Keeping Good Boundaries: Finding Clarity and Negotiating Gray Areas...

PPSC Annex & PPSC Learning Lab presents:

"Keeping Good Boundaries: Finding Clarity and Negotiating Gray Areas Including the Use of AI in Clinical Practice"*

A Master Class with PPSC Faculty

L ive Zoom Workshop

Saturday, November 15, 2025

10:00 AM - 1:00PM (EST)

**Workshop Fee $105 ($75 for current students/candidates)

The new NYS law mandating 3 hours of training on professional boundaries for LMSWs/ LCSWs, psychologists, psychoanalysts and licensed mental health counselors might be viewed as an “eat your peas” moment, but it is in fact an opportunity to delve into an issue that is intrinsic to creating “good-enough” therapeutic relationships. This three-hour workshop will take a critical look at real-life scenarios culled from clinical practice, supervision and from famous case histories. The workshop will help participants draw a bright line around potential boundary infractions, while giving them strategies to think through the many gray areas that arise in day-to-day practice. Among the topics covered will be mandated reporting, physical touch, gifts, fee issues, self-disclosure, contact outside of sessions, dual relationships, advice, confidentiality, working within one’s area of expertise, seeking consultation and managing online relationships and social media. Thorny issues are arising both from patients' and therapists' using AI adjacent to therapy. We will also touch on emerging questions about incorporating the use of AI. The workshop will balance didactic learning and a small group process where rigorous clinical thinking on boundaries will be discussed. Having clarity on these and other issues is essential in creating the Winnicottian “playspace” that we all strive for.

*This workshop is appropriate for all licensed therapists; it meets NYS requirements for 3 CE hours of training on professional boundaries for licensed psychologists, social workers (LMSW/LCSWs), mental health counselors, art therapists, marriage and family therapists and psychoanalysts.

*This course qualifies for the 3 hours of Ethics training required as of 4/15/23 by NYS for Social Workers, Psychologists, LPs, LMHCs, and LCATs.

Timed Learning Objectives

10:00-10:25 (Frankfeldt)

- Via a “rogue’s gallery” of questionable boundary choices, participants will learn to distinguish red lines from gray areas in clinical practice

- They will learn the beginning spectrum of changes to the therapy landscape wrought by the advent of AI

- They will see just how commonplace lax or questionable boundaries are in most therapeutic settings, even when clinicians’ conscious intentions are positive

10:25-10:50 (Pauley)

- Participants will learn five major ways boundaries in the field have changed since the early 20th century

- They will be introduced to the commonalities in the codes of ethics in the mental health professions on questions of boundaries

- They will learn about four major ethical standards that ought to figure into all problem-solving on boundary concerns

10:50-11:15 (Ginsberg)

- Participants will learn to define the psychotherapeutic “frame”

- They will learn 5 ways in which the frame protects both therapists and clients

- They will learn strategies for re-establishing good boundaries when gray areas (ie, countertransference enactments) interfere with good therapeutic functioning

11:15-11:25 Break

11:25-12:15 Problem-Solving Exercises

- Participants will apply concepts of ethical boundary setting to case examples from presenters or their own cases

- Among the possible cases will be instances of touch, dual relationships, complex confidentiality questions in cases with minors, inappropriate fees or non-paying clients, and client abandonment

12:15-1:00 Large Group Discussion

- Participant will share the kinds of boundary issues that are easiest and most challenging for them to negotiate

- Participants will reflect on the inner resources available when boundary difficulties inevitably arise

- Patients will learn about outside resources available during challenging moments

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**For a refund to this PPSC event, we must receive a cancellation notice at the latest 24 hours prior to the event. Please contact ppsc.learninglab@gmail.com if you want to cancel within this time frame or if you have any other questions or concerns.

Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center 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-0040, licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0166 and licensed creative arts therapists #CAT-0083, and licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0119. We are 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 #0054 and by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0118. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Study Center maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

PPSC does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, sexual preference, gender, gender identity, marital status, national or ethnic origin in the administration of its admissions and educational policies.