Most people have heard the phrase "healthy boundaries," but what does that really mean? How do you recognize, set and maintain boundaries in your own life? And do it with integrity?
People who are called to serve others often carry a particular kind of wound around boundaries, because saying yes may seem kinder, more virtuous, and less fraught than saying no. This course is designed to meet you exactly there.
Boundaries are essential for self-care, emotional clarity and personal integrity. Over six modules, you'll learn how to recognize, set and maintain healthy boundaries in your personal and professional life.
You'll explore practical tools, emotional regulation techniques and the inner dynamics that shape your boundary patterns, and address the challenges you face when setting boundaries.
Who this course is for: counselors and therapists, teachers, coaches, social workers, pastors and spiritual directors, people who volunteer in community social service agencies, and other human service professionals.
Learning objectives
In this course, participants will:
Define boundaries with integrity, understand what they are and are not, and evaluate the integrity of their own boundaries in personal and professional contexts.
Explore the relationship between boundaries, emotional regulation, self-awareness and internal parts that influence how boundaries are set and maintained.
Identify common barriers to setting and maintaining healthy boundaries and develop effective strategies to overcome them.
Differentiate between personal and professional boundaries and learn how to navigate challenges specific to professional environments.
Course content
The course begins with a quick review of what others say about boundaries and the common misconceptions about them. You'll explore what a boundary is, what integrity is, and why boundaries with integrity are the key to effective boundary work (and why it's called boundary "work"). The module also confronts the painful costs of not setting or maintaining boundaries in personal life and in human service work, with a close look at empathy fatigue.
If poor boundaries carry such significant repercussions, why is it so hard to set and maintain them? This module explores a variety of barriers to effective boundary work, including a brief introduction to the concept of parts and Self energy, the basis of the Internal Family Systems paradigm.
This module builds the skills needed to set and maintain boundaries with integrity while keeping your personal challenges in mind. It takes a deeper dive into communication and emotion regulation and continues to strengthen your relationship with the parts of you that create barriers to boundary setting.
This module explores the internal and external backlash that can follow when you set a boundary, and how to navigate it. It draws on the skills from the first three lessons and looks at when and where professional ethics and boundaries bump up against personal ethics and boundaries.
This module takes a close look at the nature of human services and where the call to serve interweaves with, strengthens and challenges your ability to articulate, set and maintain boundaries. You'll explore your identity as a human service provider, and how boundaries are both a crucial part of the work and a significant challenge.
The final module looks more closely at the relationships between you, your clients and your colleagues. How do your identity as a human service provider, your identity as a person who is greater than the sum of your parts, and the needs of your inner parts inform boundary work? You'll explore your values, your directives as a human service provider, the expectations from above and around you, and how to bring this knowledge into your boundary work.
What's included
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Six video modules (just over 8 hours) with clear, example-rich lectures
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A workbook for each module, with journal prompts and practices to explore between lessons
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Lifetime access to all recordings and materials
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A multiple-choice quiz and an 8.0 CE hour certificate on completion is available
About Dr. Robin Barre
Dr. Robin Barre has 30 years of experience working with adolescents in a range of settings, from teaching high school and middle school to running a private practice. She is a Level 3 certified Internal Family Systems therapist and an IFS Institute Approved Clinical Consultant. Dr. Barre earned MA degrees in counseling and depth psychology and a Ph.D. in depth psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Washington State and a Licensed Professional Counselor in Virginia. Drawing on her years in the field and in research, she helps caregivers, practitioners and organizations improve the lives of the adolescents they serve.
Nearly 30 years in classrooms, agencies, and clinical practice * PhD in Depth Psychology * Level 3 certified IFS therapist * IFS-Institute approved consultant
I highly recommend the Boundaries with Integrity course to anyone looking to grow personally and professionally. I gained valuable insight into how to set and maintain healthy boundaries—with clarity, respect, and compassion. The course also deepened my understanding of how cultural backgrounds influence the way we perceive and establish boundaries, which was incredibly eye-opening and helpful for navigating both personal relationships and professional settings. What stood out to me most were the very concrete strategies offered for dealing with difficult situations—tools I’ve already begun to apply in my everyday life. The presenter was outstanding: warm-hearted, insightful, and highly professional. The supportive and engaged group of participants also made the experience especially enriching. This course is a gem for anyone seeking to build stronger, more respectful connections—starting with themselves.
Workshop Participant
Dr. Robin Barre’s understanding of, and guidance in, creating boundaries with integrity in a professional setting includes showing students the correlation between the lack of boundaries and having a life of stress, burnout, frustration, guilt, shame, resentment and passive-aggressive forms of communication in the work place. This program is well crafted, sensitive, effective and efficient six module online delivery format, with real-time, live personal lectures to support maximum learning, in a safe, confidential community. It's a great value, and while human service providers are the primary audience, any team-minded, non-profit or individual who wants an introduction that works in the board room or the bedroom, start here. If you are a people-pleaser, start here. If you take on more responsibility just to make sure the job is done right, start here. If you suffer from burn-out, start here. If you work where dual-relationships are prevalent, start here.
Brenda Littleton | Jungian Coach, Retired Professor of Graduate Studies in Education, Marriage Family Therapist
Boundaries with Integrity combines the elements of advance video lessons, impactful written materials, and facilitated interactive sessions to deliver a powerful suite of resources to refer back to time and again. You come into each live session armed with relevant background and thought-provoking journal prompts, making the facilitated conversations rich and productive. Highly recommended!
Workshop Participant
FAQ
Each module runs between about 70 and 90 minutes. If you're earning CE hours, plan for a stretch of time where you can watch each one through in a single sitting.
The strategies work for anyone in a relationship with a teenager, at home, in the classroom or in the therapy room. Licensed professionals can also earn 1.5 CE hours.
Access never expires. Your course, recordings and materials stay in your account, so you can come back whenever you need a refresher.
No. Work through the course at your own pace. If you're earning CE hours, each video needs to be watched start to finish in one sitting, but you can take as long as you like between videos
No. The course is open to anyone. Only licensed and associate-licensed professionals can apply the CE hours toward their license.
Reach out through the contact page or reply to any course email, and someone from our team will get back to you.