
Boundaries are a topic dear to my heart, and in this post we will discuss these in the context of supervision.
It’s important in our daily lives, but it takes a different scope when we talk about it in professional terms.
Boundaries in the therapeutic and supervisory realms are key to keeping both relationships safe and doing what they need to do, which is effecting positive and long-lasting change in our clients’ lives.
By supervisors challenging their supervisee’s boundary keeping and setting in the sessions, they are keeping the standards high, as well as teaching the supervisee to stick to the boundaries they know are important but might want to relax due to different dynamics in their relationships with clients.
Don’t get me wrong, we are all human.
Therapists and supervisors are human too.
Our training and personal therapy requirements (ongoing therapy after training feels important, whether you dip in and out or go regularly) raise our self-awareness, but there might always be blind spots that our supervisor might spot easier, looking from the outside.
Keeping to an ethical framework also helps us to keep to boundaries that keep the therapeutic relationship a safe space to work through life’s issues.
Some boundaries might relate to:
- keeping to the 50-60 minutes and ending sessions on time.
- keeping communication outside of sessions limited to discussing
- session times or rescheduling.
- how much the therapist self-discloses in the counselling sessions.
- what to do if you are in the same public spaces or find your profiles on social media.
- how to deal with endings.
- payment boundaries – before the session, on the day of the session.
What other boundaries do you feel are important in supervision and in the therapeutic space?
Follow this link for a video describing this process.

If you’d like to see me teaching on these topics, you can check out my workshops on supervision here. They align with this blog post series very well and encourage you to critically think and consider what you need from supervision, which is also my aim with these blog posts.


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