Psychotherapists Ability to Maintain Confidentiality - Research Paper Example

Confidentiality: A Pillar Of Trust Introduction In today’s fast track life, ‘trust’ in relationships has become a rarity. In the past, people used to develop close relationships with their parents, siblings and relatives, and share their deepest feelings and thoughts with them. However, in today’s world, people do not get enough time to develop close bond with their family members. In such a scenario, sharing the true feelings and emotions with them becomes difficult as it creates fear and suspicion in their minds (Aveline, 1997, p. xviii ). They fear that they will be considered weak and dependent if they show their ‘real’ feelings to others (Aveline, 1997, p. xviii ). Hence, the only option that remains with them is to seek professional counseling to heal themselves from psychological and emotional problems. The assurance that the intimate emotions and thoughts they share with the counselor will remain confidential, is a huge driving force behind people going for counseling. Hence, confidentiality is one of the strongest foundations of the relationship between the counselor and the client and hence, the counselor should take every care to maintain confidentiality. Only confidentiality assures open and positive involvement of client in the counseling process. However, the concept of ‘confidentiality’ has a potential to create huge ethical dilemma in the mind of a counselor. Hence, the true test of counseling profession comes when counselors face the ethical dilemma of confidentiality, and only those counselors are considered competent and efficient who know when to follow the code of confidentiality, and know when to breach it. Definition ‘Confidentiality’ in counseling has wide range of ethical aspects attached to it. To honor and maintain ‘confidentiality’ in the process of counseling, it has to adhere to certain requirements regarding the information discussed in the counseling sessions. ‘Confidentiality’ is an agreement between the counselor and the client that the information and the learning that takes place in the session will not be disclosed to anyone outside the session by the counselor (MacLennan & Dies, 1992, p. 88). When the information given by client is kept secure and its disclosure is controlled by the counselor, then it can be said that he is maintaining confidentiality in the counseling (Bond & Mitchels, 2008, p.13). However, the requirement of ‘confidentiality’ does not end here. Maintaining ‘confidentiality’ in the counseling process also requires the counselor not to disclose to anyone that the client is undergoing counseling or therapy (McLeod, 2004, p. 102), as this information can harm the reputation and social position of the client. Even though people take counseling because they are not able to fulfill different roles in their lives properly, they wish to portray socially that they are functioning efficiently in every aspect of their lives (Bond & Mitchels, 2008, p.15). Hence, as there are high stakes attached to the importance of confidentiality in counseling, it has become a legal duty of the counselor to keep client’s information safe (Corey, 2009, p. 41). Moreover, confidentiality is considered a core of counseling as it helps in creating the most important aspect of counseling and that is, a feeling of trust. Importance Of Confidentiality People seek counseling when they are in psychological and emotional distress. They approach counselor only when they realize that they won’t be able to handle the situation, or find the solution to their problem, on their own. However, discussing personal matter with a ‘stranger’ is not an easy thing to do. Hence, the client’s right to privacy gave birth to the concept of confidentiality in the field of counseling and psychotherapy (Corey, 2009, p. 41). Even in case of group counseling, sharing the personal information of the client with others in group without his permission can be destructive and damaging to the relationship and the goals of counseling (McLeod, 2004, p.6). Without confidentiality, the rate of success of counseling will be very low. The development of trust and productiveness of counseling depends on ‘confidentiality’ to a great extend (Corey, 2009, p. 41). Hence, to help the client become comfortable by making him trust the counselor with his personal issues and problems, the counselor is legally and ethically required to discuss the nature and the purpose of confidentiality right in the beginning of the counseling process (Corey, 2009, p. 41). This helps in development of trust between the counselor and the client and brings forth in the sessions the most important aspect of client and that is, the ‘real self’. The agreement on confidentiality right in the beginning of the counseling process relieves the tensions and hesitancy that client has regarding his privacy, and helps the client to bring the ‘real self’ in the sessions. The clients reveal their true feelings, thoughts and emotions about the private aspects of their lives, only when they are sure that the private conversation that they are having with the counselor will remain private (Corey, 2009, p. 41). Confidentiality increases the chances of client being frank and open when discussing things with the counselor (Bond & Shea, 1997, p.525). Hence, when they are assured of confidentiality, they disclose the deepest aspects of their personality and this helps the counselor to understand the client completely and plan the counseling sessions accordingly. Hence, confidentiality plays an essential role in taking the process of counseling in right direction and making counseling a success. In this way, confidentiality helps immensely in the process of counseling. However, even though confidentiality is a matter of high priority in counseling, there are many situations in which confidentiality cannot be termed as ‘absolute priority’. Ethical Issues When a client discloses personal information to the counselor with the hope of getting better results and solutions from the counseling, then he has a right to expect the counselor to follow the most fundamental ethical, legal and moral obligation of confidentiality of his personal information (Bor, Ebner-Landy, Gill, & Brace, 2002, p. 120). However, the constant evolution of laws related to ‘confidentiality’ in counseling makes practice difficult for the counselors (Bor et al., 2002, p.120). In fact, sometimes the legal and ethical requirement of law in itself requires the counselor to breach the agreement of confidentiality with the clients (Bond & Shea, 1997, p.525). Hence, it won’t be wrong to say that even though confidentiality is beneficial in counseling, the greatest number of difficulties that counselor faces is due to the concept of ‘confidentiality (Bond, 2003,p. 150). This is because many a times, the counselor has to decide between the ‘ethics of confidentiality’ and ‘safety of the client’ and hence, it creates a great dilemma in the mind of the counselor. There are many situations where the counselor has to do lot of soul searching and take difficult decisions regarding the confidentiality of cases (Burnard, 2005, p.188). When the counselor realizes that there are chances of abuse of child, abuse of elderly people, abuse of dependent adults, and danger to self or others, then he is required by law to break confidentiality and warn the relevant departments and people (Corey, 2009, p. 42). Hence, in case of threat or abuse, the counselor should not worry about maintaining confidentiality as it increases the chances of threat. The counselor should report the information to legal department when he finds that: 1) Crimes like “rape, incest, child abuse” etc., are being committed against the client under the age of 16 (Corey, 2009, p. 42). 2) Client is in imminent danger and “needs hospitalization” (Corey, 2009, p. 42). 3) “Client wants information to be released to others” (Corey, 2009, p. 42). 4) Court action requires the information to be released (Corey, 2009, p. 42). Hence, if a counselor feels that by breaching the confidence, the threat of harm to self or other will get minimized, then he has complete authority to breach the confidence (Bond & Mitchels, 2008, p.13). In this way, the confidentiality can be (and should be) broken by the counselor when he has to choose between the ‘confidentiality’ and ‘safety’ of client (or other people). Safety of people is more important than the confidentiality of information. Conclusion From the literature review and the discussion above, it is clear that confidentiality is the most fundamental ingredient for gaining trust and positive involvement of client in the relationship with counselor. However, when it comes to making a choice between ‘ethics’ and ‘safety’ of a person, then even law cannot stop the counselor from breaching the confidentiality. Hence, even though confidentiality is an essential aspect of counseling, a mature counselor knows how and when to put limit to it. A true counselor is a person who genuinely cares for a happy and safe life of his clients and other people. Hence, when caught in an ethical dilemma, a true counselor will always choose safety of people over the confidentiality of the client information. References Aveline, M. (1997). Foreward. In S.Palmer & G.McMahon (Eds.), Handbook of Counselling (pp.xviii-xix). (2nd ed.).London, UK: Routledge. Bond, T. (2003). Standards and Ethics for Counselling in Action (2nd ed.). London, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd. Bond, T. & Mitchels, B. (2008). Confidentiality and Record Keeping in Counselling and Psychotherapy. London, UK: Sage Publications Ltd. Bond, T. & Shea, C. (1997). Professional Issues in Counselling. In S.Palmer & G.McMahon (Eds.), Handbook of Counselling (pp.520-533). (2nd ed.).London, UK: Routledge. Bor, R., Ebner-Landy, J., Gill, S. & Brace, C. (2002). Counselling in Schools (2nd ed.). London, UK: SAGE Publications Ltd. Burnard, P. (2005). Counselling Skills for Health Professionals (4th ed.). Cheltenham, UK: Nelson Thornes Ltd. Corey, G. (2009). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/ Cole. McLeod, J. (2004). The Counsellor’s Workbook: Developing a Personal Approach. Berkshire, UK: Open UP. MacLennan, B.W. & Dies, K.R. (1992). Group Counseling and Psychotherapy with Adolescents. New York, NY: Columbia UP. Read More