I am friendly with all of my former therapists. That doesn't mean we are bff's by any means. We have kept in touch (for decades). We Facebook now. But I wouldn't call it a "good friendship" as in we spend time together or are buddy buddy. I correspond with the two that live a distance away now via email or facebook, very occasionally a phone call. We've run into each other in other capacities just by chance a few times. We never talk therapy. We just keep up with family news, etc. With the most recent who lives in my same town, we run into each other semi-regularly in stores. I feel quite comfortable calling him up or emailing him about things I think he might have helpful input about. For instance, we've recently been talking because of a health issue my husband is going through that I wasn't quite sure how to proceed with. I knew he would have more information about the process, what kind of specialist to see, etc., and he has been extremely helpful. But again, we don't talk therapy matters anymore; I don't need that. Mostly we facebook about similar interests (music, dancing, education, a few social issues that get under our skin).

But "friends" as in "good friends" would be going a bit far to describe interactions. It takes strong sense of self, an awareness that the therapist is no longer your therapist and a willingness to hold that boundary, and a respect for separateness.