What are some signs that a therapist may have poor boundarie...

Session-expressed curiosities about client details not relevant to the therapy.

Failing to mention the client in supervision/consultation, out of fear the supervisor/consultant will advise return to ordinary healthy boundaries.

General Introduction to Boundaries from Panahi Counseling:

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Routinely going over the time limit with certain patients, compromising the time for the next client.

Sense of competition with persons who are important in the client’s life.

Off the top of my ancient head:

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Serious disappointment when the client cancels a session.

Obsessing about clients outside of work hours.

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.

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Eager anticipation (or anxious anticipation) of the next session in ways that distract.

Struggling with fantasies of deeper connections with clients, whether sexual or parental or other intense or intimate relationships beyond psychotherapy.

Disclosing feelings, fantasies, and experiences to the client in ways not related to the work the client is engaged in.

What was the most inappropriate thing your parent caught you doing as a teen? Was in the bedroom, I thought nobody else was home. My sister and I shared that bedroom but I knew she was gone. I didn’t know my dad was home though.

Frequent phoning or texting of clients to “check up on them and make sure they’re OK.”

What are some signs that a therapist may have poor boundaries with their clients?

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