Boundary Applications and Violations: Clinical Interpretations in a Transference-Countertransference-Focused Psychotherapy

Abstract

The title of this paper reflects the author’s continuing exploration of the nature of clinical boundaries, their maintenance, and transgressions in psychotherapy. There is a growing interest in enactments in the psychotherapeutic literature, including within transactional analysis. Boundary violations arising from enactments continue to be a feature of the psychotherapy profession. The author addresses the nature of boundaries, enactments and their management and mismanagement, and boundary crossings and violations, including questions about their therapeutic significance. Clinical examples from previously published material are used to highlight these issues. The research and clinical writings of Gabbard and his colleagues have had a significant impact on the author’s thinking in this area.

Keywords:

• Boundaries
• boundary violations
• transference-countertransference
• self-disclosure
• relational psychotherapy
• therapeutic frame
• object relations
• self-other representations
• countertransference interpretation
• transactional analysis

Disclosure statement

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ray Little

Ray Little is a Certified Transactional Analyst (psychotherapy) and a United Kingdom Council of Psychotherapy (UKCP) registered psychotherapist and supervisor who maintains a private practice in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is also a visiting tutor at psychotherapy training institutes in Madrid, Ljubljana, Lyon, and London, and a founding member of the International Association for Relational Transactional Analysis (IARTA). Ray can be reached at 4/2 Oxford Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9PJ, United Kingdom; email: [email protected]; website: www.enderbyassociates.co.uk.