A multiple role relationship occurs when an individual has two or more types of relationship with another individual. An example of this from psychotherapy is when a therapist is also a business associate of the therapist. As a probation officer, another common dual relationship is when a friendship develops between the officer and the probationer.
The general consensus on multiple-role relationships is that they are problematic. It can be difficult to be a good therapist or probation officer to an individual if there is some underlying personal connection. As a probation officer, I often know a lot about the probationers I work with and some of them consider me to be their friend or confidant. In some cases, they expect me to return this friendship by bending the rules of their probation, which is evidently unethical. In the case of therapists, it can be hard to see a clear line between the individual as a patient and the individual as someone known to the therapist personally (Zur, 2015). This means that the therapist might bring personal information to the session that is not relevant and does not help the therapeutic relationship.
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"Multiple-Role Relationships".
Multiple role relationships can be avoided by refusing to work with those who are already connected with you. Most surgeons, for example, refuse to operate on people that they know to help reduce the effect of the multiple role relationship. If these relationships are necessary, however, it is important to be completely objective and separate the two scenarios completely (Zur, 2015).
An example of a multiple role relationship that might be permissible is in the case of a student psychologist and a teaching psychologist in therapy. One relationship is patient-therapist, the other is teacher-student. This could occur when the student agrees to undergo therapy as part of the learning experience, for example.
- Zur, O. (2015). Dual Relationships, Multiple Relationships & Boundaries In Psychotherapy, Counseling & Mental Health Retrieved 06/27/2017 from http://www.zurinstitute.com
