Maintaining Professional Boundaries in Psychotherapy

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 r...Read moreequirement 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. Less...

Learning Objectives

  • Assess the difference between boundary violations and boundary crossings.
  • Determine the factors in how to make ethically and clinically sound decisions regarding boundaries during psychotherapy.
  • Identify the circumstances that arise during therapy where boundary issues are implicated.
  • Identify vulnerability of therapists and patients that might lead to boundary violations.
  • Explain the possible consequences of boundary violations for therapists, with a particular focus on New York laws, rules and regulations related to unprofessional conduct.
  • Discuss the impact on patients of boundary violations Review means for preventing boundary violations.

Friday, October 27, 2023

Live Interactive Webinar

09:00 AM EDT - 12:00 PM EDT

Register for this Webinar
EARN 3 CE Credit Hours

About the speaker

Bruce V. Hillowe, J.D., Ph.D.

Bruce V. Hillowe, J.D., Ph.D.

Bruce V. Hillowe, J.D., Ph.D. is a mental healthcare attorney with a law practice in Garden City, New York. A graduate of Binghamton University, Duke University School of Law, and Adelphi University Derner Institute (Clinical Psychology and Postdoctoral Programs), he formerly practiced as a psychologist-psychoanalyst, including as a coordinator of clinical training
and director of a forensic mental health service. He was a teaching attending psychologist in law and ethics at a major teaching hospital for 15 years. He currently teaches courses in ethics and law as adjunct faculty at the Derner Institute. He is legal counsel to numerous mental health facilities, institutes, and practitioners and sponsors legal plans for professional associations. He has written articles and book chapters including for law reviews and healthcare publications, is listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers in healthcare law and is a "SuperLawyer" featured in the New York Times Magazine.

Agenda

9:00-10am The reason for this course: malpractice and ethics complaints against psychotherapists

  • Introduction, agenda
  • The psychotherapist as fiduciary
  • Boundaries defined
  • The assumed ubiquity of transference and countertransference
  • Ethics codes and boundaries, NASW, APA, ACA, AAMFT, APsa
  • NYS professional regulations and boundaries

10:00-11am A model for analysis of dual relationships; when does a boundary crossing become a boundary violation?
  • Multiple role relationships; before and around the therapeutic relationship
  • Boundaries during therapy
  • Boundary challenges by patients

11:00-12pm Sexual boundary violations with patients and ex-patients

  • The consequences for patients of sexual boundary violations
  • Social media, technology and publication
  • Post-therapeutic relationships
  • Ethical, professional and legal consequences for therapists of boundary violations
  • Systemic prevention
  • Personal prevention: warning signs for vulnerable therapists
  • Treatment of victims of boundary violations; special considerations
  • Questions



Become a NYC-CBT Member and receive discounts to all of our educational lectures from top CBT professionals!

To become a member click HERE

CE Information - Earn 3 CE Credit Hours

CE Approvals

New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work
CE Learning Systems SW CPE 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 #0060.
New York Education Department for Licensed Mental Health Counselors
CE Learning Systems, 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 mental health counselors. #MHC-0072.
New York Education Department Board for Licensed Psychoanalysts
CE Learning Systems, LLC dba CE-credit.com & AddictionCounselorCE.com 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 psychoanalysts #P-0031.
New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology
CE Learning Systems dba CE-Credit.com & AddictionCounselorCE.com is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0016.
New York State Education Department's State Board for Marriage and Family Therapy
CE Learning Systems dba CE-Credit.com & AddictionCounselorCE.com is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Marriage and Family Therapy as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0045.

CE Process Info

Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by his/her licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend "live" (in real-time) to earn CE credits.

Before the event, you will receive an email from CE-Go with access to the virtual event. After the event, you will receive access to your evaluation and continuing education certificate via a personalized "attendee dashboard" link, hosted on the CE-Go website. This link and access to the virtual event will be sent to the email account you used to register for the event.

Upon accessing the CE-Go "attendee dashboard", you will be able to:

  • Complete evaluation forms for the event
  • Download your continuing education certificate in a PDF format

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE-Go platform, please contact CE-Go at 888-498-5578 or by email at support@ce-go.com Please Note: Emails for this event will come from "support@ce-go.com".

If you have any continuing education related questions, please contact your event organizer.

Please make sure to check your spam/junk folder in case those emails get "stuck". We'd also suggest "Allowlisting" support@ce-go.com. This tells your email client that you know this sender and trust them, which will keep emails from this contact at the top of your inbox and out of the junk folder.

Disclosure

DISCLOSURE OF RELEVANT FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
CE Learning Systems adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Medical Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of a CE activity ― including faculty, planners, reviewers, or others ― are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible entities (formerly known as commercial interests). All relevant conflicts of interest have been mitigated prior to the commencement of the activity.

The following relevant financial relationships have been disclosed by this activity’s planners, faculty, and the reviewer:


PLANNERS AND REVIEWER
The planners of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.

FACULTY
The faculty of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.