What is Boundaries in Psychology
Boundaries are essential for maintaining psychological wellbeing, especially when providing psychological services to clients as mental health professionals.
There is extensive literature on the harms caused by poor boundaries and boundary violations in clinical relationships with patients and clients (Aiyegbusi & Kelly, 2012; Aravind, Krishnaram & Thasneem, 2012; Davies, 2007).
The APA’s psychologists’ code of ethics does not make any explicit statements about professional boundaries, although it covers related areas including:
- multiple relationships (such as offering therapy to a student or friend),
- sexual intimacies with current therapy clients/patients;
- sexual intimacies with relatives or significant others of current therapy clients/patients;
- therapy with former sexual partners; and
- sexual intimacies with former therapy clients/patients (American Psychological Association, 2017).
Similarly, the BPS has no explicit statement on boundaries in their code of ethics for British psychologists and associated clinical professions, but outlines key principles including confidentiality and the related code of conduct (British Psychological Society, 2021).