I would say that for me, it definitely avoided a lot of pitfalls. I still have regular transference issues, but fortunately, I've never had to deal with erotic transference. I think that some transference is always going to happen (whether or not we're conscious of it) because it happens in all relationships, regardless of whether it's the therapy relationship or a friendship. Our life experiences affect how we see ourselves and others and transferring these experiences/emotions to other people happens probably more regularly than we'd like to admit or than we're aware of.

But yes, for me, knowing beforehand that this is strictly a professional relationship really helped me to understand what the relationship was and what it wasn't. I found, and still find, that to be extremely helpful.