[Calilady]

This is not related to any situation w/me (my former T and didn't terminate on good terms), but rather with a relative and a T she'd been seeing for a bit and she left because of money issues...the T extended a job offer to her two months after termination.

What would you do if your T offered you a job at her place of employment (probably not as a fellow T, but anything else- although if you have the education and experience, go w/that scenario)? Would you accept or decline? This is after termination, of course...

How professional/unprofessional would that be?

Anything else you'd like to add (as far as hiccups, potential problems, etc.)? What say you?

[lucozader]

I would consider that to be extremely unprofessional and I would decline.

[AllHeart]

I'm going with unprofessional. I can't imagine ever taking a job at t's place of employment after therapy, even after the two year dual relationship wait is over. She's seen me traumatized, vulnerable, a shaken up mess, and knows a couple of my deepest secrets. She knows some of my insecurities and flaws. She'll know plenty more before I'm done with the therapy. I would probably feel inferior and scrutinized; humiliated if I made a mistake. Too much added pressure to do the job perfectly and stress worrying about what t thinks of me in the "real world."

[InnerPeace111]

I’m going with unprofessional too.

[Argonautomobile]

No, that's weird. I would need to be pretty damn desperate for money to take that job.

I would consider working along side any of my therapist if it was in an organization we both volunteered. But to be my former attachment therapist's employee, I would have to be off my rocker. We can be friends, but never employer/employee. With my standby therapist, I would certainly consider it.

[growlycat]

If they ended on good terms and the job offered was not in the same chain on command as ex t. But if ex t were to be the boss...no way.

[Ididitmyway]

I find it extremely unprofessional, on the borderline of unethical.

As AllHeart mentioned, this puts the person in the extremely vulnerable position since the therapist knows the most intimate details of their personal life and their personal vulnerabilities. The psychological power imbalance created by the therapy relationship is already big and it will never go away after termination no matter how many years pass. Now, on top of it, there will be an imbalance of the employer-employee relationship. No relationship should be imbalanced that much to be considered healthy.

It'd be okay for the therapist to help the client with getting a job if:

1) The job position was not where the therapist works;

2) This was unplanned, like if the therapist and the client ran into each other somewhere and had a small talk and the therapist remembered that at some place there is a job vacancy that could be a good match for the client and told them the name of the person to contact;

3) This happened at least a year after termination, not right away;

Those are the only circumstances under which a job offer/suggestion would seem ethically and professionally clean to me.

If not taking the job led to more problems than taking the job, I'd do it. Sometimes you have to tap into resources and not worry about morals or the future consequences if not potentially catastrophic.

You do what you gotta to do to survive....and hopefully thrive.

Depends on the job and the circumstances. I can't imagine any circumstance at this time of my life that would put it into play, but I can imagine working with any of my therapists without it being much of an issue for me personally. I was able to co-teach with one therapist while I was in therapy and it never was an issue. But I'm pretty good at compartmentalizing so that I keep relationships in their required context. Teaching trait? Not sure.

[satsuma]

I think it's a bad idea. The power imbalance is just too much.

For example, T could behave badly in the workplace and a) this would be much more upsetting to an ex-client than to an ordinary worker who was never a client and b) they might doubt then self more regarding t, or find it harder to speak up.

There is also the dynamic of "I gave you a job specially knowing you were in trouble so you should be grateful and not complain, where would you be without me" which is setting someone up for exploitation.

I'm not saying that it's definitely going to turn out badly, but there is a lot of risk in those dynamics and it doesn't seem worth the risk, to me. Also T should be aware of these things, so for me the fact that this was T's idea is another red flag.