How should dual relationships be handled?

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Maintaining professional boundaries is essential in recovery coaching to protect clients and ensure effective support. Dual relationships—where the coach has more than one role with the same client (for example, coach and friend or coach and business associate)—can bias judgment, create unequal power dynamics, and raise confidentiality and safety concerns. Therefore, the safest and most appropriate approach is to avoid dual relationships whenever possible, and if a dual relationship arises, manage it very carefully by establishing explicit boundaries, seeking supervision, and documenting decisions. Handling it this way helps prevent bias and harm that could come from blurred lines between roles. Consent alone does not eliminate these risks, and letting the client determine the relationship type undermines professional standards and safety. Encouraging frequent dual relationships would increase risk, while ignoring conflicts even with consent or letting the client choose freely are not appropriate approaches.