I said other. I never discussed this explicitly with my therapists as I never had an interest in really becoming friends, beyond some passing fantasies. One of them grossly misinterpreted my behavior once (when I emailed him a lot) and told me that he would not engage in any relationship with a client outside our T-client but his own behavior openly contradicted it: he offered me to attend some of his classes and developed a friendship with his own ex-T that he spoke a lot about on his online media. My other T was much wiser in general in the area of boundaries, not making statements that he would never do something. He is one I have maintained a lose email contact with, which involved me writing to him much more than vice versa. But it is not friendship by any means, not even a source of support, more just a one-sided reporting, updating and dumping ground.

I easily understand the desire to become friends with therapists, especially if a client does not have much social/support network or even just source of quality interaction in their lives. Easy to feel that the T is special and one of a kind, it would not be easy to find a similar person in regular life. It is a valid feeling but not really true IMO, especially given that a client rarely gets to know a T well and in a realistic way - probably why the many disappointments when such friendships do develop. I personally would rather use the feelings as realizations of what I like and need in another person and try to find it elsewhere, in genuine, mutual relationships.