Professional Boundaries in Mental Health Care
Without proper boundaries and awareness, mental health professionals become vulnerable to burnout and vicarious traumatization. This can result in a risk of therapeutic effectiveness, loss of trust with clients, and possible ethical crossings or violations. This course supports professionals practicing competence, while utilizing self-care and boundaries to minimize burnout while practicing compassion for the clients that they serve.
The purpose of this course is to educate helping mental health professionals on how to provide compassionate and competent care within the boundaries of appropriate practice.
Target Audience
This course is designed for social workers, counselors, and marriage and family therapists in all practice settings.
Learning Objectives
- Define professional competence.
- Outline components of the therapeutic relationship.
- Define empathy and describe the difference between empathy and sympathy.
- Define transference and countertransference and discuss their implications for the mental health professional.
- Identify the functions of professional boundaries in the therapeutic relationship and multiple relationships.
- Discuss the guidance on giving and receiving gifts provided by professional ethics codes.
- Discuss the legal and ethical considerations of providing distance therapy.
Additional Information
Lisa Hutchison, LMHC, has more than 20 years of experience providing individual and group counseling with adults. She specifically focuses on teaching assertiveness, stress management, and boundary setting for empathic helpers. Ms. Hutchison graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, with a Master’s degree in education for mental health counseling.
Contributing faculty, Lisa Hutchison, LMHC, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Alice Yick Flanagan, PhD, MSW
James Trent, PhD
The division planners have disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Director of Development and Academic Affairs
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
It is the policy of NetCE not to accept commercial support. Furthermore, commercial interests are prohibited from distributing or providing access to this activity to learners.
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, NetCE is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit.
Social workers participating in this intermediate to advanced course will receive 3 Ethics continuing education clock hours.
Individual State Behavioral Health Approvals
In addition to states that accept ASWB, NetCE is approved as a provider of continuing education by the following state boards: Alabama State Board of Social Work Examiners, Provider #0515; Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling, CE Broker Provider #50-2405; Illinois Division of Professional Regulation for Social Workers, License #159.001094; Illinois Division of Professional Regulation for Licensed Professional and Clinical Counselors, License #197.000185; Illinois Division of Professional Regulation for Marriage and Family Therapists, License #168.000190;
This course is designed to meet the New York requirement for 3 hours of education in appropriate professional boundaries every renewal period.
Available Credit
- 3.00 Approved Continuing Education (ACE)
- 3.00 Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)
Price
This course is offered through NetCE.
To take this course you will be redirected to NetCE website. You must login or create an account with NetCE in order to complete this activity.
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