I'm confused. If you and the therapist have opposite points of view about whether it is okay for a therapist and client to interact outside of therapy, then it seems like you would be trying to change the therapist's point of view. I'm not sure. Is that what you mean? You want the therapist to agree that a therapist and client could interact outside of therapy?

I don't think they can. I don't know if I can explain why. I think you want to be able to interact outside of therapy because you like the therapist, almost like a friend. There's nothing wrong with wishing the therapist could be a friend.

But they can't really be a friend because they are paid to talk to us, so they act differently than if they weren't paid. When they are being paid, they try to help us the whole time. They don't tell us their problems because that would distract us from being helped with our own problems.

If they weren't being paid, they'd have to decide if they like us and want to spend time with us as a friend. They'd have to tell us their problems too, the way friends do. Then once we got to know them, we wouldn't be focusing on only our own problems anymore, the way we are supposed to during therapy. It might seem like you want to help them with their problems too, but that's not what therapy is supposed to be. It's supposed to try to help you find someone else, not your therapist, to do things with.