I am a nurse at an HIV Clinic, the only one in our community and the only one within a 50 mile radius. Part of my job is to take referrals from the community for new patients. My T called last week to refer another of her clients for services at the my clinic. Of course, I was the one she talked to. After taking all the information and making the appointment I spoke my standard "thank for your referral to our office". Then my T says "I am just so glad that you will be there to help this young man". Well, I immediately went into "oh, my T likes me" mode, "my T thinks highly of me", "oh isn't this wonderful". I would never have thought like this had this statement been made by anyone else making a referral. Now, I am not complaining, and given the situation there is no other way that this patient could receive care other than for this interaction to happen. It's just that it made me see how difficult it is to have a therapeutic relationship with someone and NOT have that spill over into other relationships that you might have with that person. In my case, as I said, this dual relationship is unavoidable. Just food for thought I guess.