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

14.06.2025 03:50

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

General Introduction to Boundaries from Panahi Counseling:

Serious disappointment when the client cancels a session.

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

Is it possible for people who claim to be genuine and honest to actually not be? If so, why do they behave this way?

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:

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

Why do so many autistic adults deal with self-hatred?

Obsessing about clients outside of work hours.

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

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

When did bestiality first occur to you and how did it happen the first time? Was it a deliberate decision or it just happened and you allowed it?

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

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

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

Do happily married husbands cheat?

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