I recommend that you keep the police involved with regard to his/their dealings with _you_, whether at the clinic or at home. If you live in a good-sized city, the police are probably fairly sophisticated about such things, and will recognize that there is legitimate reason to be concerned about your safety. Of course, there is no issue of confidentiality here. And even if he or she were your patient/client, you should involve law enforcement when your safety becomes an issue. The safety issue should be quite separate from any professional or clinical one, and should take priority in your dealings with both the couple and the clinic. It's interesting that being a therapist does not exempt one from the problems/dangers of becoming involved with friends' and neighbors' problems, and the common-sense advice we routinely give to others (e.g., stay out of the middle and don't try to be your neighbor's therapist or rescuer) is often hard to see for ourselves. Note that I'm not criticizing you for acting to protect a neighbor in an emergency, just pointing out the folly of trying to reason with friends who are in crises such as this. Calling the cops and/or referring to a shelter: good; offering one's own place for the friend to stay for a week while her boyfriend is looking for her: bad.
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