Boundaries in Therapy
The basis for counseling forms a fundamental part of the contact between a client and a counselor. Therapists tend to use their clients’ information to develop a sense of the patients’ difficulties and have various methods to reveal and overcome such problems (McNulty et al., 2013). The consideration of generating a frontier between the two parties remains essential in building their relationship as it creates a safe and predictable environment.
Designing the conditions for growth forms a fundamental part of ensuring a healthy boundary in a therapeutic relationship. McLeod (2013) postulated that counseling can be compared to the psychodynamic perspective in emphasizing the revelation of feelings and challenging encounters in the context of trustful relations. However, this component has evolved with a different image of the relationship between therapists and patients. The attitude of ‘not-knowing’ is where the counselor acts as an editor to the patient’s story.
The objective of narrative therapy pegs on enabling the client to be the ‘writers of their story.’ The ‘not-knowing’ stance taken by therapists involves the suggestion of strategies that their patients may use. Sexual abuse clients form a distinct population that manifests therapeutic challenges which require sensitivity. Survivors present the need for safety and their protector’s fright to the therapy (Harper & Steadman, 2003). Hence, they associate affection and intimacy abuse, distorting the actual and emotional margins. Therefore, it necessitates the need for extra enforcement of professional frontiers.
Case Study
Therapies that continue for more than three meetings may often represent intense relationships between clients and counselors. Therefore, as a therapist, maintaining a professional relationship rather than developing an intimate connection would be the most significant factor to be considered in such a scenario, as the role of care management revolves around providing therapy to such clients (Darnell, 2013). Therefore, I would lower my emotional closeness with the patient and remind him/her that counselor training emphasizes cognition over bodily desires.
References
Darnell, J. S. (2013). Navigators and assisters: Two case management roles for social workers in the affordable care act. Health & Social Work, 38(2), 123–126.
Harper, K., & Steadman, J. (2003). Therapeutic boundary issues in working with childhood sexual abuse survivors. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 57(1), 64–79.
McLeod, J. (2013). The counseling relationship. In An introduction to counseling (5th ed., p. 778). McGraw-Hill Education.
McNulty, N., Ogden, J., & Warren, F. (2013). ‘Neutralizing the patient’: Therapists’ accounts of sexual boundary violations. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 20(3), 189–198. Web.