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Sarah MacAulay, an RMT from Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, brings a fresh perspective on dual relationships in massage therapy, challenging the profession's traditional ethical guidelines that don't reflect rural practice realities. Living in a town of approximately 1,800 people, Sarah shares her journey of navigating professional relationships that inevitably overlap with personal ones, revealing how urban-centric ethics create unnecessary burdens for rural practitioners.

• Dual relationships occur when professional therapeutic relationships overlap with personal connections
• Traditional ethics teaching instructs therapists to "avoid dual relationships" without providing context for rural practitioners
• The abstinence approach to dual relationships is unrealistic in small communities where practitioners know most patients
• Research from other healthcare professions shows risks of dual relationships are often overstated
• Patients in small communities often prefer being treated by someone they know and trust
• The burden of reconciling practice reality with traditional ethics creates unnecessary guilt for rural practitioners
• Successful management of dual relationships involves honesty, communication, and co-created boundaries
• Current ethical frameworks derived from urban institutional settings don't translate to rural practice
• Practitioners need education on managing dual relationships rather than simply being told to avoid them
• Sarah is developing guidelines to support therapists navigating dual relationships in small communities

Join Sarah at the upcoming Knowledge Summit on Sunday, October 5th, where she'll present "A Closer Look at Dual Relationships in Research and Practice" – offering research-informed approaches for practitioners working in small communities.

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