Posted by gardenergirl on September 27, 2004, at 0:00:32
In reply to Re: contact after termination - » lonelygal, posted by Pfinstegg on September 26, 2004, at 23:14:36
Aww, thanks for the nice compliment, Pfinstegg. And I think your thoughts here are spot on.
> If you can, could you consider it HER problem, and not yours? Try not to let her hurt you any more. In general, I do think mature, experienced Ts take a lot of care to continue support as it's needed even after *termination* - a term which I think is kind of falling into disfavor, anyway.
I think this is excellent advice. Especially given that the therapy in question was at a training clinic. I just want to mention that when T's are in training, it IS hard in that they are usually only at a site for one year at a time. This can make it hard for the idea of continuing contact. Therapy, even after termination, is supposed to leave the client with the option of returning at any time later if more turns up that needs working on. The difficult part of working with a trainee is that you can't go back to the same person. So it could be that the trainees that have been mentioned here prefer to have no contact after termination in order not to interfere with a subsequent therapy relationship.
I'm just speculating here. I know at the university clinic where I trained, we were encouraged to develop our own decisions unless it was something that was strictly against the rules.
Somebody posted above, I think, asking if it could be possible for a friendship to occur between a T and a former client down the road. Ethics discourages this, but it is not a hard and fast rule. It depends on the people involved, and I think a bit on the nature of the therapy. The fear might be that the friendship still has a therapy "flavor" as we often ask our friends for advice. What if you asked your former T/friend? That seems a little muddy. But I can see it happening and being okay, too.
warmly,
gg
poster:gardenergirl
thread:368821
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20040925/msgs/395546.html