What are some signs that a therapist may have poor boundaries with their clients?
Last Updated: 16.06.2025 04:18
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.
Off the top of my ancient head:
Have you been with a stranger yet?
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.
Obsessing about clients outside of work hours.
Routinely going over the time limit with certain patients, compromising the time for the next client.
Eager anticipation (or anxious anticipation) of the next session in ways that distract.
Sense of competition with persons who are important in the client’s life.
Is the 4B movement's aggressiveness against men for seeing women as mantelpieces valid?
Session-expressed curiosities about client details not relevant to the therapy.
Frequent phoning or texting of clients to “check up on them and make sure they’re OK.”
Struggling with fantasies of deeper connections with clients, whether sexual or parental or other intense or intimate relationships beyond psychotherapy.
Jets from black holes J1405+0415 and J1610+1811 - BBC Sky at Night Magazine
General Introduction to Boundaries from Panahi Counseling: