In our popular online therapist training course on therapist client boundaries, Jules Shore teaches us about the different types of psychological boundaries, how they intersect, and how we can support our clients to develop better boundaries. As we’ve discussed in previous articles, boundaries are critical to the therapeutic process and to living a fulfilling life. In this article, we share a bit from the content shared in The Neurobiology of Feeling Safe online course with CU’s for therapists where Jules Shore shares about the importance of containing boundaries for therapy clients. Watch her free webinar Experiential Therap Techniques: A Neurobiological Appraoch to Self-Compassion Therapy to get started!
What is containing boundary work?
When we are working with therapy client boundaries of the “containing” variety, we are working with that pause between feeling and doing. An impulse arises. If there is no gap, no pause between that impulse, that surge in emotion, and reacting to it or acting it out, it indicates poorly developed or weak containing boundaries.
However, if we can offer ourselves a pause between what we feel and whatever next action we are taking in reaction to that feeling, this demonstrates healthier containing boundaries.
Containing boundaries in therapy, aka emotional regulation.
The term “containing boundaries” is also referred to as emotional regulation. Emotional regulation is a complicated process. Most of our psychotherapy clients come in needing help working through emotional regulation difficulties. We prioritize this work in therapy because emotional regulation has far-reaching implications in our clients’ lives.
This containing boundary, when healthy, gives us a space between what that lower brain wants us to do, maybe to protect ourselves or to get something we feel we need, and what our higher brain, or higher self, wants us to do. This pause gives us the ability to ask ourselves, “If I follow this impulse right now, what will be the consequences to my relationship with myself and my own values, and my relationship with the people around me?”
Client therapist boundaries and personal integrity.
Containing boundaries give us enough space to be thoughtful about how our behaviors are going to be affecting other people, and how it’s going to affect us. We’re not talking only about behavioral consequences. It is possible that the only consequence are in our own heart, is in our own knowing that we’re outside of our true north, outside of our personal integrity.
Join Juliane Taylor Shore for a FREE 90-minute webinar
Experiential Therapy Techniques: A Neurobiological Approach to Self-Compassion Therapy
During the webinar, you will learn:
A practice to increase self-compassion towards yourself as you do your work so you can both embody and benefit from self-acceptance.
The neurobiological difference between empathy and compassion so you keep use them judiciously in practice.
How to set up experiential practices so clients can discover and experience self-compassion.
So when we are talking about emotional regulation, one of the biggest gifts we’re going to give ourselves is our own self-worth. In private therapy practice, by supporting our therapy clients to have better boundaries– especially better containing boundaries–we are directly supporting their sense of self-worth. Since one’s sense of self-worth has far reaching effects in terms of behavior, within relationships, and in terms of susceptibility to anxiety and depression disorders, working with containing boundaries can do a world of good in the lives of our therapy clients.
Ready to help your clients feel safer and with more self-esteem? Go in-depth, learning about the different kinds of boundaries that affect your clients’ lives, and how to work with them from a neurobiological perspective with clear, powerful practices you can apply right away in your psychotherapy practice.
Join Jules Shore’s popular leading-edge online therapist training course with CU’s. You’ll get immediate, on-demand access to the entire course and a host of valuable bonuses. Watch her related free webinar Experiential Therap Techniques: A Neurobiological Appraoch to Self-Compassion Therapy to get started!
