What are some signs that a therapist may have poor boundaries with their clients?
11.06.2025 07:01
Struggling with fantasies of deeper connections with clients, whether sexual or parental or other intense or intimate relationships beyond psychotherapy.
Routinely going over the time limit with certain patients, compromising the time for the next client.
Obsessing about clients outside of work hours.
How do you write a letter to your uncle who sent you money for your birthday outfit?
Serious disappointment when the client cancels a session.
General Introduction to Boundaries from Panahi Counseling:
Eager anticipation (or anxious anticipation) of the next session in ways that distract.
Neuroscientists find individual differences in memory response to amygdala stimulation - PsyPost
Session-expressed curiosities about client details not relevant to the therapy.
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.
Disclosing feelings, fantasies, and experiences to the client in ways not related to the work the client is engaged in.
How can I be okay with being ugly? What is the bright side?
Failing to mention the client in supervision/consultation, out of fear the supervisor/consultant will advise return to ordinary healthy boundaries.
Off the top of my ancient head:
Frequent phoning or texting of clients to “check up on them and make sure they’re OK.”
Why You Should Stop Texting On Your iPhone Or Android Phone - Forbes
Sense of competition with persons who are important in the client’s life.