Continuing education / 3 hours · Intermediate
Ethics and Professional Boundaries
Three hours on the boundary questions that fill licensing board caseloads: dual relationships and community overlap, confidentiality in couples and family work, digital presence and availability, and how to consult, document, and repair when something slips. Built around three fully worked cases.
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What the course covers
- A defensible decision process
- Power, roles, and contextual boundaries
- Confidentiality and consent in complex systems
- Digital presence and availability
- Consultation, repair, and local requirements
After this course you will be able to
- Differentiate a contextual boundary crossing from an exploitative relationship
- Select confidentiality responses that distinguish consent, legal authority, and scope
- Draft a technology and communication boundary agreement
- Construct a consultation and documentation record that survives review
Who this course is for
- Social workers, counselors, and MFTs with a recurring ethics requirement
- Clinicians in small communities where client overlap is daily reality
- Practice owners writing technology and communication policies
State rules that name this topic
These state rules name the topic this course teaches. Two things to check before you rely on it: this course is self-paced and asynchronous, so it cannot be used where a rule requires live or synchronous training, and it is not yet CE-approved for any license. Each requirement guide shows the current rule, the hours required, and the source.
California social workers requirement guide Read → California law and ethics
California counselors requirement guide Read → California law and ethics
California marriage and family therapists requirement guide Read → California psychology laws and ethics
California psychologists requirement guide Read → Professional ethics
Texas counselors requirement guide Read → Professional ethics
Texas social workers requirement guide Read → Professional ethics
Texas marriage and family therapists requirement guide Read → Professional ethics
Texas psychologists requirement guide Read → Ethics and boundaries
Florida counselors requirement guide Read → Ethics and boundaries
Florida social workers requirement guide Read → Ethics and boundaries
Florida marriage and family therapists requirement guide Read → Professional ethics and Florida psychology laws
Florida psychologists requirement guide Read → Maintaining appropriate professional boundaries
New York social workers requirement guide Read → Maintaining appropriate professional boundaries
New York counselors requirement guide Read → Maintaining appropriate professional boundaries
New York marriage and family therapists requirement guide Read → Maintaining appropriate professional boundaries
New York psychologists requirement guide Read → Ethics
Michigan social workers requirement guide Read → Ethics
Michigan psychologists requirement guide Read → Professional ethics and law
Washington mental health counselors requirement guide Read → Professional ethics and law
Washington social workers requirement guide Read → Professional ethics and law
Washington marriage and family therapists requirement guide Read → Kentucky Code of Ethical Conduct
Kentucky social workers requirement guide Read → Professional ethics
Pennsylvania social workers requirement guide Read → Ethical issues
Pennsylvania psychologists requirement guide Read → Ethics
Nevada counselors requirement guide Read → Social work ethics
Illinois social workers requirement guide Read → Ethics
Ohio counselors requirement guide Read → Ethics
Ohio social workers requirement guide Read →
How it works
This is a self-paced, asynchronous course (home study), not a live webinar or scheduled class. Reading with optional audio, case material worked in full, and short knowledge checks along the way. The course ends with a final exam (30 questions, retake allowed) and a course evaluation. Your certificate of completion issues immediately and stays downloadable from your private course link.
Three ways to take it
This course
$39
- 3 hours of instruction
- Final exam and certificate of completion
- 12 months of access
- Full refund within 30 days, pre-exam
The Launch Bundle Save $48
$99
- Three flagship courses, 12 hours
- Ethics, suicide assessment, AI in practice
- $147 bought separately
- Each with exam and certificate
Annual CE Membership Annual access
$149/year
- Every course we have open
- Every course we release this year
- Certificates stay yours if you cancel
The Psychology.com standard
| Development | Built to a specification written by licensed clinicians, first-drafted with generative AI, and reviewed by our editorial board before release. The development disclosure appears on each course page. |
|---|---|
| The exam | The final exam opens after you mark every reading module complete. Question and answer order are randomized for each attempt; retakes are allowed. |
| Sources and dates | The course reader includes a bibliography. Our state requirement guides identify board sources and show a last-verified date. |
| Credit | Our courses are not CE-approved and carry no license-renewal credit. Completion earns a certificate of completion. |
| Pricing | Each course page lists its price. The exam and certificate of completion are included. Courses that are not open yet offer a waitlist. |
| Refunds | Full refund within 30 days if you have not yet passed the final exam. Email us to request it. |
Common questions
Which renewal requirements does 3 hours of ethics typically address?
Is this a lecture or case work?
Is it specific to my profession?
Our promise
Take the course. Work the cases. If it is not what you needed and you have not yet passed the final exam, one email within 30 days gets you a full refund. No forms, no questions, no partial credit games.
Ethics and Professional Boundaries
Authorship. This course was built to a specification written by licensed clinicians, with generative AI composing the first draft of the instruction, cases and assessments, and it was then reviewed by our editorial board before release. We disclose the AI drafting because you deserve to know how the material was made, and because a course you rely on professionally should never hide its method.
Refunds. Full refund within 30 days if you have not yet passed the final exam.
Crisis resources. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 (Suicide and Crisis Lifeline) in the US. Our courses train professionals and are not a crisis service.