Professional Boundaries - What happens when the lines blur?

• Professional boundaries are the limits that help us to develop effective relationships in the workplace

• They are established through a set of behaviours and are given meaning through personal attitude and experience

• If these boundaries are not clearly defined, owned and maintained, there is likely to be confusion and damage to the relationship with either, or both, parties being put at risk

We believe that effective professional boundaries training is one of the most important investments an individual can make. Without clear and workable boundaries safe working between clients, colleagues and management becomes impossible.

• You probably want to work in a good and healthy environment, don’t you? 

• Feeling supported and enjoying what you do is vital, isn’t it? 

• Having a motivated team who respect you and each other is something we all strive for, right? 

• Knowing where you stand and what to expect means far less stress, yes? 

• Providing a safe, consistent and optimum level of service to your clients is important, true? 

Well if the professional boundaries are blurred, grey or broken then all of the above becomes impossible to maintain. This Professional Boundaries training will be in a safe, fun, interactive and challenging environment. Most importantly, we relate and apply all that is taught back into your real environment and ensure that the value of the boundary is both recognised and maintained.

Some of the areas we cover within this Professional Boundaries training are:

• An understanding and acceptance of the importance of setting and keeping healthy professional boundaries

• Discuss “grey areas” of boundary crossings and how to deal with pressure to cross ‘the line’

• Understanding of the differences between personal and professional relationships

• How adhering to professional boundaries helps the client and the yourself

• A recognition of how the greying of professional boundaries affects the professional relationship and has a detrimental effect on the client and the you providing the service

• How to identify situations before things go wrong

• How to help take ownership of your own solutions and without trying to rescue the situation

• Explanation and demonstration of how people take in information and the distinction between people’s different concepts of the reality of the information provided to them

• What challenges are faced in keeping those boundaries in place

• Understanding your own values as a service provider and how to recognise when these values are not being met

• How to recognise the warning signs from people’s language and physiology

• How to use your language and physiology to diffuse potentially difficult situations

• How to set and maintain boundaries that work for you, the organisation and the client

• Demonstration of ‘good’, ‘grey’ and ‘bad’ professional relationship lines and open discussion on the detrimental impact on the client and the person providing the service and what alternative actions could be taken

• Exercises to identify the consequences of stepping over professional boundaries

• Simple techniques to allow you to step back from the situation and identify alternative ways forward

• Group exercises to analysis different scenarios, recognise warning signs, recognise your own personal patterns of behaviour and identify alternative solutions that would be in the best interest of the client and the service provider

• How to use 6 questions to encourage the client to take ownership of their own solutions and support

• How to use these same 6 questions with yourself to ‘check in’ on what needs to happen to keep the boundaries in place and meet your own objectives

• How to recognise your own warning signs

Andy Coley & Jo Wilson

Andy Coley & Jo Wilson are global quality Trainers, communication and confidence experts. As Directors of Beyond Training Solutions everything they do, they do because they are passionate about enabling individuals and organisations to really achieve excellence.

Working with individuals and organisations to enable outcome driven results through Realisation, Facilitation, Training and Change, they take an ‘inside out’, rather than an ‘outside in’, approach to ensure that the motivation, passion and belief are taken into the core enabling a new perspective and lasting impact. Empowering collaboration both within and across teams, their solutions transform strategy and ideas into practical implementation, behavioural change and beyond.

Whether their clients are large corporate organisations, small and growing organisations, charities, health providers or local government, they ensure that their solutions are completely tailored to their challenges and develop the people within to achieve the change they want to make.

Jo and Andy are exceptionally proud to work within the NHS as well as Public Health organisations and private providers to facilitate an improvement in patient and customer care. In addition, they are dedicated to providing personal resources to those working in these busy and pressurised environments to enable them to perform at their best and meet the challenges of the ever changing demands.