To be in a friend role while a client feels untenable to me. It would have been impossible for me because of the nature of our work together.

But having said that, I do think it's possible sometimes for relationships to grow and change as a result of therapy, if both parties have developed beyond the mutual dependencies that therapy can entail. In other words, that all transferences have been resolved successfully, and if the people involved genuinely like and respect each other.

It doesn't mean that the basic roles in the relationship have to change, but that any dependencies which arose from those roles must be resolved.

So in my experience, I don't really feel like my former T and I are friends, though we share a friendly warmth and fondness for each other; the parental relationship is still there, but it isn't a parent taking care of a young child dynamic, as it was. It is a parent to adult child dynamic, each respecting the other as an adult with autonomy. It feels like what I've witnessed between a few friends and their adult functional relationships to their parents.