When Breaking the Boundary Between Reality and Therapy

Abstract

The following paper will examine several therapeutic dilemmas around the issue of professional boundaries and the en gagement process between a therapist and a client who come from different ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientation, using a literature review and an extended treatment vignette. The clinical issues will be framed within an intersubjective and feminist paradigm. Rather than providing a resolution, this paper intends to raise sev eral intriguing questions that emerged for this clinician during the treatment and while writing this paper. Particular dilemmas that will be examined are the real relationship versus the therapeutic relationship, the therapist's neutrality versus subjectivity, mutual recog nition and agency, and mutuality versus professional boundaries in a feminist treatment paradigm.

Key Words:

• Professional boundaries
• intersubjectivity
• therapeutic relationship
• real relationship