1.
Health
Working in the health care sector you will often be supporting people who are not feeling at their best. How can you support people in an appropriate manner? What are the boundaries of your professional role? How can boundaries be maintained over long periods of time? How can the difference between personal and professional relationships be kept in mind?
2.
Psychological Therapies
As someone whose job it is to help people in often extreme emotional and mental distress, it is important that you have clearly defined professional boundaries. What is your role in working with this person? How can you communicate to this person what they can and cannot expect from you? What do you do if you have a sense of them pushing your boundaries? How can you try to avoid over dependence?
Courses for professionals working in the psychological therapies focus on raising awareness and equipping people with the skills they need to effectively manage their own boundaries and to keep their professional relationships safe.
3.
Clergy & Religious
As a member of the clergy you will at times be confided in or asked for advice by members of your parish or congregation, sometimes the people approaching you may be vulnerable or distressed. What is an appropriate way for you to help/guide these people? Where do your professional boundaries lie? Where there is a position of trust there need to be clear boundaries. Courses focus on raising awareness and equipping people with the skills they need to effectively manage their own boundaries and to keep their professional relationships safe.
4.
Coaching
Whether you are working with people high up in the business world, or working on building confidence and self esteem with someone looking to return to work, you will at times be working with vulnerable clients.
So what is a safe and responsible way to work with vulnerable people? How do you strike the balance, between making a client feel safe enough to work with you while at the same time not creating an inappropriate dependency?
Courses for coaches focus on raising awareness and equipping people with the skills they need to effectively manage their own boundaries and to keep their professional relationships safe.
5.
Regulators
Training for Regulators, both statutory and self-regulators, focuses on understanding the dynamics of boundary violations, the effects on victims, how victims may behave through conduct proceedings and how perpetrators may be responsive to remedial treatment and rehabilitation.
6.
Education
As someone working in the field of education, you will potentially be working with a great range of students. At times they may confide in you about work related concerns, or personal issues. Depending on the age group you are working with expectations may vary, as may professional responsibilities. How far is it appropriate for you to engage with students about personal issues? What is your professional role in working with this individual? What are appropriate professional boundaries?
7.
Complementary & Integrated Health
Working in the field of complementary and integrated health you will potentially be working with a wealth of clients with diverse issues. You maybe work in various settings; in a clinic, your own home, or in clients homes. In these diverse settings and with diverse treatment demands, how do you see your professional role? What are your professional boundaries? At times clients will be feeling physically or emotionally vulnerable, how do you manage this?
8.
Business and Corporate
A clear understanding of professional boundaries is essential for anyone working with the public, and especially when working with particularly vulnerable people or in settings where the risk of harm may be higher. Businesses need to understand where risks lie and how to promote safe working.
Whether you are working for a driving school, for a news organisation working with vulnerable groups or with the public in some other way your organisation carries a risk if staff don't understand the difference between personal and professional relationships. Where there is a position of trust and a 'fiduciary' relationship there is a need for clear boundaries.
Courses for those working in business focus on raising awareness and equipping people with the skills they need to effectively manage their own boundaries and to keep their professional relationships safe.
9.
Advocacy
Courses for advocates focus on raising awareness and equipping people with the skills they need to effectively manage their own boundaries and to keep their professional relationships safe.
We have run courses for ICAS advocates on 'handling allegations of sexualised behaviour by health staff', which is a recommendation of the Ayling and the Kerr/Haslam inquiries.
The Clinic feeds in our own experience of providing advocacy and incorporates feedback from our advocacy training participants to make each course as relevant and up to date as can be.
We have trained advocates who work in a wide variety of settings, including people working with older people, people using mental health services, people with learning disabilities and people using residential care services.