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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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