Boundaries are important to develop healthy relationships with others. Many who suffered from experiences of abuse do not practice setting or keeping healthy boundaries. It is easy to talk and discuss setting healthy boundaries with people, it is not something that is always applied outside of sessions.
R D Laing gave this example of a body boundary: "Suck some saliva into your mouth. Swallow it. Suck some saliva into our mouth again. Spit it into a glass. Drink it." Aversion to the second step illustrates a body boundary.
I often recommend a book on manners, as manners are a socially structured way to set boundaries. There is an interesting article on the function of manners by Miss Manners herself [Judith Martin] in the American Scholar.
Martin, J., & Stent, G. S. (1990). I think; therefore I thank: A philosophy of etiquette. The American Scholar, 59, 237-254.
The Miss Manners books are very readable, as she has a marvelous sense of humor, and she models excellent ways to set boundaries verbally.
For a very non-clinical approach to boundary setting I recommend Henry Cloud and John Townsend's Boundaries (Zondervan). This is a Christian book, but I found clients like it even when they're not Christians. The authors followed this wildly popular book with several that have a specific focus, such as parenting, dating, marriage.
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