moon, usually I like your posts, however, I really think there is a fundamental disrespect that underlies those theories. That those of in therapy will never be well enough, whole enough, or emotionally healthy enough to decide for ourselves whether a relationship would be good for us. Perhaps WHILE in the throes of a powerful transference, a person could not decide for his or herself, but to extend the prohibition on a romantic relationship after the end of therapy and the issues have been worked through is fundamentally disrespectful of the client and his or her emotional and intellectual strength.

I know someone who married his therapist. It trashed HER life, and she lost friends and her career. BUT they are still happily married 15+ years later. I know of another person who has been living with her former therapist for several years and seems very happy. When judging the ratios of how many of these relationships end badly, we know the numerator, because we hear about the relationships that end badly. We do not know the denominator, because there is no way way of knowing the total number of these relationship. The second couple I mentioned do not tell most people how they met because of the disapproval in the mental health community.