for example, it is not uncommon for a school counselor to also be the coach of a sports team, thus filling both a counselor and a coach role for students. the estimated time between therapy termination and post-therapy contact ranged from a few weeks to two years. she had been friends with my mom some, but then she got to be closer with me, and we talked on the phone and we were like friends and went out quite a bit, and i went to workshops that she did. there’s just a real warm regard and mutual interest.” lanette: “i think to me the post-treatment contact … has been kind of leveling, kind of humanizing. and up to a year of termination was the thought. we’d already gone through a winding down emotionally, and he had preferred to see me once a week until the day that i left. i think the fact that i have trouble calling her or taking the initiative has to do with the fact that she is about the age of my mother and some of the difficulty of relating to my mom.
i don’t want her to get mad if i don’t call and she knows i’ve been in town. i did that a couple of times and it was like, ‘i can let this go.’” 4) beneficial, yet confusing: these former clients initiated the post-therapy contact. it is hard for me to completely not have her in that role.” jewell: “i don’t want to bother her, and i didn’t know if i would be bothering her or not with that. as a counselor, i care deeply about my clients and really enjoy the company of some in particular, and i will definitely miss them when they finish counseling. it’s sad to think that a potentially wonderful friendship is prevented from growing because of over-analysis and over thinking the matter. but i totally agree with the article: this should be up to the client. i would like to join a professional organization of therapists who practice this form of therapy, but i recently found out my former therapist is on the board of directors for the organization and that membership must be approved by the board.
my job is to be a good listener who respects and empathizes with the person sitting across from me. here’s why the prospect of becoming friends with your former therapist is so much more nuanced than “i like you, you like me, let’s hang out.” you might be wondering if your former therapist would even be allowed to be your friend, given how ethically rigorous the mental health field is. well, there’s the huge and inconvenient fact that the former patient-therapist relationship is pretty incompatible with the dynamics of a good, healthy friendship. there is an intrinsic power difference in a therapeutic relationship that is not an issue in organic friendship.” in order for therapy to work, you need to be vulnerable enough that your therapist can explore what makes you tick, usually on a much deeper level than you would with a new friend.
you might realize that, wow, you’ve actually poured a ton of work into this process and don’t need the constant presence of your therapist in order to achieve happiness or success. but it can be harder for a patient to know the difference between genuinely liking a therapist and transference. this is always going to be case by case, but it will unfortunately most often make sense for a former therapist and patient to keep any friendliness pretty surface-level. ultimately, as palmiter notes, “it is easier to find a good friend than a good therapist.” i would have to agree with that one.
two participants saw the power within the post-therapy relationship as being more or less equal. the other seven participants described the ending the therapeutic relationship properly can allow them to practice coping with fresh loss with the new skills they’ve learned. even if you’ your therapist should not be a close friend because that would create what’s called a dual relationship, something that is unethical in therapy., romantic relationship between therapist and client, therapist client relationship ethics, therapist client relationship ethics, can you date your therapist after therapy, therapist contact after termination.
my former therapist and i became friends 1 year after therapy ended. anyone else have a similar experience where a friendship occurred post therapy? a dual relationship arises when the client and therapist have an additional relationship which exists outside of the therapeutic frame. perhaps i know there are ethical codes concerning personal relationships between t’s and clients while the are in a professional relationship., i married my former therapist, counseling clients who know each other, client-therapist relationship, contacting former therapist, therapist-client relationship boundaries, i am a therapist in love with my client, inappropriate relationship with therapist, can a therapist treat someone they know, friendships with former clients are prohibited by the aca code of ethics, your therapist is not your friend.
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