Setting and Maintaining Culturally Appropriate Boundaries in Work with System Involved Youth and their Families

Rachel Michaelsen, LCSW

Training Description

In all our relationships (work, social life, family) we consciously or unconsciously set personal and professional boundaries. In the work setting, it is important to be conscious and thoughtful about the boundaries we set to maximize the impact of our interactions with system involved youth and their families. In this training we will discuss how to set culturally appropriate boundaries with system involved youth and their families in different situations including use of technology, physical contact, dual relationships and accepting gifts. We will also explore particularly challenging situations in work with system involved youth and their families and have time to think through boundary issues in current system involved youth and families with which participants support.

Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be able to explain at least 3 potentially negative consequences of inappropriate boundaries in relationships with system involved youth and their families.

2. Participants will be able to identify at least 3 challenges to setting and maintaining professional boundaries with system involved youth and their families.

3. Participants will be able to identify at least 2 areas where they can clearly communicate boundaries in a new way with the current system involved youth and families they support.

Agenda

9:00 – 9:15am Introductions and Opening Exercise

• Logistics

• Self-reflection exercise

9:15 – 9:45am Ethical Mental Health Practice

• Cultural Competence

9:45 – 10:00am Therapeutic Goals of Boundaries

• Boundary violations versus crossings

• Defining professional boundaries

• Importance of boundaries

10:00 – 10:30am Consequences of Poor Boundaries

• Compassion fatigue

• Splitting

• Impacts on service quality

• Unethical behavior

• Emotional trauma

10:30 – 11:15am Difficulty situations that impact establishing and maintaining professional boundaries

• Dual relationships

• Values conflicts

• Vicarious traumatization

• Playing the hero

• Poor team work

11:15 – 11:30am BREAK (CE hours will not be offered for this time)

11:30am  – 12:00pm Signs that Boundary Issues May Be Present

• Professional relationship versus friendship

• Gifts

• Socializing

• Self-disclosure

• Sleep issues

• Inappropriate discussion of cases

• Providing inappropriate services

• Venting to clients

12:00 – 12:30pm Techniques for Creating and Maintaining Healthy Professional Boundaries

• Establishing clear agreements

• Warning signs

• Self-disclosure

• Miscommunication

• Where to get advice

12:30 – 1:00pm How to set boundaries around different situations

• Social media

• Email

• Special situations

1:00 – 1:15pm Vignettes and current cases

1:15pm Adjourn

Meet Our Trainer

Rachel Michaelsen, LCSW, is a clinical social worker who has worked in HMOs, public agencies, and private practice as both a mental-health provider and a supervisor for over thirty years. She has taught courses in DSM-5, clinical supervision, law and ethics, childhood psychopathology, time management, boundaries, vicarious traumatization and energy psychology at universities, conferences, and mental-health agencies. She has a private psychotherapy practice, which has been exclusively been online since 2020, and is also the Chair of the Humanitarian Committee for the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology.

This course meets the qualifications for (4) BBS CE hours for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.