What is Out of Bounds? Legal & Ethical Boundaries in Mental Health Care
Curt Widhalm, LMFT
VC CAMFT Pre-Licensed Member / $90
VC CAMFT Clinical Member / $110
Non-Member / $130
Registration after 7/12/24 / $130
Breakfast, Lunch, Snack and Beverages Included in Price
Description: Licensing board and ethics complaints involving boundary violations account for 20-40% of investigations. This workshop explores the ways in which therapists can potentially violate therapeutic boundaries. Beyond sexual relationships, this workshop also investigates the boundaries that can occur in supervisor-supervisee and educator-student relationships. Further, this workshop also provides guidance on how therapists can set and maintain boundaries for crisis situations in both individual and team settings.
Speaker Bio: Curt Widhalm, LMFT is the owner of Real Honest Therapy in Encino and West Los Angeles that specializes in working with teenagers and provides EMDR and comprehensive DBT. He is a member of the CAMFT Ethics Committee and a lecturer at California State University Northridge where he teaches Law & Ethics in the MFT program. Curt is also the co-host of “The Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide” podcast.
Educational Goal: This workshop is intended for licensed and prelicensed master’s level therapists with beginner-to-advanced experience to cover professional boundaries, identify vulnerabilities to boundary violations, and make informed decisions to set and maintain boundaries in their professional work.
Learning Objectives:
1. Describe three types of boundary incursions
2. Analyze the impacts of five types of boundary damage
3. Formulate three boundaries for handling client crisis situations
4. Evaluate boundary violations in two case studies
5. Contrast two ways that boundary violations can occur in technology and social media
6. List three laws for therapists newly effective in 2025
Syllabus
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8:30 - Check-in Begins
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9:00a - Announcements –
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9:07a - Presenter Introduction –
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9:10a – Types of boundary incursions and boundary damage
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10:30a – Break
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10:45a – Setting and maintaining boundaries in crisis management
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12:15p – Lunch
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12:45p – Case Studies
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2:15p – Break
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2:30p – Legislative Updates: California updates, BBS updates
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3:50p - Wrap up/CE announcements
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3:55p - Closing
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4:00P - End
References:
Cottone, R. R., Tarvydas, V. M., & Hartley, M. T. (2021). Ethics and decision making in counseling and psychotherapy. Springer Publishing Company.
Mathews, R. L., Thomas, N., Brashear, C. A., & Hickman, D. (2024). Workplace Hazards in Trauma-Informed Practice: Ensuring Helping Provider Health and Well-being. In Professional's Guide to Trauma-informed Decision Making (pp. 309-329). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
Reamer, F. (2023). Social Work Boundary Issues in the Digital Age: Reflections of an Ethics Expert. Advances in Social Work, 23(2), 375-391.
Sommers-Flanagan, J., & Sommers-Flanagan, R. (2021). Suicide assessment and treatment planning: A strengths-based approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Wheeler, A. M., & Bertram, B. (2019). The counselor and the law: A guide to legal and ethical practice. John Wiley & Sons.
White, E., & Hanley, T. (2024). Current ethical dilemmas experienced by therapists who use social media: A systematic review. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 24(2), 396-418.
