While it involves a lot of trust, it isn’t a friendship.
The bond you have with your therapist is unique.
Clients often develop aclose relationshipwith therapists.
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This therapeutic alliance creates a safe, trusting space that promotes healing.
We’ll also explore some factors that can affect the relationship between a therapist and clients.
What Is Dual Relationship?
It is also unethical for a therapist to have a sexual relationship with a client.
Such relationships are unethical on several grounds.
You, the client, open up, and the therapist generally doesn’t.
There is a lack of mutualself-disclosure.
You share while your therapist listens.
This is necessary to focus on your problems exclusively.
How can trust develop in such aone-sided relationship?
This alliance is defined as how a therapist and client interact with one another.
If you are currently in therapy, expect your therapist to be someone who is easy to talk to.
Your relationship with them should be warm, trusting, and empathetic.
While you’ve got the option to be friendly, you should not be friends.
What Makes the Therapeutic Relationship Different
Friendship, on the other hand, is inherently two-sided.
In most relationships, people open up gradually as the other person also opens up.
The therapeutic relationship does share some of the same qualities as friendship.
Therapy can certainly be afriendlyrelationship, depending on the personalities involved and the therapist’s theoretical orientation.
Unlike one of your friends, your therapist isn’t emotionally involved in what you are going through.
This allows them to lend an impartial ear.
They can evaluate the situation and help you work on solutions without being biased or reacting emotionally.
They believed this would influence the patient’s reactions in an unhelpful manner known as transference.
However, most contemporary psychoanalysts and therapists recognize that they are always revealing aspects of themselves.
What Is Transference?
This might include feelings of affection, anger, or other emotions.
Sometimes transference can be a barrier to treatment, particularly if it causes a person towithdraw.
Can You Be Friends With a Former Therapist?
While not common, a friendship can develop when you’ve finished therapy.
Becoming friends with your former therapist is a gray area that presents several challenges.
While professional regulatory boards don’t expressively forbid this, there are ethical concerns that you should consider.
You should also consider whether or not you might want to return to therapy again in the future.
If they are friendly, this may be an added bonus.
But remember that therapy is not the same as a friendship.
Creating boundaries and staying neutral are strategies that can be helpful.
American Psychological Association.Dual relationship.
Society for the Advancement of Psychotherapy.
