An approach is provided for providing separation of authentication protocols and/or authentication contexts for client-server and server-server communication in network communication. A proxy server receives a request to initiate a service session. The request includes a first authentication context. The proxy server request verification of the first authentication context from an authentication server and validates the first authentication context based, at least in part, on the verification. The proxy server implements a second authentication context based, at least in part, on the verification of the first authentication context to initiate the service session.