Remaining in contact

[Cindy]

My therapy with my current therapist will be ending within the next month, because I am starting with a new one. After it’s over, would it be wrong for me to ask him to coffee or lunch via email?

 

[Daniel E.]

For a platonic relationship, it is usually not a good idea:

Can You Ever Be Friends With Your Former Therapist? | SELF

For a romantic relationship, it is against the rules for therapists:

'Til Death Do Us Part: Does a Client Ever Stop Being a Client? - SocialWorker.com

 

[Cindy]

It’s just coffee.

 

[Daniel E.]

I assume your therapist would turn down the invitation anyway, especially given that you mentioned your "romantic transference for him."

 

[Cindy]

Yes, but that was early in the therapy. And besides, like I said, it’s just coffee. Our session last week included a little sharing of our HS days and the ‘mullet’.:lol:

 

[Daniel E.]

I would assume any therapist I had seen in the last 2+ years would turn down anything outside of a follow-up appointment.

BTW, when I was in a small rural town in Florida, we had only like two therapists. So I chose the one I didn't run into all the time.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

@Daniel is right. Not a good idea.

 

[Daniel E.]

Ideally, maybe you can use your desire to connect with your old therapist to connect to someone else, or something else, or even yourself?