How to avoid breaching boundaries claims

Breaching boundaries is one of the most common complaints about therapists and counsellors, according to Towergate Professional Risks, the specialist liability insurance provider.

The company says the most common forms of allegations seen in complaints and claims against practitioners are:

• Specific boundary violations such as sexual contact, invitations or suggestions of friendship, inappropriate use of touch
• Bullying or disrespect
• Emotional or financial exploitation
• Inappropriate disclosures by the practitioner / consultant or others
• Inappropriate encounters with others such as family members, other clients or workmen
• Giving gifts
• Incompetence

As a result of its experience, Towergate Professional Risks has come up with some tips to help practitioners avoid getting themselves into a position where such complaints could be made:

• Be interested in and always take to supervision or other professional support any urge you have to bend the rules. Practitioners or consultants who have been complained against often say in hindsight that they responded too quickly rather than exploring these urges with the client to understand them in the context of the client’s presentation and history, rather than step into that history and suffer the consequences.
• Think very carefully and take consultation before using touch in any way with clients. However much you may feel driven by a desire to be warm and kind, touch of any kind can easily be misinterpreted. There are ways to touch and to ‘hold’ a distressed client that don’t involve physical contact.
• Also remember that urges to be kind or to give clients what their mother or father failed to give them may come from your need to be special and not your client’s therapeutic need.
• When it comes to giving - or accepting - gifts always consider the therapeutic or professional value of doing so as opposed to coming from the heart or not wanting to offend.
• Likewise when you are considering making a self-disclosures ask yourself - and your supervisor - if this will be of therapeutic value.
• If you find that you have bent or over-stepped a boundary get supervision to help you to discuss it with the client as a way of moving the therapy forward. Therapeutic or business relationships like any other relationship can be put back on track.
• Avoid being drawn into ‘dual relationships’. It is tempting when the client is in training to cross professional boundaries in ways such as also supervising their work or inviting them to a training workshop or seminar. Our experience shows that it is increasingly unwise to take into therapy someone who is in training in an organisation where you have connections - past or present. It is easy to inadvertently cross boundaries of confidentiality or for a fragile client to imagine that you have done so.
• Finally, if you believe that you may have over-stepped a professional boundary - tell your insurer. Even though no complaint has been made by the client, it is always better to notify your insurance provider. Don’t worry - as long as an actual complaint isn’t made, it won’t affect your insurance cover date.