Fetters or Freedom: Dual Relationships in Counselling
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Fetters or Freedom: Dual Relationships in Counselling Gabrielle Syme1 Published Online 1 May 2006
Dual relationships occur whenever one person assumes more than one role in a relationship with another person. They may be unavoidable and are not necessarily harmful but there is always a potential for a conflict of interest and exploitation; because of this a number of Western professional counselling organisations have prohibited all dual relationships. Whilst this is essential for sexual dual relationships it can be too rigid for non-sexual ones because of the different cultural, social or geographical circumstances. Examples of non-sexual dual relationships such as acceptance of gifts, barter, attendance at social events and the use of touch are all explored to find appropriate and constructive ways to use them. KEY WORDS: non-sexual dual relationships; gifts and barter; touch; attendance at social events; sexual dual relationships.
Dual relationships are ubiquitous. They occur whenever one person assumes more than one role in a relationship with another person. For instance two people having both a business relationship and a friendship or having a sexual relationship and a professional relationship. In the counselling and psychotherapy world they have come to be defined more precisely as ‘arising in any situation where a therapist assumes more than one significantly different role either simultaneously or sequentially with a client, supervisee or trainee’ (Syme, 2003). These relationships may be unavoidable and are not necessarily harmful but there is always a potential for a conflict of interest and exploitation of the person seeking help. For this reason the Western professional bodies of counsellors and psychotherapists have become more and more rigid in their codes of ethics and frequently ban dual relationships. Even in the West these rules can become fetters and remove the necessary freedom to respond creatively to individual clients’ needs. For more communally based societies found in so much of the world these rules 1 Correspondence
should be directed to Gabrielle Syme, Mount Farm House, Town Street, Rawdon, Leeds LS19 6QJ; e-mail: [email protected]. 57 C 2006 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 0721-7714/06/0300-0057/0
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can be totally inappropriate. In countries as varied as India, Jamaica, Japan and Brazil, barter, the exchange of gifts, working with members of a family or a social group and socializing, all examples of non-sexual dual relationships, are an essential part of the society and banning of them would be culturally insensitive and unworkable. In the West many professions and occupations are unworried by boundaries and dual relationships. Hairdressers can go out for a meal with their customers, a piano teacher can be a close friend of their adult pupil. A physiotherapist can play a game of tennis with their patient. Medical consultants can have a friend who is also a patient or a patient who becomes a friend. In the UK accountants and solicitors often get work throug
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