Is kind and authentic in the therapeutic relationship and maintains clear and appropriate boundaries?
Your therapist should leave you free to engage in your personal and professional life without regard for its effect on the therapist or the strength of your therapeutic relationship. It is for this reason that therapists refrain from sexual or business relationships with their clients. It is also why they do not become social friends, at least in the conventional use of the word. In all these types of relationships, there is an implied reciprocity whose absence may indicate the hallmark of exploitation. You should not have the burden of this reciprocity in your relationship with your therapist nor should your therapist put your therapeutic relationship at risk by interjecting him or herself into your personal or professional life unnecessarily. Even when therapists’ and clients’ motives are beyond reproach, it is not fair for therapists to ask their clients to risk everything, even if the client initiates the request to do so. In the case of sexual relationships, the law specifically p
