Be nice to be able to give cut-and-dried yes/no answers to your questions, but I can think of different circumstances would dictate different answers. Is it OK to allow patients to leave phone messages between sessions? Is it appropriate for therapists to hug clients the clients ask them to? Is it ever appropriate for the therapist or client to give one another a small gift or card? IMO, the question of a therapist giving a client a gift is murker. There is a power differential between the therapist and the client. I am concerned about the client's perception of the gift giving. Personally, I would not give a client a gift.
For the most part I think it would be at least OK. What if the client needs to reschedule? Or has an emergency? Or needs advice about something that cannot wait until the next session? Or any of infinite possibilities.
On the other hand if the client is using phone messages threatening or harassing the therapist, no they are not OK. that's about the content though, not the fact a message was left. I would also feel it necessary to process it with a client if I felt they were relying on phone calls to me in situations they could deal with on their own. I'd be careful about allowing the client to become too dependent on me.
I guess the number of messages left could also become an issue. If the client was calling multiple times per day, I believe the subject would have to be addressed.
This is highly individual. I know therapists who do not touch clients - period. No physical contact allowed, no matter what.
Personally, if a client asks for a hug I am willing to give it. My experience has been the people who ask are in need of the human contact. It feels cruel to me to deny them what they need. For many saying no to a hug is yet one more rejection in their life.
This is actually two different issues. Is it OK for the therapist to give a client a gift? Is it OK for a client to give the therapist a small gift?
Again there are some therapists who do not accept any gifts from clients - nothing, no matter how small. These folks are clearly being ethical. For me though, there is a large gray area surrounding accepting small gifts. If a child client wants to give me a drawing they made for me I'm certainly not going to deny the child the happiness of giving the gift. What I will do is accept the drawing and suggest we hang it in my office "for everyone to enjoy". Clients also enjoy giving gifts at the holidays. I will not deny them that pleasure either.
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