What influences professional relationship boundaries?
It is important to note that balanced boundaries are a professional ideal. By virtue of being human, however, professionals have some susceptibility to behaving outside of the ideal balanced range, depending on their situation. Understanding the influences that affect ones boundaries, and the situations in which one is most vulnerable to crossing the boundaries of a client, is important for increased self-awareness and for avoiding boundary violations (Peterson, 1993; Bullis, 1995; Gonsiorek, 1995; Kowaz, 1996). To explore these areas, professionals may wish to consider how their family, gender, culture, religion, and generation have influenced their boundaries. In addition, counter-transference can be a current influence that decreases ones objectivity (Robbins, Chatterjee and Canda, 1998), which in turn can increase ones vulnerability to crossing clients boundaries. An on-going commitment to self-awareness can help professionals identify when counter-transference reactions may be occ
