Can a Frum Therapist be Alone With a Non-Jewish Client in His Home?

Rabbi Yosef Jacobovits

Question: If a Jewish female therapist has a non-Jewish male client, is she permitted to treat him in his house if they are the only two people there? 

Answer: We have established that there is a prohibition of yichud d’ohraysa for a Jewish woman to be alone with a non-Jewish man or boy above the age of 9. This means that this case would be a problem of yichud. 

The question is if leaving the door open to a street in a non-Jewish neighborhood would eliminate the problem. 

I received such a question from a frum female therapist who had a client in Neptune, New Jersey, where the population is non-Jewish. I asked Rav Yaakov Forcheimer, a senior Posek in Lakewood, if the leniency of pesach pasuach could be used in a non-Jewish neighborhood, and he answered that it could because the fact remains that when the door is open, the two people are in a public place, so to speak, and are not considered to be secluded alone. I would add that one should leave the door ajar in this situation and not rely on the leniency of having it closed but not locked.