Personal Boundaries
Personal boundaries are the mental, emotional, and physical walls we create to protect ourselves from being used, drained or manipulated by others. These limits help us to distinguish who we are and what we need from other people and their needs. They help us to create a safe container within ourselves where self‑compassion and self care can blossom. Creating personal boundaries helps to preserve our personal integrity.
Work Boundaries
Answering texts or emails after work hours? Working long hours with no break? Being accessible 24/7? Fearing shutting off your phone in case a crisis emerges? Creating sustainable boundaries between your life and your work can be a challenge. Work‑related boundaries help define how much of yourself you give to your work, and guide how you form relationships with colleagues and clients.
Boundaries separate
what you feel and think
from the thoughts
and feelings of others
Healthy boundaries can make the difference between professional fulfilment and burn out. They protect you from overcommitting or behaving in unethical ways. Work with young people depends on developing trusting, respectful and voluntary relationships. These relationships must be open and honest, to support young people’s personal, social and educational development – to some extent the boundaries you put in place have to shift and evolve rather than be fixed. Critical reflection on who you are and on your practice is also required to ensure those boundaries are appropriate for you and for others.
Creating healthy boundaries at work can be particularly difficult. There may be real concerns around how to balance stakeholder agendas and the processes and procedures of the job without losing connection to the young people you work with, or your commitment to community. But with clear communication and practice you can learn to set self‑honouring limits without alienating those you work with or compromising authenticity.
