Boundaries & Cutoffs
How do you know when to support a client's decision to cut off contact with someone in their life? Articles in this category explore how to help people pleasers learn to set limits and families navigate painful rifts and estrangements. You'll find nuanced takes on strengthening personal boundaries without collapsing into defensiveness and on repairing relationships after years of distance or hostility. Explore case-based reflections to help you differentiate self-protection from avoidance and better support clients in crafting boundaries that honor both safety and connection.
Personal Boundaries vs. Environmental Concerns
An Interview with Nedra Glover Tawwab: When Differing Values Create Interpersonal Conflicts
Nedra Glover Tawwab challenges the common cultural misconception that toxic people should be cut out of our lives, no questions asked. Read more
"Dear Therapist" columnist, podcaster, and author Lori Gottlieb talks with our editor in chief about the challenges of the parent-child relationship. Read more
After journeying through the Family Dialogue process, estranged family members often end up adjusting the very notion of what togetherness means. Read more
Helping parents process their own childhood pain is a difficult but necessary part of helping them reconnect with an estranged child. Read more
Today’s culture of therapy both reflects and contributes to our nation’s ever-growing embrace of individualism—for better and, sometimes, for worse. Read more
Sometimes the road to connection involves a painful separation. Read more
A client estranged from his mother for 15 years recently told his therapist he wants to reconnect with her. Here, five therapists weigh in. Read more
Asserting boundaries sometimes means confronting painful loss, but in these cases, helping them reinforce their boundaries has led to greater satisfaction. Read more
I used to view boundaries as a fancy way of dressing up rejection, incompetence, and selfishness. But after a decade of working as a couples counselor, I've... Read more
In the following clip from his Symposium Keynote address, William Doherty offers an expanded vision of therapy and explains why clinicians are uniquely suited... Read more
It’s difficult enough to offer an apology when we see the need for it and believe it’s the right thing to do. It’s far more difficult when we’re... Read more
Helping families heal cutoffs is painstakingly delicate work, with a high risk for stumbling over buried land mines. Read more
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