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

Last Updated: 01.07.2025 08:38

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

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

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

Serious disappointment when the client cancels a session.

‘Once in a Lifetime’ Photo of ISS Crossing the Sun as Solar Flare Erupts - PetaPixel

General Introduction to Boundaries from Panahi Counseling:

Obsessing about clients outside of work hours.

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

Further delays of Starliner’s next flight mark anniversary of its first crewed Space Station docking - Spaceflight Now

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.

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.

"It Seems Like Science Fiction”: Researchers Unleash Breakthrough Tracking Technology Using Environmental DNA - The Debrief

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

Off the top of my ancient head:

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

Why don’t Jews regard Jesus as an important teacher or rabbi, if not the Messiah? Putting aside messianic claims, wouldn’t Jesus be one of the most significant Jewish teachers in human history?

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