Boundaries: It's About Time

Two things happened at the same time a couple of weeks ago. The coincidence got me thinking—a relatively unusual occurrence—about an interesting ethical issue.

First: I was interviewed for an article in Rewire about boundaries in psychotherapy, written by Kelsey Yandura. Yandura discussed how important boundaries are, how therapists and clients should talk about them, and about some major boundary issues: therapist self-disclosure, gifts, touch, and physical space. Space issues become especially delicate in this age of COVID-19 (Chenneville & Schwartz-Mette, 2020). I was reminded of my now-ubiquitous Zoom meetings with students and colleagues—seeing their apartments, furnishings, pets, canned goods, quilts, housemates, etc.

Second: I was teaching my graduate ethics course, and the students were all going to be in my course, “Teaching Skills Workshop,” starting the next week. I told them of their first assignment: a series of questions to answer, including self-reflections about their own experiences as a student, a memorable interaction with a teacher at any level, and other thoughts about teaching and learning. The kicker: This assignment was due by the first day of class. After I presented the assignment, one student asked, “Is that ethical, to make students work before the semester starts?” The student said that the question was in jest and that he didn’t mind the assignment, but still…

Time is a boundary issue in psychotherapy (Gutheil & Gabbard, 1993). Therapists sometimes give (particular) clients an extra 10 minutes during each session, or come late to sessions, and in other ways use time in ways that may erode the therapeutic relationship (Anderson & Handelsman, 2010). I am definitely crossing a time boundary with my early assignment. But is it an ethical violation?

I give early assignments in other courses. For example, I send a letter to my first-year undergraduates a week before the fall semester, informing them about the course and requiring them to respond to my email. In that course, however, the due date is the second class period, not the first. In addition, sending course information is a courtesy, so that students can get a head start if they want to. However, the assignment for the Teaching Skills course is more than reading, and due right away.

Here are my major arguments in favor of the assignment:

• The course is a three-week intensive course, worth three credit hours, just like a full-semester course. Thus, there is no time to waste; the sooner we get started, the better.
• The assignment is integral to the discussion we have on the first day. That discussion becomes a thread that runs throughout the course.
• Students need time to reflect on the questions I ask.
• I give students advance notice (warning) of the assignment, so they have time to complete it.
• Graduate students are in a program, not just a series of courses, and have other responsibilities (such as seeing clients) between semesters.
• It demonstrates that we’re serious about the students’ graduate training.

Here are some arguments against the assignment:

• Students should be free to use their time between semesters how they see fit. The assignment puts an unnecessary burden on them.
• Students could easily do the assignment during class. The exercise may not be quite as effective, but it would be more respectful of students and their time.
• Who do you think you are?

I’ve considered some alternatives. First, I could ditch the assignment altogether. Second, I could do the assignment later on the first day (classes are four hours long) or later in the term. Third, I could give students an hour off the final day of the course to compensate for the extra time they put in before the course.

My judgment, however, has been that the exercise and ensuing discussions are valuable enough—and consistently good enough—that the small boundary crossing is justified by the principle of beneficence. It’s kind of like requiring graduate students to undergo their own therapy as part of training; the benefit to students outweighs the infringement on their autonomy.

I had my first class period last week, and the discussion was wonderful. Maybe the ends do justify the means, which are not that onerous. And besides, in the decade that I’ve been teaching the course, students have not complained about the assignment—although, to be fair, they’ve had lots of other stuff about the course to complain about. What do you think about the timing of my assignment for graduate students?

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