Lynyah, that is heart breaking. And you are not stupid. It is always, always, always 100% the therapist's responsibility to maintain proper boundaries with the patient. You even brought that up to her and she ignored it. You were the competent one in the beginning there, and only followed her lead because you trusted her the way that patients are supposed to be able to trust therapists. She's failed as both a friend and a doctor by blurring the lines between both and terminating like this. She owed you a safe and respectful therapeutic relationship, and now that that has been compromised she sure as heck owes you an explanation.

I don't want to sound overly harsh, but I find myself getting very upset on your behalf, here.

I don't feel like I can offer a lot of practical insight regarding your particular situation, but I think WePow has a good suggestion. Or, I know it would be good for me; I would feel progressively shattered until I got some level of closure (perhaps that is just me).


In answer to your general question, I don't think my therapist has ever crossed a line. Sometimes I can tell she becomes highly uncomfortable with her own desire to treat me like something other than a patient, but she always just reigns herself in. She quickly detects her own spills of affection, and it usually followed by periods of increased reserve on her part in some sort of penance, almost. I always feel sad when she withdraws again, but I know that's how it has to be.