening. But my T has never answered a phone or anything like that. I would be very upset if he did.

My psychologist does take calls during session, but they are very short. So, it doesn't bother me nor does it interrupt anything. As far as me receiving phone calls, I let everyone know that I will be at a doctor's appointment during the time I will be seeing him. If it really is a big crisis, I don't schedule anything for that day.

Not a phone call or a knock on the door but within the first few appointments with T, just as we were settling in the view alarm went off in the building. She went out and realized the alarm that was set off was in the stairwell. There was a housekeeper cleaning and caused a ton of dust that we thought set the alarm off. She came back to the room an asked if I felt we should go outside or stay in. I honestly didn't care and told her so. She was visibly struggling with what to do. LOL. I reassured her I would be okay with going out if it made her more comfortable. In the end she named that she was struggling because the rules say she has to go out even though it was dust. In the end we stayed in.

If my therapist answered her phone during my session I’d walk out.

My T gets super upset if he forgets to turn his ringer off! He would NEVER answer! If there was some kind of super big crisis but he felt he couldn’t cancel on me for what ever reason he *might* give me the choice between knowing there may be an interruption or rescheduling ... but I can’t honestly imagine what would get him to do that. He would absolutely go over our end time by the length of time he was distracted.