psychstudent...you asked in your beginning post to this thread....

So I guess I just wanted to come here and ask the same question. Is it ultimately up to the Therapist whether a relationship can continue outside of therapy or is it something that is written in stone. If anyone has any advice on how to go about dealing with this please let me know. I’m so conflicted and things feel so hopeless.

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the answer is that here in the USA treatment there is ethics laws that state what treatment providers can and cant do with their clients....

example each treatment provider (unless they are working in private practice by their self) has an agency boss (person who hired them to work for the mental health agency) and a supervisor (direct person who over sees their work and cases) there is also a state wide panel of people called the state board that also governs what a treatment provider can and can not do, plus here in the USA we have a nation wide agency that over sees what a treatment provider can and cant do called the american psychiatric association.

this may sometimes make it a bit complicated where relationships with treatment providers are concerned, because the treatment provider must follow what each one of these chain of commands say they can and cant do with their clients.

....in general....treatment providers follow what ever ethics rules they have imposed on them from the agency that they work for and the state ethics board. they leave it up to the state ethics board to be following the nation wide ethics laws.

here in the USA each state has their own set of whats called Dual relationship ethics laws. some states say there can be a friend type or intimate relationship between ex client and ex therapist after one year of that therapist and client ending treatment others have a much stricter ethics law.

my suggestion is talk with your treatment provider or call/email/write your states ethics board for clinical social workers. both can tell you what the ethics laws in your state is that your treatment provider must go by. They can also tell you what the ethics laws are for the agency that this therapist has been hired to work with follows for this kind of thing.