“Mental health professionals are not legally or ethically prohibited from entering into a nonsexual relationship with a client after the termination of therapy,” (Corey, Corey, & Corey, p.282, 2019). I view this quote to referring to friendships being developed at a time after therapy has been terminated and not the reason my client wanted to terminate therapy.. If I were in a situation where I had a client terminating our therapeutic relationship and he or she wanted to begin a type of social relationship, I would first take into consideration his or her reasons for doing so. My very first concern with this topic is why my client is terminating services.
If we were reaching the end of our sessions and had planned termination together I would handle the situation differently. If my client was wishing to terminate before we had planned on termination, I would explore the reasons why he or she is wishing to do so. Either way, I would revisit the informed consent with my client, which I would have covered previously. In the informed consent process completed at the onset of therapy, which I would refer to at this time, would be my policy of developing social relationships with clients. I would remind my client that my role as their therapist prohibits me from developing that type of relationship with my clients due multiple reasons. A couple of the reasons may be the possibility of the client needing to return for future sessions with me and the imbalance of power in our relationship. Another consideration I would explore is my clients cultural background.
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Corey, Corey, & Corey (p. 281, 2019) state, “The cultural context can play a role in evaluating the appropriateness of dual relationships that involved friendships in the therapy context.” Cultural sensitivity is extremely important in the counseling profession, which is why it would be one of the first considerations I would explore.
If this were the case with my client I would still proceed with ensuring I was remaining in the role of a counselor and not crossing the boundaries into more of a social relationship/friendship. 2. Competence Competence is defined by Webster as the quality or state of being competent and one definition of competent is legally qualified or adequate.
In our book, Corey, Corey, and Corey (2019) define competence as “an ethical and a legal concept. From an ethical perspective, competence is required of practitioners if they are to protect and serve their clients. From a legal standpoint, incompetent practitioners are vulnerable to malpractice suits and can be held legally responsible in a court of law.” Assessing competence is not an easy endeavor, but is an extremely important topic in the helping profession of counseling. In my opinion being a competent counseling practitioner is a continuous endeavor due to our continuously changing world.
“Competence at one point in our career does not assure competence at a later time. To remain current, we must take active steps to maintain our knowledge and skills. Continuing education is particularly important in learning about emerging areas of practice,” (Corey, Corey, & Corey, p.
303, 2019). Being a competent professional to me means so much more than going to school, passing classes, and obtaining a degree. Professional competence is a career long developmental process. A competent counselor has the ability to reach his or her clients and make connections with people. Counselors not only need to be able to effectively work with clients and have the appropriate information/skill base, but they also need to know how to develop appropriate relationships with people. To be effective with clients, we as counselors, have to be able to connect and create an environment that clients feel comfortable/safe in and are drawn to.
Competence also refers to the ability to know when to refer clients to another professional due to our lack of knowledge/skills in an area and/or the lack of available resources. For me, I will assess and seek to maintain my competence in a couple of ways. First, I will make sure I am a life long learner and am seeking to always be my best. I want to always consider myself a student who is never done learning.
I will also strive to recognize my limitations and to make referrals when needed. According to the code of ethics, I need to take the appropriate steps to ensure I have the competency and resources needed. If I do not have one or both of these, I need to make an appropriate referral.
One way I will work to recognize my limitations is to seek supervision while specifically seeking my limitations and areas for improvement. While receiving criticism is an extremely difficult thing to do, if it is approached with the attitude of improvement and a way to create positive change, it is easier to accept. I think another area of importance when reflecting on competence is not only seeking our limitations and looking to improve upon them, but also knowing we get better with experience. We need to see the good in what we do and our ability to reach clients will get better with experience. 3. Supervision Supervision is an extremely important part of my development as a counselor and one that plays a large role in assisting me in developing the competence I need to fulfill my responsibilities as a counselor.
Reading, studying and learning in class is not sufficient enough to develop me as a counselor. Hands on experience with guided supervision is extremely important in this process. Working as a clinical supervisor comes with large responsibilities including protecting clients, promoting growth and development to the trainee, acting as a gatekeeper for the counseling profession as well as monitoring performance, and assisting the supervisee to become an independent professional (Corey, Corey, & Corey, 2019). Taking on the role of a clinical supervisor is no small task, nor should it be considered lightly.
As a supervisor over a counselor in training, I would be ultimately responsible for the actions of the trainee. I would be responsible both ethically and legally which can be a daunting task. “Three legal considerations in the supervisory relationship are informed consent, confidentiality and its limits, and liability,” (Corey, Corey, & Corey, 2019). I would need to make sure the counselors I am supervising are providing the information needed to their clients that they need to make informed choices about counseling. Through this process I would also need to make sure the trainee is informing their clients that they are a trainee and he or she is meeting with a supervisor weekly which may mean their sessions may be discussed during supervision.
To ensure I communicated the expectations for the trainee and laid the ground rules for effective supervision I would enter a contract by using a supervision contract. While working with a counselor in training, I would have a legal and ethical duty to honor confidentiality of the clients we discussed in supervision. I also would need to ensure the trainee respects their clients privacy by not discussing about them outside of supervision.
In regards to confidentiality, I would need to be sure both the trainee and their clients understand the limits of confidentiality and my duty to report and protect as the supervisor. In my opinion, the largest ethical and legal responsibility that falls on the supervisor is the legal responsibility for the welfare of the clients who are working with the trainee. This would require I was aware of all cases the supervisee is working with along with my own case load. By taking on the role of a supervisor I would need to understand the legal ramifications of this role and be willing to “operate in multiple roles such as a teacher, mentor, consultant, counselor, advisor, administrator, evaluator, and documenter,” (Corey, Corey, & Corey, p. 339, 2019).4.
Diagnosis As I sit and think about this topic and reread the section in chapter 10 with the for and against arguments in regards to diagnosis, I see both sides. Although my true gut belief is against diagnosis for the following reasons. While this isn’t true for all people, many people who receive a diagnosis either hide behind it or let it become who they are. They become the adjective or diagnosis that describes their symptoms, rather than overcoming it. It can become a crutch that is leaned upon. I view people as people first. So rather than seeing my children as black, I see them as children who happen to be half black.
Or my soccer team is largely made up of boys who happen to be hispanic, not hispanic boys. When it comes to a diagnosis, I believe there are people who happen to deal with anxiety or depression or bi-polar, not depressed, or bi-polar, or anxious people. All people are humans first, not an adjective that describes them. I think we give to much power to the adjective that describes us, rather than simply being a human. I also agree with Carl Rodgers’ view points regarding the harmful aspects of a diagnosis.
“Carl Rogers consistently maintained that diagnosis was detrimental to counseling because it tended to pull clients away from an internal and subjective way of experiencing themselves and to foster an objective and external conception of themselves. The result was an increased tendency toward dependence, with clients acting as if the responsibility for changing their behavior rested with the expert and not with themselves,” (Corey, Corey, & Corey, p. 379, 2019).
While working with a client, I would explain to them that I want to focus on who they are as an individual and not a diagnosis. I would talk with them about their symptoms and possibly relate them to a “diagnosis” but would not give them the label of being a bi-polar person, but a person who happens to have the characteristic of bi-polar. I would also explain that I did not want to attach a label that could effect the rest of their lives and stop them from obtaining their dream job or whatever greatness is out there for them. 5.
Ethics in Group Work The current setting I work in and the degree I am seeking is in school counseling. I work in the secondary setting with teenagers who are seeking to find themselves and find where they fit in in the world. If I were to design and conduct a group it would be in the school setting with teenage students. My most salient ethical concern, especially in this age group, is confidentiality.
When working as a counselor in individual treatment, confidentiality is not as large of a concern because I would be the only person that could break it which I am ethically and legally bound not to do. If my client choose to share anything from session, they would only be speaking about themselves so its not a concern in that way. In a group setting, especially with immature pre-adults, who do not have the ability to reason due to the lack of a developed frontal lope, confidentiality is a large concern. “Group leaders are themselves ethically and legally bound to maintain confidentiality, yet a group member who violates another member’s confidences faces no legal consequences. Although confidentiality in a group cannot be guaranteed, group leaders are responsible for educating members regarding how easy it is to unintentionally breach confidentiality, as well as the importance and advantages of keeping information private that pertains to the group,” (Corey, Corey, & Corey p. 441, 2019).
Confidentiality in the school setting with adolescents in a group is one that unfortunately cannot be guaranteed. As the leader in this setting, I would take the steps to involve the group members in discussion about confidentiality. I would discuss the importance of keeping confidentiality each week in group and work with the members to take measures to increase our chances of keeping the group members as well as the topics discussed confidential. I would also work with the legal guardians of each member and express the importance of keeping confidentiality. I would encourage members of the group to explore all areas of the topic including how they do or do not interact outside of group. They would need to discuss if they want to be acknowledged outside of group by others or not. Along the lines of confidentiality we would also need to address what is disclosed to parents and what is not.
At the start of the group, parental consent would be obtained which would include a statement about confidentiality regarding what could/would be shared with parents and what could/would not be. 7. Critique of the movie, Good Will Hunting In the film, Good Will Hunting, the main character Will Hunting, is a troubled boys who grew up in south Boston (Southie).
During Will’s youth he experienced abusive foster care which caused him to develop a lack of trust in others and caused him to put up barriers to prevent the risk of getting hurt by others. Will is court ordered into therapy and is a reluctant participant. Throughout the movie potential moral, ethical, clinical, an legal issues arose. The first legal and ethical issue that stood out to me was the termination of therapy between Will and the first therapist.
The code of ethics were not followed when the therapist terminated them. He was unprofessional with his lack of privacy in the hallway as well as the reason why he terminated. The therapist made things about him instead of about Will.
The same harmful ethical issue was true with the hypnosis; he terminated because of personal reasons, which was not best for the client. Another ethical, legal, and clinical issue that arose in the movie was the aggressive physical contact which breaks the ethics code of doing no harm. In the movie, Sean acts aggressively towards Will by grabbing him by the throat and threatening him. This also brings up the ethics code stating certified counselors are liable for their actions at all times. Another possible clinical or ethical issues from the movie is self disclosure.
Will asks Sean if he “had ever had an experience like that?” And Sean discloses personal information from his childhood with Will. According to the Code of Ethics, self disclosure is ethical if the motive is to benefit the client and the counselor does not disclose too much. A final possible ethical issue comes from the last session between Will and Sean.
The issue is to hug or not to hug. Many counselors avoid physical contact with a client because of the risk of the misinterpretation of the touch by the client. At certain times a reassuring touch can be therapeutic, however a counselor needs to be aware of the risk here.
