I had a similar relationship with my first T. It really helped me a lot. We went to the same church and were both very active so it was hard to avoid each other. We were really good a keeping therapy therapy and the friendship just friends... except once. She asked me how I was doing (I was a mess) and I gave an honest answer. Well, come to find out she had a rotten day too and was asking just to be polite. She yelled at me but we got past it.
I had another T who took advantage of me that way though. When I told her how much I liked her and how sad I was that we couldn't be friends she said that "of course we can be friends". She changed a lot of the boundaries to be more flexible and helped me out a few times. But my gut said something was off... the lines weren't as neat and tidy as they were with first T. So I asked her about it and started getting lies. Our therapeutic relationship went in the crapper. Come to find out she lied about being friends "so that I would feel comfortable with her". There were a lot of things I did with her that I wouldn't have if I had known I was just a client... but none of them were related to therapy.

Trust your instincts. If it works it can be WONDERFUL... but when it doesn't... well... I am still working that out with current T... Who had the courage to say no... Our relationship stays in this office and stays therapeutic.