Four Examples of Boundary Issues and Their Impact on Behaviour Within the Counselling Relationship
Counsellor answers freely all questions about professional beliefs and practices.
This helps the client understand that their counsellor has received training in counselling. It will also enable the counsellor to explain exactly what a counsellors role is, i.e. to help [the client] to come to their own conclusions and not to offer sympathy and/or advice, as can be a popular misconception, and can put them at ease on issues of trust and confidentiality.
Counsellor and client discuss client’s progress and revisit goals on a regular basis.
This enables both counsellor and client to decide what the client wishes to achieve through counselling and what the timescale will be to achieve it. By assessing this through the course of sessions they can discover where the sessions have been beneficial and where, through the course of disclosure, objectives have changed.
Counsellor discusses other clients experiences during clients sessions.
This should not happen because: (a) the counsellor is compromising the confidentiality of his other clients; and (b) the client will probably believe that the counsellor will discuss his experiences with other clients. This will not allow the client to trust the counsellor and therefore will not be able to make a full disclosure.
Counsellor extends sessions when client is especially distraught and no one else is waiting.
This boundary should not be crossed. The client should be told how long they have left in the session so that they can make their own decision as to what and when to disclose. By allowing a client to run over time also sends the message to them they can do this again if they want too, and could undermine their respect of the
This helps the client understand that their counsellor has received training in counselling. It will also enable the counsellor to explain exactly what a counsellors role is, i.e. to help [the client] to come to their own conclusions and not to offer sympathy and/or advice, as can be a popular misconception, and can put them at ease on issues of trust and confidentiality.
Counsellor and client discuss client’s progress and revisit goals on a regular basis.
This enables both counsellor and client to decide what the client wishes to achieve through counselling and what the timescale will be to achieve it. By assessing this through the course of sessions they can discover where the sessions have been beneficial and where, through the course of disclosure, objectives have changed.
Counsellor discusses other clients experiences during clients sessions.
This should not happen because: (a) the counsellor is compromising the confidentiality of his other clients; and (b) the client will probably believe that the counsellor will discuss his experiences with other clients. This will not allow the client to trust the counsellor and therefore will not be able to make a full disclosure.
Counsellor extends sessions when client is especially distraught and no one else is waiting.
This boundary should not be crossed. The client should be told how long they have left in the session so that they can make their own decision as to what and when to disclose. By allowing a client to run over time also sends the message to them they can do this again if they want too, and could undermine their respect of the