As outlined in our Code of Conduct and Terms of Participation, The Savoy Clinic Ltd. (The Savoy Clinic) recognizes relationships must be managed intentionally, and that as clinicians and educators we must maintain appropriate professional boundaries, and recognize, prevent, and take action to resolve conflicts of interest—direct, potential, or perceived. In this disclosure and consent form, all defined terms hold the same meaning as set out in the Code of Conduct and Terms of Participation.
Overlapping Relationships occur when people have more than one role/ social role with each other. Such relationships may include, but are not limited to, historic or current: therapeutic relationships with self or family members, employee-employer relationships, supervisory relationships, work colleagues, close friendships, romantic or sexual relationships, or any relationship such that the power balance is unequal. These types of relationships present risk when they are not mitigated well, and or the person with less power, or perceived power, (e.g. therapist/client, supervisor/ supervisee) is at risk of exploitation or harm.
The risks associated with Overlapping Relationships include, but are not limited to:
- Feeling exposed or vulnerable in a way that inhibits learning and other professional interactions
- Being part of a power imbalance that inhibits learning and other professional interactions
- Experiencing an impediment to further training or clinical interactions
- Feeling self-conscious
- Experiencing resentment or shame consequent upon being a party to or a witness to overlapping relationships
- For a client, hitherto attachment material and longings may emerge in a context that makes them very difficult to handle
- Having your therapist at the training may prove inhibiting for the client, and vice versa
- The undermining of the “frame”
- Changes to the “frame” may also affect transference and countertransference in unhelpful ways
