In a national survey exploring the significant ethical challenges and dilemmas faced by healthcare professionals, respondents ranked “clouded, duplicitous, or conflictual relationships” among the most difficult to face in their daily practice (Barnett, et al., page 401). Dual relationships, also commonly referred to as multiple or nonprofessional relationships, are defined in the American Psychological Association's code of ethics as "those in which a professional plays a professional role with an individual in addition to another role with the same individual, or with a other". person who is close to that individual” (Corey, Corey & Callahan, p. 268). Although any relationship concurrent with a therapeutic one has the potential to be harmful, the only relationships that have been extensively studied in this regard have been those of a sexual nature. Most agree that such sexual relationships are unethical and result in boundary violations that are both harmful and exploitative to the client. There are both ethical and legal implications for addressing this issue, including revocation of your license to practice and both criminal and civil penalties. However, there is ongoing debate regarding the benefit of multiple nonsexual relationships in the therapeutic process. Historically, there was an absolute ban on engaging in such relationships. Opponents argued that due to the inevitable power imbalance that exists in the therapeutic process, the result would undoubtedly be exploitation and harm to the client. Professional boundaries were enforced to avoid compromises with the level of care received, and crossing these boundaries was unanimously discouraged (Nickel, p.17). However, in more recent years, there has been a change in the code of ethics... half of the paper... should be signed. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, carefully document every step of the process you took to reach your decision. This can prove advantageous especially if the professional is accused of negligence. ReferencesNickel, M. B. (2004). Professional boundaries: The dilemma of dual and multiple relationships in rural clinical practice. Journal of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, 1(1), 17-22. Barnett, J. E., Lazarus, A. A., Vasquez, M. J. T., Moorehead-Slaughter, O., & Johnson, W. B. (2007). Boundary issues and multiple relationships: fantasy and reality. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 38(4), 401-410. Corey, G., Corey, M. S. & Callahan, P. (2007). Managing boundaries and multiple relationships. In Brooks/Cole (8th ed.), Issues and ethics in the helping professions pp. 266-321.