What are some signs that a therapist may have poor boundaries with their clients?
Last Updated: 02.07.2025 11:32
Failing to mention the client in supervision/consultation, out of fear the supervisor/consultant will advise return to ordinary healthy boundaries.
These items can happen fleetingly, briefly, in any therapy, but if they’re frequent, it’s definitely time for the therapist to get some good, solid supervision/consultation.
Routinely going over the time limit with certain patients, compromising the time for the next client.
Can red light therapy improve blood circulation?
Eager anticipation (or anxious anticipation) of the next session in ways that distract.
Frequent phoning or texting of clients to “check up on them and make sure they’re OK.”
General Introduction to Boundaries from Panahi Counseling:
New body size database for marine animals is a “library of life” - Ars Technica
Obsessing about clients outside of work hours.
Off the top of my ancient head:
Sense of competition with persons who are important in the client’s life.
We Asked 3 Chefs the Secret to the Best Potato Salad—They All Said the Same Thing - EatingWell
Struggling with fantasies of deeper connections with clients, whether sexual or parental or other intense or intimate relationships beyond psychotherapy.
Serious disappointment when the client cancels a session.
Disclosing feelings, fantasies, and experiences to the client in ways not related to the work the client is engaged in.
Session-expressed curiosities about client details not relevant to the therapy.