Purpose: This study aims to investigate student mentors' perceptions of peer mentor relationships in a health professions education program. Design/methodology/approach: The design uses embodied hermeneutic phenomenology. The data comprise 10 participant interviews and visual "body maps" produced in response to guided questions. Findings: The findings about student mentors' perceptions of peer mentor relationships include a core theme of nurturing a trusting learning community and five related themes of attunement to mentees, commonality of experiences, friends with boundaries, reciprocity in learning and varied learning spaces. Originality/value: The study contributes original insights by highlighting complexity, shifting boundaries, liminality, embodied social understanding and trusting intersubjective relations as key considerations in student peer mentor relationships.