Setting Healthy Boundaries in Community Mental Health

Boundaries are essential in community mental health — both to define the limits of your own work and to establish healthy relationships with those you serve and with the community you work in. But boundaries have personal, clinical, and cultural dimensions. It’s important to be aware.

You will learn to:

• Explore the definition of healthy boundaries and what role they play in the community mental health setting.

• Discuss what is involved in determining what boundaries are necessary and how to set them up in your relationships with patients and colleagues — and along with setting healthy boundaries, planning how you will respond when a boundary is violated.

• Consider the role of cultural, socioeconomic, and other factors in setting and protecting boundaries.

In this course, Wayne Klee, LPCC-S, LMHC, and  Dr. Latinia M. Shell, EdD, LPC, NCC, CCMHC, will discuss the role of boundaries in the clinical setting, including how to establish and model boundaries with your supervisees.

Boundaries are a healthy aspect of self-care and also organizational health. The panelists will discuss how a community mental health organization can empower and respect the necessity of boundaries for their therapists and also how they operate as an employer and community organization.

Attendees will study real-world boundary examples and role play how they would establish and enforce boundaries.