There seems to be a lot of posts lately about Ts and Ps engaging in egregious violations of commonly accepted rules and boundaries of psychotherapy. I find this all really troubling.

In my opinion, your therapist - while he/she may, in fact, be the most important person in your life right now - nevertheless is not your friend, your mother or your father, and he/she should not insert themselves into your story with their own stuff.

All this business of hugging, exchanging gifts, therapists sharing details about their own lives, not recognizing their own counter-transference and getting involved etc...it all defeats the purpose of being in therapy.

Here is a good podcast about the importance of The Frame in therapy. I'm interested in hearing what people think of it.

Cheers,
Russ