---
title: Therapist Glen Alex Says the Entire Boundary Conversation Is Wrong
description: Licensed clinical social worker Glen Alex spent 25 years watching clients fall short of healthy boundaries, not because they lacked willpower, but because th...
author: Dr Marina Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-03-20T22:20:44.000Z
updated: 2026-06-29T08:43:52.898Z
canonical: https://richwoman.co/article/therapist-glen-alex-says-the-entire-boundary-conversation-is-wrong
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/glen-alex-featured.webp
categories: Self-Development
content_type: Book Review, Profile
region: United States
publication: Rich Books
schema_type: Article
about:
  - type: Person
    name: Glen Alex
    description: Award-winning licensed clinical social worker, author, and podcast host based in Las Vegas. Author of Living Boundaries and the five-time award-winning Living In Total Health. Named Mental Health Educator of the Year 2025 by Corporate Vision.
    url: https://glenalex.com
    jobTitle: Licensed Clinical Social Worker & Author
    sameAs:
      - https://glenalex.com
      - https://glenalex.myshopify.com/
      - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-glen-alex-show/id1542898054
      - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12751790/
---

### Book: Living Boundaries
*Affirming Your Line in the Sand to Preserve Your Health and Well-being*
By Glen Alex

Living Boundaries reframes healthy boundaries as contextual, value-driven tools rather than simple declarations of no. Drawing on over 25 years of clinical social work practice, Glen Alex combines education with hands-on workbook exercises and more than 50 real-life examples to help readers identify eroded limits and reinforce them. The book addresses boundary challenges as a universal human issue, covering anxiety, depression, stress, and relationship conflict.

[Amazon](https://a.co/d/07WqqEs0)

Every few months, a new post goes viral telling people to "set boundaries." The advice is always the same: say no more, cut people off, protect your energy. It sounds empowering. It fits on a tile. And according to Glen Alex, a licensed clinical social worker with over 25 years of practice, it is also largely useless.

"Healthy boundaries are so much more than just saying no," Alex says. The problem, she argues, is that the popular conversation around boundaries has been simplified to the point where it no longer describes what boundaries actually are or how they work. Her new book, [Living Boundaries](https://glenalex.myshopify.com/), published in December 2025, is an attempt to correct that. Living Boundaries is available in 18 countries on Amazon.

## What the Wellness Internet Gets Wrong

The mainstream boundary conversation treats [boundaries as walls](https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/setting-boundaries-without-alienating-yourself-a-compassionate-path-to-emotional-freedom). You put them up, you enforce them, you feel better. Alex's clinical experience suggests the opposite is closer to the truth. Boundaries are not static barriers. They are contextual, value-driven, and constantly in play. A boundary with your boss is different from a boundary with your partner, which is different from a boundary with a stranger, and none of them are as simple as "no."

What Alex sees in practice is that people who follow the "just say no" framework often end up more confused, not less. They set a boundary, the other person reacts badly, and they have no framework for what happens next because the advice stopped at the declaration. The book includes over 50 real-life examples of how weak or misunderstood boundaries contribute to [anxiety, depression, stress, and relationship conflict](https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/feeling-good-and-happy-learning-to-say-no-and-the-quiet-danger-of-self-betrayal) and works through them as both an educational text and a hands-on workbook.

## Boundaries Are Not a Women's Issue

There is a second problem with how boundaries are discussed, and it is arguably more damaging than the first. The conversation has been almost entirely gendered. Scroll through any wellness feed and boundaries content is [overwhelmingly marketed to women](https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/why-the-kindest-women-often-have-a-small-circle-of-friends-how-to-keep-yourself-safe-from-spr): set boundaries at work, set boundaries with your mother, set boundaries with your partner. The framing implies that boundary struggles are a female problem, something women need to fix about themselves.

Alex pushes back on this directly. "Healthy boundaries are a human issue, not the sole responsibility of women," she says. Men struggle with boundaries too, at work, in friendships, in families but the cultural script does not give them the same language for it. The result is that men are less likely to recognise eroded boundaries as the source of their stress, and less likely to seek help for it.

Living Boundaries is written for adults regardless of gender. The assessments, strategies, and exercises are designed around values and self-respect, not around any gendered narrative about who needs fixing.

## From Chapter to Book

Living Boundaries grew out of Alex's previous book, Living In Total Health, which has won five awards including an Indie Book Award and a Book Excellence Award. The boundaries chapter kept expanding — more case studies, more exercises, more clinical nuance — until it was clearly its own book. That trajectory says something about where the need is. Of everything Alex covers in her practice — stress, relationships, self-care, mental health — boundaries are the thing that kept demanding more space.

Alex holds a Masters degree in Social Work and Psychology and is a licensed clinical social worker in Nevada. She was named Mental Health Educator of the Year in 2025 by Corporate Vision, is a 2024 Marquis Who's Who inductee, and has published in the Journal of Community Practice. She also runs a podcast, The Glen Alex Show, which won a 2023 Positive Change Podcast Award in Health and Wellness.

## In case you were wondering

**Q: What are the signs of poor boundaries?**
Common signs include difficulty saying no, feeling responsible for other people's emotions, people-pleasing at the expense of your own needs, resentment in relationships, and chronic stress or anxiety without a clear external cause. Glen Alex's book Living Boundaries includes assessments to help identify where boundaries have eroded.

**Q: Are boundaries just about saying no?**
No. Clinical social worker Glen Alex argues that reducing boundaries to "just say no" oversimplifies a complex process. Healthy boundaries are contextual, rooted in personal values, and require ongoing navigation — not a single declaration. Her book Living Boundaries provides over 50 real-life examples and practical exercises.

**Q: Do men need to set boundaries too?**
Yes. Boundary challenges affect all genders, though the mainstream wellness conversation tends to frame it as a women's issue. Men experience boundary erosion at work, in friendships, and in family relationships but are less likely to have the language or cultural permission to address it.

**About Glen Alex**
Licensed Clinical Social Worker & Author

Award-winning licensed clinical social worker, author, and podcast host based in Las Vegas. Author of Living Boundaries and the five-time award-winning Living In Total Health. Named Mental Health Educator of the Year 2025 by Corporate Vision.

[Website](https://glenalex.com)