There would be no way I would be friends with either of my therapists after therapy. With my long term therapist I think I could have been friends with her if we had met under different circumstances, but now she knows too much about me. I think the relationship would always feel unequal. I don't think that I would have enough in common with my ED therapist to make a friendship work, and he knows too much about me too.

I would be open to occasional email contact with my long term therapist after termination, but I would see that more of an extension of the therapeutic relationship than a friendship. I would see it similarly to how I might contact a previous professor to give him/her an update on my career. For me it would be more of a way of letting her know that she made a difference in my life than an actual relationship.