Maintaining Professional Boundaries in Psychotherapy

with Bruce Hillowe, J.D., PhD

October 27, 2023
Live Interactive Webinar
9:00 am - 12:00 pm EDT

EARN 3 CE CREDIT HOURS

The New York State Board of Regents recently mandated that effective April 1, 2023, psychologists, social workers and mental health practitioners (LMHC’s, LMFT’s, LPsa’s and LCAT’s) take as part of their required continuing education a three credit course on the maintenance of professional boundaries with patients. The reason for the new requirement is concern about the number of professional disciplinary proceedings by the State’s licensing boards against mental health professionals where boundaries have allegedly been violated. This course has been designed to meet the State’s mandatory CE requirement for both boundaries and ethics: courses on boundaries that cover New York laws, rules and regulations related to unprofessional conduct may also be counted toward the ethics requirement.

Topics to be discussed will include the ethical, professional, legal and clinical backgrounds for boundaries; discriminating between boundary crossings and violations; the establishment and maintenance of boundaries at the outset of and during psychotherapy including issues of multiple relationships, at-risk patients and social media; the challenge of vulnerable patients and therapists; and maintaining clinical creativity and flexibility within the therapeutic frame. The potential harm and legal consequences of boundary violations will also be reviewed.

The presenter is Bruce V. Hillowe JD PhD, a psychologist-psychoanalyst and mental health care attorney who has defended hundreds of mental health practitioners in professional disciplinary proceedings in New York State, many of them for alleged boundary violations.