In this first week, our tutor gave us an overview of what the course would entail, and the subjects we would be covering. She also illustrated some differences between this course, the CPCAB Level 3 Certificate in Counselling Studies, and the CPCAB Level 2 Certificate in Counselling Skills that I completed in 2018. The main difference is that this course is for people that want to eventually become counsellors, or something along that career trajectory, whereas the level 2 course taught counselling skills that could be used to enrich your existing job. This difference will also be profound in the final DVD assessment, where we will be watching a counsellor sitting with a client, rather than a person that has some counselling skills chatting with an acquaintance.
After a short introductory period, we pretty much went straight into it, starting with boundaries.
The dictionary definition of a Boundary is a line that determines the limits of an area. Boundaries should be clearly stated in a firm and caring manner, in a way that is non-manipulative and non-domineering. Typically, boundaries in counselling are clearly laid out in a professional contract that is signed before the real work begins. It is important to ensure you work within the boundaries of an organisation that you are currently working for or volunteering with. Boundaries are put in place to provide a framework which keeps both the counsellor and the client safe. Some boundaries are “hard” in that it is not advisable or ethically sound to cross them, whereas others do lend themselves to being a bit more flexible and are context sensitive.
There are many ways in which a counsellor could consciously or unconsciously exceed professional boundaries. Examples of ways in which a counsellor could consciously cross a boundary could include:
• Ending a session early if they had an appointment to get to
• Using language that the client is not comfortable with, such as swearing
• Being too judgemental, not truly applying empathy
• Dismissing a client’s problem as trivial or irrelevant
• Answering a personal phone call in a counselling session
• Sharing a client’s personal details with other people
• Gossiping about a client’s problem in public or private
• Seeing a client in the street and loudly discussing their problems
• Not giving 100% because of an arbitrary personal dislike of the client
• Had a drink or taken recreational drugs before meeting a client
• Knowingly take advantage of a vulnerable client in any way
• Accepting or asking for money (over and above any fees payable), favours or gifts
• Knowingly disregard any boundaries put in place by their current organisation
Examples of ways in which a counsellor could unconsciously cross a boundary could include:
• Closed body language
• Not paying attention or gazing out of a window
• Falling asleep in a session
• Not realising who can see what they say on social media
• Belittling a client’s problems with thoughtless comments
• One-upmanship, bragging that they’ve had it worse in the past
• Not paying attention to the time, finishing early/overrunning
• Forgetting sessions, turning up late
• Being careless with sensitive data
• Instinctively hug an emotional client
I think that a lot of these are quite similar in that the end result is the same – boundaries are not respected and broken, and are quite interchangeable between being conscious and unconscious. Whether a counsellor knowingly or unknowingly breaks one of these boundaries, it is highly unprofessional.
