2.4  Establishing emotional boundaries with clients

One of the reasons legal professionals are sometimes reluctant to acknowledge their emotions when working with clients is because they feel it may encourage clients to be over-emotional or blur lawyer–client boundaries. The reality is that there are emotions involved in all lawyer–client interactions and that learning how to identify, understand and manage these can be highly beneficial. However, it is understandable that legal professionals are concerned about establishing and maintaining emotional boundaries, particularly where a matter is highly emotive or a client appears particularly emotionally volatile or vulnerable. Such boundaries protect both lawyers and clients, so having emotional boundaries in place is important. This article provides some interesting insights into the need for boundaries [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

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Figure 2  Appropriate and inappropriate emotional boundaries between client and legal professional

The next activity is designed to provide strategies to assist you in setting or asserting appropriate emotional boundaries.

This video discusses setting boundaries in more depth.

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Transcript: Video 7  Mathijs on emotional boundaries

MATHIJIS

Setting appropriate boundaries might seem quite straightforward with both clients and colleagues. But actually, it's quite sophisticated because we'll have different rules and ideas in our minds in terms of what is an appropriate professional boundary.

I think what makes boundary setting really difficult is if it isn't really clearly communicated from the outset. An example that stands out is around communication - so emails, phone calls. What can the client, what can your colleagues expect in terms of the frequency of these and your timeliness in terms of responding? That's - can be quite difficult to set those boundaries. But if you set the boundaries right from the start, it's easier to manage that.

The other thing to consider in terms of boundaries is the power imbalance between yourself and clients. And sometimes, it's a power imbalance between colleagues and yourself with a - in a more powerful position that dictates somewhat around expectations around boundaries in terms of what people will expect of you, just being mindful that that will have an impact. And so if you're feeling that people are being inappropriately close to you, you're feeling pressured into doing things that you feel uncomfortable about, then those are usually a warning sign that boundaries are being encroached upon.

And the last is around the practical supports around your boundaries and the ways in which you can recognise this with the support of your colleagues. So if you're questioning something and you've got a gut feeling that's telling you that the boundary is not appropriate or something's happening and it feels odd, then colleagues can be really useful, ones that are trusted, to talk to about a situation to get from them whether or not they think this is as an issue around boundaries.

A way in which you can tell if a colleague needs further support can be just observing differences in their behaviour in terms of how they're managing at work. It might be that they've become more irritable or they've become more isolated, they're not their usual selves. Often, it's not actually recognising differences in others that can be challenging. But usually, what's more challenging is that conversation about encouraging colleagues to get help.

Pretty much no one wants to be told, I think you need to see a psychiatrist, or I think you need to see a psychologist. So it's about drawing that out in themselves and getting the person to recognise the issues for themselves. That becomes personally more meaningful. But it also means that they're more likely to get help if they are struggling.

There are a number of ways in which you can protect your own well-being when working with vulnerable clients. One is around supervision. I mean supervision in the broadest possible sense. That can be quite informal. And it can come from colleagues that you respect in terms of their management of working with clients that are vulnerable or clients that might be seen as being difficult to work with. This support can help you manage that situation as best as possible and think about the strategies that you can - practical strategies that you can employ to help support that person.

Another important point is to consider practically what you can offer, the limits of what you can do in your own role, because sometimes, it can - you might feel quite powerless or you might feel that you have a job that's, more or less, impossible to do. And you have to think about the aspects of that work that you can do as best you can given the circumstances and what you're going to be able to do in your current role and vocation.

And finally, I think it's about pacing yourself and that you don't take on too much and that you consider what you do outside of work to manage this. So it's general things in terms of your well-being and health in terms of having enough sleep, having enough to eat, and having interests outside of work that help keep you balanced so that you're not unduly bogged down in some of the real nitty-gritty work that you might be having to do in terms of your paid work.

End transcript: Video 7  Mathijs on emotional boundaries

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Video 7  Mathijs on emotional boundaries