Maintaining Appropriate Professional Boundaries: Exploring Ethical Obligations of Mental Health Professionals

Mental health professionals are charged with the legal and ethical responsibility to maintain professional boundaries, but the obligation is not always so easy to discern. This course brings real-world context to ethical concerns often experienced by professionals in practice in maintaining appropriate professional boundaries. This course will provide a framework to contemplate ethical dilemmas and make informed decisions that insulate professionals from legal liability while protecting clients from harm.

This 3-hour introductory ethics continuing education course aims to bring context to ethical concerns often experienced by behavioral health professionals in practice with individual clients. It is designed to help mental health professionals:

1. Describe the ethical and legal responsibility of mental health professionals to maintain appropriate professional boundaries with their clients.
2. Define dual relationships.
3. Apply a framework to avoid dual relationships whenever possible.
4. Apply a framework to minimize potential harm to clients and the professional whenever dual relationships are not avoidable.
5. Describe how to demonstrate that a client has not been exploited or coerced, intentionally or unintentionally.

Agenda (3 hours total):

• Introductions (5 minutes) 
• Revisiting Ethics in Professional Practice (30 minutes) - Professional education introduces future practitioners to relevant Codes of Ethics. This portion of the program will revisit what professionals should already know about ethics, so that we are all on the same page as we explore further. What do we mean by “ethical”? How is “ethical” related to “legal”?
• Understanding Professional Boundaries (45 minutes) - Working closely with clients can challenge the boundaries of professionalism, but setting and maintaining boundaries is important both personally, and professionally. This portion of the program will explore guidance from ethical codes on how to define appropriate boundaries with clients, highlighting the obligations of mental health professionals.
• Drawing the Lines (60 minutes) - Using case examples, this portion of the program will explore various types of relationships between professional and client that can make maintaining professional boundaries complicated.
  • Conflict of interests
  • Dual Relationships
    • Family Relationships
    • Sexual Relationships
    • Other Relationships
  • Complicated Financial Interactions
    • Bartering for services
    • Other financial interactions
• Protecting Yourself from Ethical amd Legal Liability (30 minutes) - This section will outline the framework that professionals can use to prevent ethical conundrums, and protect themselves from legal liability when maintaining professional boundaries is most complicated.
• Conclusions/Questions (10 minutes)

Statement of program material's accuracy, utility, and risks: This program presents a framework for professionals to use when evaluating ethical and legal responsibility. The content is consistent with the ethics code of the American Psychological Association, and all other ethics codes for mental and behavioral health professionals. This framework is designed to minimize legal and ethical liability of professionals, and as such reduces risk to participants.

Diversity: In the introduction, the presenter owns the impact of her own personal and professional experiences on her work in the area of professional ethics. She also acknowledges differences in perspective, and thus respect for different opinions. The presenter also discusses with the participants the importance of valuing each other’s experiences, even when they do not agree on interpretation. During the session, the presenter aims to allow for critical reflection.

Declaration identifying any potential conflict of interest and/or commercial support: The presenter has no conflicts of interest/commercial interests to declare.

Note: All New York State licensees are responsible for complying with New York State laws, rules, and regulations. Learn more at www.op.nysed.gov/professions/psychology/laws-rules-regulations

If you have any questions or would like information regarding disability accommodations, please contact GoodTherapy here.

How the Web Conference Works

Before the scheduled event, all registered attendees will be sent a reminder email from GoodTherapy with specific instructions on how to log in to the webinar, as well as links to optional handout materials if applicable.

To attend the event, registered attendees will log in to the Microsoft Teams web conference center using a computer or device with internet access and/or call into the teleconference line on a phone. Attendees will be able to submit questions during the webinar via text chat in the Microsoft Teams web conference center and will be able to see the live streaming video and/or document sharing. 

At the conclusion of this event, participants will receive an email with information about how to request a CE certificate in your GoodTherapy Account. To confirm attendance, participants must enter the start code and end code announced at the beginning and end of the live presentation. Participants will also be prompted to complete an online survey evaluating the event. Participants will need to complete this online survey within six days after the event. Once completed, participants will be able to download a copy of their CE certificate right away by logging in to their GoodTherapy account.

For additional information about this event or our CE grievance procedures, please contact us here.

Continuing Education (CE) Information

3 CE contact hours will be provided by GoodTherapy for attending this web conference in its entirety. 

GoodTherapy is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEPTM) and may offer NBCC-approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements.

GoodTherapy.org, provider #1352, 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 as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. GoodTherapy.org maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 3/30/2022 – 3/30/2025. Social workers completing this course receive 3 ethics continuing education credits.

GoodTherapy is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. GoodTherapy maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

GoodTherapy, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0395. GoodTherapy, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0022 and for licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0031.

THIS COURSE IS DESIGNED TO MEET THE NEW YORK STATE REQUIREMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS TO RECEIVE 3 HOURS OF TRAINING ON MAINTAINING APPROPRIATE PROFESSIONAL BOUNDARIES (effective April 2023). THIS COURSE IS NOT NEW YORK STATE SPECIFIC, AND CAN SATISFY ETHICS AND BOUNDARIES TRAINING REQUIREMENTS FOR ANY STATE. 

Note: All New York State licensees are responsible for complying with New York State laws, rules and regulations. Learn more at www.op.nysed.gov/professions/psychology/laws-rules-regulations

To receive CE credit hours for an archived event, you will need to complete a survey as well as a 12 or 15-question exam, verifying that you listened to or watched the event in its entirety. Archived CE events generally are considered "homestudy" by licensing boards.

Registration Information

Premium and Pro Membership with GoodTherapy includes access to this web conference at no additional cost, as well as other member benefits such as a profile listing in GoodTherapy's Therapist Directory. Not yet a member? Sign up for a Premium or Pro Membership, here.

Just want CE credits? Sign up for a monthly or annual CE Subscription with GoodTherapy to get unlimited access to our CE Program, including this event, other live CE web conferences, and hundreds of hours of homestudy courses.

Mental health professionals who are not members can attend this live web conference for $30.95 or access the homestudy recording for $15.50. Sign up here to purchase this CE course and earn a CE certificate.

If the event is canceled by GoodTherapy, registrants who purchased the event will be notified and the charge for the event will be refunded

If you have any questions or would like information regarding disability accommodations, please contact us.

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