ETHICAL & LEGAL ISSUES IN COUNSELING:Keeping Relationships Professional

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Theory and Practice of Counseling - PSY632

Lesson 07

ETHICAL & LEGAL ISSUES IN COUNSELING

Two important ethical issues in the practice of counseling are described below:

a) Keeping Relationships Professional

· Dual relationships

· Bartering

· Multiple clients

b) Professional Responsibility

· Advertising & Soliciting Clients

· Credentials

· Evaluation, Assessment, and Interpretation

Keeping Relationships Professional

Dual Relationships:

· Dual relationship refers to professional's assuming two or more roles simultaneously or sequentially with

the person seeking help, such as friendship and business deals. Judgment is likely to be affected, impaired,

as the relationship of counselors and clients in power and status are unequal, thus exploitation may occur.

· Emerged from debates in the 1980s in the nature of client-counselor sexual relations.

· Questions were raised about other types of relationships in 1990s.

· Conflict of interest and exploitation can occur even in harmless relations. Such relationships are

inherently exploitive as reciprocity element applies here that we desire to return the favour because human

relationships are assumed to be reciprocal.

· Counseling is also avoided in Superior/ subordinate relationships because of unequal status of both.

· Studies about time limit for establishing relationships with current and former clients were conducted. In

this reference, Salisbury & Kinnier (1996) surveyed 500 therapists. A minority (33%) of counselors surveyed

and believed that sexual relationships with former clients might be acceptable after 5 years, while the

majority (70%) accepted such a relationship after 2 years. In another study, majority did not hold the

opinion of "once a client, always a client" in nonsexual relations with the former clients.

· Although apparently it appears that the rates of sexual relationships are declining with the passage of time,

obtaining accurate data on prevalence of such an issue is difficult.

Bartering

· The practice of counseling for goods or other services, cleaning house, secretarial service, etc.:

· This is an accepted practice in some cultures and subcultures.

· Even if the helper's intention is good it has the potential for conflicts.

· Case example: An unemployed client offers counselor's car service. Car's engine fails due to chance or

inferior work of the client, what will happen to helping relationship?

· Though some behaviors have potential are not by themselves dual relationships, e.g., accepting an

invitation, accepting a small gift, engaging in nonerotic touch when appropriate during counseling. Such

behaviors will be the boundary crossing rather than violation  boundary crossing is departure from

standard practice, while violation is a serious breach that causes harm to the clients.

Although there is a considerable disagreement on this issue, blending of relationships is not recommended

by most of the professional agencies. Recent codes of ethics (APA, ACA) deal more specifically with setting

appropriate boundaries. However, in small communities helpers are more likely to be involved in multiple

relationships like the local pharmacist, physician, carpenter, or beautician might be the clients. Thus dual

relationships are inevitable.

Theory and Practice of Counseling - PSY632

Research on Dual Relationships

Herlihy and Corey's decision-making model:

Herlihy and Corey have suggested a few guidelines to deal with dual relationship issues:

· Secure informed consent of clients

· Seek consultation

· Document and monitor this practice

· Obtain supervision

Borys & Pope (1989):

Borys and Pope described in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice the results of a survey of 4800

psychologists, psychiatrists and social workers. That survey was conducted to understand the beliefs and

behaviors of mental health professionals about dual relationships. The results are described below:

1= no client, 2 = few clients, 3= some clients, 4 = most clients, 5 = all clients

Accepted a client's invitation to a special occasion

64.0

28.0

3.3

2.4

1.4

Accepted a service or product as payment for therapy

82.6

13.9

2.8

0.2

0.1

Became friends with a client after termination

69.0

26.5

3.2

0.2

0.3

Provided therapy to an employee

87.5

9.3

1.7

0.3

0.2

Engaged in sexual activity with a client after termination

95.3

3.9

0.0

Went out to eat with a client after a session

87.4

10.5

0.9

Disclosed details of current personal stresses to a client

60.1

30.7

7.4

Bought goods or services from a client

77.6

20.5

1.1

0.1

Provided individual therapy to a relative, friend, or lover of an ongoing client

38.0

36.0

21.6

2.1

Theory and Practice of Counseling - PSY632

Multiple Clients:

Marital and family therapy

When the counselor is seeing multiple relatives in a family, he should clarify his relationship with each

member. He should also be clear how to deal with disclosure by a family relative. For example, if husband

has AIDS, it is essential that the wife is informed about that fact. Similarly, if an adolescent son is taking

drugs and he confides in the counselor, it is pertinent for the counselor to inform the parents about his

drug-taking because of the likely serious consequences. Some counselors believe that secrets within a family

are counterproductive, while others do believe that the information should be kept private and confidential.

The decision really depends on the gravity of the situation and the likely consequences of confidentiality.

Group work

When the counselor is working in a group, he/she should clearly inform the group members to respect

confidentiality of each other and to maintain group-ground rules. On the first place, the counselor should

select group members with compatible needs and goals. He must also ensure that reasonable precautions

are taken to protect the clients from any physical or psychological trauma from other members of the

group.

Legal Recognition of Counseling

Counseling gained professional recognition and acceptance through the legal system. As early as 1960,

counseling did not have enough identity as a profession to be recognized legally.

In 1960 a debate on legal issues started on the decision of a judge that a PhD counselor can not be held

responsible for a client's suicide if trained in a Department of Education. The 1974's definition of

counseling stated it to be different from psychology and it was basically a process through which a trained

counsellor assists an individual or group to make satisfactory decisions concerning personal, educational,

and career development. A restriction on practice of counseling for all except doctoral level psychologists

has been imposed in some states of USA. However, according to Swarson (1983), counseling is often seen

as a generic profession, which may be adopted by people working in health settings after obtaining some

theoretical and practical training.

Professional Responsibility

Knowledge of Standards

Counselors practicing the profession should have knowledge about the following:

· Knowledge about standards code of ethics.

· Professional competence: The counselor should have professional competence to practice the

profession. Following competencies are required in this respect:

o Boundaries of competence: A counselor should work within boundaries of his/her

competencies, i.e., education, experience, personal awareness, skills, specialty areas, etc.

o Seek out peer supervision to evaluate their efficacy.

o Monitor effectiveness: seek out peer supervision to evaluate their efficacy.

o Continuing education is essential to get oneself up-dated in the field.

o Impairment: refrain from professional service when their problems (emotional, unfinished

business) could harm the clients.

Advertising & Soliciting Clients

· Accurate advertising

· Testimonials: Advertising should accurately state one's educational background and experiences.

Theory and Practice of Counseling - PSY632

Statements by others if quoted somewhere should be realistic and accurate to one's credentials.

Products and training advertisements should be clearly stated and advertised to potential clients.

Professional association involvement: The counselor should have a membership of professional

associations and also advertise it correctly.

Credentials

Inspection

An agency periodically examines the practice of profession.

Registration

Submission of information to the concerned authority is required for getting oneself registered as a

practising counsellor.

Certification

Last two of the credential requirements (certification and licensure) have considerable prestige. The person

meets the minimum skills necessary to engage in that profession. To get a certificate in counseling, a person

has to usually pass a competency test and also submit some letters of reference. Minimum of 48 semester

hours of graduate study from an accredited institution is usually required, in which a person has to usually

study the following courses: growth, group work, research, theories, ethics, etc. Moreover, minimum of two

academic terms' supervised experience is required. It may consist on 100 hours of face to face supervision

plus 3000 client contact hours.

Licensure

Licensure is required for title protection. This requires similar educational and practical experiences as

described above for certification. A person must get license for practicing legally once licensure

requirements are established. This is usually required by some agencies or organizations in which a person

desires to practice.

In Pakistan, so far not any specialized courses or trainings are available in counseling.

Counseling as a subject is taught at M.Sc. and M.Phil. levels, however no legal criteria have

been established for the practice of this profession.

Evaluation, Assessment & Interpretation

· Competence to use and interpret tests.

· Explanations to clients: If the counselor will be well aware about the important tests used in counseling,

he/ she will be able to explain and thus satisfy their clients.

· Diagnosis of mental disorders

· Test selection

· Knowledge about diversity in testing is required. Moreover one needs to have sufficient knowledge

regarding use of psychological tests across cultures.

· Test scoring and interpretation

Teaching, Supervision & Research

Teaching and Supervision:

· Relationship boundaries: Boundaries with students and supervisors should be well-understood and

respected.

Theory and Practice of Counseling - PSY632

Contributions to research: Give credit to students for participating in research

Close relatives: Do not accept close relatives as students.

Serve as role model for ethical behavior.

Research and Publication:

· Use of human subjects: Fulfill all the legal and ethical requirements (e.g., informed consent,

confidentiality, etc.) while working with human clients and research participants.

· Principal researcher responsibility: Principal researcher has the responsibility to be very careful regarding

all legal and ethical issues, e.g., Informed consent, voluntary participation, deception, confidentiality,

minor or incompetent participants, etc.

· Informed consent & related issues

· Reporting results: One must report results of research to scientific community through conference

presentations, publications, etc.

· Duplicate submission: Avoid Duplicate submission of research.

Guidelines for Acting Ethically (Swanson, 1983)

· Personal & professional honesty.

· Acting in the best interest of clients (Evaluation, Assessment, and Interpretation).

· Act without malice or personal gain.

· Action based on best judgment of what should be done based upon the current state of the profession.

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