Social media & digital boundaries

A client sends you a friend request on Facebook. One click could blow up the therapeutic frame — and that's precisely the kind of digital dilemma the exam now expects you to navigate. Social media has created boundary questions that didn't exist a generation ago.

Friend requests — the clear one. Counselors should not accept friend/connection requests from clients on personal social media. Doing so creates a multiple relationship, blurs boundaries, and threatens confidentiality. The ACA code specifically advises keeping a clear separation between personal and professional online presence.

Searching clients online. Googling or searching a client's social media without a clinical reason and without the client's knowledge/consent is generally discouraged — it can breach trust and gather information out of context. If searching may ever be part of practice (e.g., in a genuine safety emergency), that possibility belongs in the informed-consent/social-media policy discussed at the outset. As a rule: don't snoop.

Professional presence policies. Best practice is a written social media policy given to clients as part of informed consent, explaining: that you won't friend or follow clients, whether/how you use any professional pages, that you won't search them without cause, and how they should (and shouldn't) contact you digitally. Keep two distinct identities — a private personal presence and a clearly professional one.

Why it matters. These are boundary crossings/violations in digital form; the same principles that govern dual relationships apply online. Protecting confidentiality, avoiding multiple relationships, and transparency drive every rule here.

Clinical Pearl: Don't friend clients and don't secretly search them — maintain a clear personal/professional online split and spell your social-media policy out in informed consent at the start of treatment.