What are some signs that a therapist may have poor boundaries with their clients?
08.06.2025 01:30
Failing to mention the client in supervision/consultation, out of fear the supervisor/consultant will advise return to ordinary healthy boundaries.
Sense of competition with persons who are important in the client’s life.
Frequent phoning or texting of clients to “check up on them and make sure they’re OK.”
How did you get to be a leftist?
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.
What is the most interesting question you can ask to get to know someone?
Disclosing feelings, fantasies, and experiences to the client in ways not related to the work the client is engaged in.
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:
What are my 10 favorite rock record album opening tracks?
Serious disappointment when the client cancels a session.
General Introduction to Boundaries from Panahi Counseling:
Struggling with fantasies of deeper connections with clients, whether sexual or parental or other intense or intimate relationships beyond psychotherapy.
When was the first time your wife had beastiality?
Session-expressed curiosities about client details not relevant to the therapy.