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Ethical Issues In Counseling

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The Ethical Issues that a Mental Health Professional may Face
Mental health professionals may confront several ethical dilemmas during their counseling career, especially when they have to break some of the ethics code principles (West, 2002). The purpose of this project is to present some of the ethical issues that a counselor may face during their career, including ethical concerns in on-line counseling, dual and multiple relationships with the clients and issues of confidentiality.
Ethical Concerns in on - Line Counseling
Over the last years on-line psychotherapy, including e-mailing and Skype therapy, has been a popular means of providing counseling to clients. However, given the fact that on-line counseling is a relatively new medium …show more content…

It is widely known that renowned psychotherapists did not comply with this current prohibition. For instance, Jung used to have sexual relationship with his patient, and Klein provided psychoanalysis to her children (Gabriel, 2005). However, according to the mental health professional codes such kinds of relationships are forbidden during psychotherapy (American Psychological Association, 1990). A mental health professional may realize that their client is also, the teacher of their child, for example or may be asked to deliver counseling to a friend. In such cases the counselor has to make a decision about the progress of the therapy, because dual and multiple relationships with their clients involves the risk of possible client’s harm and impairment of their professional performance, as well (Helbok, …show more content…

More specifically, in such cases involuntary hospitalization may be the only solution in order to reassure that the client will not harm or kill themselves. Therefore, the mental health professional has to inform and explain to their client before therapy starts, about the limits of confidentiality, namely that it will have to break if the clients express any suicidal thoughts or attempt to harm themselves or another person. However given the importance of these situations, it is essential the therapist evaluate effectively clients’ condition and certainty of their statements and act according to the principle of client’s beneficence (Isaacs & Stone,

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Counselors must be aware of their ethical and legal obligations when providing counseling services, such as those related to crisis prevention and intervention. This knowledge can guide the counselor in making appropriate decisions to best assist the client. The American Counseling Association Code of Ethics (2014) provides counselors with the core principles of autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice and fidelity to guide them in decisions making. Furthermore, the following ACA (2014) ethical codes are applicable to crisis counseling: A.1.a. Primary responsibility.

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It is possible if not likely that the nature and function of therapeutic relationships has changed significantly to better account for the contemporary understanding of mental illnesses as less categorical and more broadly conceptualized as spectrum disorders with variable constellations of symptoms (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Broader considerations of cultural factors, comorbidity, and resource deprivation may account for occurrences within the therapeutic relationship as much as genuine psychopathology. Thus, it may be less important to base self-disclosure decisions and content on pre-determined rules or client diagnosis and more important for disclosure/non-disclosure decisions to first consider prominent clinical and vulnerability

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Sexual and/or romantic relationships prohibited because according to the ACA (2014), the therapist sexual and/or romantic interactions or relationship with current client, romantic partners, or family members are prohibited. For example, the romantic relationship between Paul and Laura will cause harm to the patient, because is at a very vulnerable frame of mind at that point in time because she was looking for someone who can listen to her and not taking advantage of her. Therefore, is an I.2.b.ethical violation: is to refer the matter to the state or national committees on professional ethics, voluntary national certification bodies, state licensing boards and other appropriate institutional authorities. Also, the situation should be revealed to his wife that he was engaged in a romantic relationship with a vulnerable client and if he is working for a company he should terminated immediately for

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The benefits of the client are first in place before those counsellors even if such fidelity is uncomfortable for them. Furthermore, they should also make every effort to make sure that clients’ expectations have reasonable prospects of being met. They have to contemplate confidentiality as an duty arising from the client’s trust. Principle of fidelity

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