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

09.06.2025 12:08

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

General Introduction to Boundaries from Panahi Counseling:

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

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

If our normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, why do we perceive weather in the 90s as "hot?"

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.

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

What happens if a parent refuses to let their child be transgender? What happens if the parent tries their hardest not to allow their child to be trans, like flushing every bottle of their trans child's HRT down the toilet?

Obsessing about clients outside of work hours.

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

Off the top of my ancient head:

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

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

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

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Serious disappointment when the client cancels a session.