Title: Boundaries
Course: FLO MicroCourse: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Your Syllabus > Section: GENERAL INFORMATION

A few thoughts on maintaining appropriate professional boundaries.

It's important that, as educators, we support students within the boundaries of our role. Boundaries can be flexible considering the time, space and person they are negotiated with. Boundaries also tend to develop over the course of personal professional development, perhaps being more rigid and black and white at first and later developing to become more flexible of shades of gray, over the years.

I like the following points as a reminder of 'our lane', as educators.

•Because you interact with students frequently, you are often in a position to recognize when a student may be in distress.
•You are not expected to be a counsellor.
•You can be a supportive person and connect a student to campus services and resources, such as counselling.

Another approach to establishing boundaries is through checking in with us. Some warning signs could include,

•You feel responsible for the student.
•You often think about how to solve the student’s problems outside of work hours.
•You think the problems the student brings are more than you can handle.
•You feel stressed out by the student's issues or behaviour.
•You feel pressure to solve the student’s problems.
•You feel uneasy or have a gut feeling that the student is not okay despite the student denying it.
•You see a pattern repeating itself in your interactions with a student.
•You find yourself avoiding the student.
•You feel anxious or angry when the student approaches you.

We all have our limits and it's important that we receive support from supervisors, colleagues and community. Consider consulting if you:

•Are unsure about intervening.
•Are uncertain how to respond.
•Continue to be worried.

Source: BCcampus Capacity to Connect, (Sexual Violence Training Development Team 2021).