Laws of Yichud for an emotional therapist receiving male patients at home
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Question
I am an emotional therapist and I receive patients in my home. May I accept male patients, and up to what age? If the front door of the house is locked with a code and my husband can enter from outside, but he has fixed hours during which he studies outside the home – may I receive patients during those hours, when there are children aged 1–14 in the house, some of whom are sleeping? In what way am I permitted to close the room door so that we can have privacy for the conversation?
Answer
Shalom u’vracha.
From the perspective of the laws of yichud: when your husband is in the city and can enter the house at any time, there is no concern of yichud, even if during those hours he regularly studies outside the home.
Even when your husband is not in the city, if there are two sleeping children in the house aged 7–10, there is no prohibition of yichud.
These leniencies apply also when the door of the room in which you are sitting is closed but not locked.
However, it is important to consider carefully whether this does not transgress the ways of tzniut (modesty), due to the intimate conversation and the closeness that develops in such a sitting arrangement.
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