I only saw one therapist who had a "home office". She was very professional, clients entered from an outside door to the office into a small waiting room; when the session was done, I exited directly from a door off the office, not the waiting room. That meant that I never saw the client who arrived for the next session. I never saw the inside of the main house or any family member because she had a lovely garden screen with climbing plants installed to screen the office/driveway from the main house and that driveway. She had a phone in her office with an answering machine but it was not the same phone line as the main house. During off hours, the answering machine picked up and cautioned the person that if "this was an emergency situation" the caller needed to go to the nearest emergency room for help. Never did another person answer those calls.
I think that if a therapist has an office in the home, he/she needs to make the extra effort to make sure that family members, friends, or guest in the home do not pick up the phone, even by mistake. That's why it's possible to install more than one phone line in a house, and it is a business deduction so the complaint of an extra expense (if used) is not kosher. Personally, I think your therapist's issues with you crossing boundaries is way out of line. It's her job to protect your confidentiality and if something happens to compromise that, it is HER job to investigate, respond to your worried/anxious questions for as long as it takes to reassure you and her job to correct any problems that caused the breach. . . not to mention apologize sincerely. Jeesh, it makes me crazy when we're expected to apologize and address any behavior that is out of line (which is normal when you're struggling with personal mental health issues) and a therapist expects a pass or gets pissy when they're confronted.
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