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

Last Updated: 20.06.2025 01:46

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

Serious disappointment when the client cancels a session.

Off the top of my ancient head:

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

Why would my ex block me after I blocked him?

Obsessing about clients outside of work hours.

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

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

Where can Ukrainians go if they cannot have shelter and heating this winter?

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

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.

General Introduction to Boundaries from Panahi Counseling:

Why do men think all women are the same?

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

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

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

Were Dalits prohibited from drinking water from wells in ancient times? Is there any evidence to support this claim?

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