The Ethical Risks of Professional Boundaries

The Ethical Risks of Professional Boundaries is a unique approach to boundary setting for professionals in health care and counseling. All professionals cross boundaries. Most of these are benign and are probably helpful to the relationship and therefore helpful to the care of the patient or client, but if they lead to boundary violations a toxic environment may arise.

A licensed professional has to understand themselves and their vulnerabilities in order to set healthy boundaries. They must recognize that they are the product of their training, their family background, their reactions to stress, their emotional intelligence and their practice of empathy. This book addresses self- evaluation to help the professional determine if they are prone to violating boundaries that could harm or damage the professional/patient relationship. This book is designed to educate, inform and illustrate how each professional can set their own boundaries to avoid unnecessary trauma and conflict.

Drs White and Montgomery have been involved for many years providing instruction and counseling to medical professionals in order to help them avoid or maintain their professional boundaries. They have both written about and presented to medical staffs, hospital administrations and individual health professionals on how to provide empathetic care without violating patient or client boundaries