7.2 Sexual and Romantic Relationship Prohibitions
Key Takeaways
- A.5.a prohibits sexual and/or romantic counselor–client interactions or relationships with current clients, their romantic partners, or their family members, in person and electronic.
- A.5.b prohibits counselors from engaging in counseling relationships with persons with whom they have had a previous sexual and/or romantic relationship — there is no waiting-period exception that turns a former partner into an acceptable client.
- A.5.c prohibits sexual and/or romantic interactions or relationships with former clients, their romantic partners, or their family members for 5 years following last professional contact, in person and electronic; before any later relationship, document in writing whether it can be viewed as exploitive and whether there is still potential to harm; if potential exploitation or harm exists, do not enter.
- A.5.d prohibits counseling friends or family members with whom the counselor has an inability to remain objective; A.5.e prohibits a personal virtual relationship with individuals with whom the counselor has a current counseling relationship, including through social and other media.
- Public Mississippi orders have charged A.5 together with A.1.a, A.4.a, A.6, Rule 7.1, and Rule 3.2.J.2; Rule 8.1.K is why those letters are Board grounds, not optional association advice.
Why A.5 is a Pass/Fail JP topic
Sexual and romantic boundary items are not “clinical style” questions. They are bright-line 2014 letters the Mississippi Board has already used in public charging language. The April 10, 2024 license-search disposition charged A.5 (Prohibited Noncounseling Roles and Relationships) together with A.1.a, A.4.a, A.6, C.1, I.1.b, and Board Rules 3.2.J.2 and 7.1. Rule 8.1.K is why an A.5 breach is a Mississippi disciplinary ground. Rule 7.1 is why Licensees must adhere to the current Code except where Mississippi law, policy, or Board rules supersede it. This OpenExamPrep section is independent study material for the applicant Pass/Fail JP exam. It is not a Board, CCE, NBCC, or ACA publication.
Print the 2014 Code that the exam allows as an open-book source. The TN.gov-hosted PDF opened for this chapter is the 2014 Code as approved by the ACA Governing Council. Do not answer from the 2005 Code’s two-year former-client waiting period. The 2014 letter is five years, and the class of protected people is broader than “the identified client only.”
A.5.a — current clients, their partners, and their family, in person and electronic
A.5.a Sexual and/or Romantic Relationships Prohibited. Sexual and/or romantic counselor–client interactions or relationships with current clients, their romantic partners, or their family members are prohibited. This prohibition applies to both in-person and electronic interactions or relationships.
Three traps live in that sentence. Trap one is shrinking the class to “my identified client.” The bar also names the current client’s romantic partner and family members. An LPC who dates a current client’s adult sibling, or who starts a romantic text thread with a current client’s spouse, is inside A.5.a even if the identified client never enters the romance. Trap two is pretending electronic contact is a loophole. Direct messages, dating-app matches, video intimacy, and “we only text after hours” are electronic interactions or relationships. Trap three is redefining “current.” If the professional relationship has not ended, A.5.a — not the five-year former-client clock in A.5.c — is the letter.
A.5.a is an absolute prohibition for the current relationship. There is no “we documented the risks” exception, no “the client initiated” exception, and no “it was only online” exception. On a Mississippi complaint, investigators can add A.1.a welfare and A.4.a harm to the same file, which is exactly the April 10, 2024 pleading pattern.
A.5.b — do not counsel a former sexual or romantic partner
A.5.b Previous Sexual and/or Romantic Relationships. Counselors are prohibited from engaging in counseling relationships with persons with whom they have had a previous sexual and/or romantic relationship.
A.5.b is the reverse of A.5.c. A.5.c is about becoming romantic with a former client after time has passed. A.5.b is about becoming a counselor to someone who was already a sexual or romantic partner. There is no five-year wait that converts an ex-partner into an acceptable client. Consultation, a colleague’s “just document it,” or the fact that the romance ended before licensure does not create an A.5.b exception. If the person was a sexual or romantic partner, you do not open a counseling file.
A Tupelo stem that says “we dated in graduate school, that was six years ago, and now they want anxiety treatment from me” is an A.5.b refusal, not an A.5.c documentation exercise. Refer them. Do not treat them as a former client of yours — they were never your client — and do not invent a waiting period the Code does not give.
A.5.c — five years after last professional contact, then written forethought
A.5.c Sexual and/or Romantic Relationships With Former Clients. Sexual and/or romantic counselor–client interactions or relationships with former clients, their romantic partners, or their family members are prohibited for a period of 5 years following the last professional contact. This prohibition applies to both in-person and electronic interactions or relationships. Counselors, before engaging in sexual and/or romantic interactions or relationships with former clients, their romantic partners, or their family members, demonstrate forethought and document (in written form) whether the interaction or relationship can be viewed as exploitive in any way and/or whether there is still potential to harm the former client; in cases of potential exploitation and/or harm, the counselor avoids entering into such an interaction or relationship.
Count from last professional contact, not from the date you privately decided you were done, and not from the date the client stopped paying. A final records request, a booster session, or a crisis call that is still professional contact restarts the professional relationship for this clock. The protected class again includes the former client’s romantic partners and family members, in person and electronic.
The five-year bar is not a safe harbor that flips to “yes” on the anniversary. After five years, two more duties remain: written documentation of whether the relationship can be viewed as exploitive and whether harm potential remains, and a hard stop if either answer is yes. “We waited five years so it is automatically ethical” is a wrong answer. “The former client asked first, so documentation is optional” is a wrong answer. If there is potential exploitation or harm, do not enter.
A.5.d and A.5.e — friends, family, and personal virtual contact
A.5.d Friends or Family Members. Counselors are prohibited from engaging in counseling relationships with friends or family members with whom they have an inability to remain objective. This is not A.5.a’s sexual-romantic bar. It is a counseling-role bar. Your cousin, your best friend, or the family member you cannot evaluate fairly does not become a client because they prefer a familiar LPC in Oxford. Refer. Objectivity, not convenience, is the 2014 test.
A.5.e Personal Virtual Relationships With Current Clients. Counselors are prohibited from engaging in a personal virtual relationship with individuals with whom they have a current counseling relationship (for example, through social and other media). Friending a current client, sliding into personal DMs, or running a private social-media friendship alongside the treatment file is an A.5.e problem even when the content is not sexual. Sexual or romantic electronic contact with a current client, partner, or family member is already A.5.a. A.5.e catches the non-sexual personal virtual relationship that still collapses the professional frame.
How the five A.5 letters fit together
| Letter | Who is protected or excluded | Time rule | Medium |
|---|---|---|---|
| A.5.a | Current clients, their romantic partners, and their family members | While the counseling relationship is current — no waiting-period exception | In-person and electronic |
| A.5.b | Persons with a previous sexual and/or romantic relationship with the counselor | No counseling relationship at all; no five-year conversion into a client | The counseling role itself is barred |
| A.5.c | Former clients, their romantic partners, and their family members | 5 years after last professional contact; then written exploitive/harm analysis; if potential exploitation or harm, do not enter | In-person and electronic |
| A.5.d | Friends or family members with whom the counselor cannot remain objective | No counseling relationship | The counseling role itself is barred |
| A.5.e | Individuals in a current counseling relationship | While current | Personal virtual relationships, including social and other media |
Do not import another profession’s “two years after termination if documented” rule. Do not import the 2005 ACA two-year figure. Do not treat CCE or NBCC membership as a substitute for these letters. Mississippi disciplines A.5 because the Board wrote Rule 8.1.K and Rule 7.1, not because this study resource has a relationship with ACA.
A.5 also sits next to A.6. A.6 is how you handle non-sexual previous relationships, boundary extensions, role changes, and later nonprofessional contact. If the fact pattern is sexual or romantic, stay in A.5. If the fact pattern is attending a wedding, switching from individual to couples work, or later becoming a former client’s landlord, move to A.6 in the next section. Public orders often charge A.5 and A.6 together. Learn both catalogs so you can pick the letter the stem actually describes.
JP scenario: the electronic thread, the adult child, and the four-year clock
An Oxford LPC, Quinn, has a current adult client in weekly telemental-health sessions. Quinn matches with the client’s adult child on a dating app, tells a colleague “it is only electronic, and the child is not my client,” and keeps the match active. Separately, Quinn closed a different adult client’s file 4 years and 10 months after the last professional contact and has started romantic texting with that former client, planning to “write the A.5.c memo on the five-year anniversary next month.”
The dating-app match is A.5.a. The prohibition names family members of current clients and applies to electronic interactions. “The child is not the identified client” is the trap the letter already closes. If the thread is a personal virtual relationship with a current client rather than a sexual/romantic one, A.5.e is the additional letter; here the dating-app facts are romantic, so A.5.a is enough. The former-client texting is A.5.c. Four years and 10 months is still inside the 5 years following last professional contact. The memo cannot be written as a post-hoc blessing during the prohibited period, and even after five years a potential-harm finding means do not enter. Quinn’s Mississippi problem is already a Rule 7.1 / 8.1.K problem. The next move is to end the electronic romantic contact, refer rather than keep treating across a prohibited relationship, and not wait for a criminal statute that § 73-30-21(1) never required as a precondition for 8.1.K.
What does 2014 ACA A.5.a prohibit?
A Tupelo LPC is asked to open a counseling file for an adult with whom the LPC had a romantic relationship five years before licensure. The person has never been this LPC’s client. Which 2014 letter controls?
Under 2014 ACA A.5.c, when may a counselor consider a sexual or romantic relationship with a former client?