“Something There is That doesn’t Love a Wall”: Notes on the Limits of Risk-Based Boundary Norms in Clinical Social Work

Abstract

ABSTRACT Boundaries are a practice of separating one thing from the other; to make clear where I end and where you begin. Establishing and enforcing clinical boundaries is taken for granted as a necessary foundation of therapeutic work by social work’s governing and administrative bodies. Upon interrogation, normative standards of ethical practice tend to serve broader populations and institutions by deputizing social workers to self-police, even as such boundary norms may fail to serve the individuals and relationships at the heart of clinical practice. As a collective of early-career clinical social workers, we have at times felt certain obligatory boundaries force us to choose between serving an institution and caring for an individual. We explore moments where tension between boundaries and care is felt in vignettes from our clinical work with queer, trans, and racial minority clients, and through our analysis of boundary-setting texts. Seeking to queer norms of boundary-making discourse, we explore the possibilities of resistance that empower clients and prioritize relationships.