Boundary Violations In Counseling

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It is a good idea for counselors to refrain from dating or having a sexual relationship with a client you saw in counseling more than five years ago for various of reasons. The main issue is that having any form of sexual relationship before the five years is unethical. Additionally, further harm could happen if a counselor dates or has a sexual relationship with their client. According to Gu, McCarthy, Eubanks, LeRoy, and Callanan (2011), indicate that boundary violations consist of physical and psychological boundaries such as physical intimacy. However, boundary violations and boundary crossings create confusion for counselors when dealing with multiple relationships, thus the counselor will need to review their ethics and seek consultation. Similarly, Fasasi and Olowu (2013) demonstrate that boundary violations consist of when a therapist becomes sexually involved with a client which …show more content…
Ray, Huffman, Christian, and Wilson (2016), therapist are to a build therapeutic relationships that induce self-awareness and interpersonal learning. Counselors that are aware of their attraction to a client can seek supervision. Also, counselors are to build a client-therapist relationship that includes boundaries. In this case, counselors that have boundaries can foster trust and prevent harm in order to aid the client. However, Barsness and Strawn (2014) illustrates that instead of neutrality it is important for to enter the realm of exploration of sexuality together such as what is hateful and what it love instead of denying such feelings. Yet, clients and counselors may feel uncomfortable sharing feelings of attraction. Counselors will need to caution if he or she decides to bring up their attraction, however, before doing so he or she would need to seek