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

14.06.2025 04:20

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

Obsessing about clients outside of work hours.

General Introduction to Boundaries from Panahi Counseling:

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

It is common sense that Joe Biden is ruining America and is unfit to be president, but why are the liberals still supporting him when Trump is obviously a much better fit for office?

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

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.

What is a common thought that keeps people up at night? Why do some people experience this?

Serious disappointment when the client cancels a session.

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 we still feel attached or jealous when a covert narcissist moves on, even after realizing their toxicity and the suffering they caused?

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

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

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