Analysis of Articles about Ethics in Counseling - Essay Example

Article Review School Article Review In this article, Beamish, Navin, and Davidson (1994) have discussed the ethical and legal concernsof the engagement of the mental health counselors in the family and marriage counseling. This article conducts a literature review to explore the ethical issues embedded in the counseling of families. These ethical issues include but are not limited to the definition of client, rights of individuals in comparison to those of the groups, preservation of the family values and the inclusion of passive participants in the counseling. The authors finally depict the implications for the mental health counseling. The fundamental ethical dilemma presented in this paper is that on one side, more marriage counselors are required than there are to cater for the problems of marriage and on the other side, this deficiency is being countered by the mental health professionals that are adopting marriage counseling as their practice which in turn, has its own implications. The fact that the mental health counselors are primarily educated only in the individual and group counseling makes them inefficient to deal with the marriage and family issues because such a training does not enable the counselor to focus upon the legal and ethical implications of the marriage and family counseling. It is advisable for the mental health professionals to have acquired the family and marriage therapy. However, even training in the family and marriage therapy may not be sufficient to cater for the needs of a vast population if the training is limited to the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (AAMFT). Ethical principles presented in the article focus on the difference between the counseling required on individual level and the kind required in counseling. It is emphasized that the two differ on the theoretical as well as practical level. What makes the mental health counselors inefficient as marriage counselors is their inability to see the causes of problem as linear. Study of an individual’s traits and actions enables a counselor to depict the way he/she influences other people in a system. Moreover, it is not compulsory that the ethical guidelines that apply in the case of group or individual counseling also apply in the family therapy due to the linear nature of the causality in the ethical codes in contrast to the nonlinear causality that needs to be studied in the marriage or family counseling. When a family has to be counseled, it becomes hard to depict the client or his/her welfare. I personally believe that the mental health counselors are not as unsuitable for offering the marriage and family counseling as is portrayed in this article. Although the mental health counselors draw guidance from the code of ethics that may not be quite consistent with the marriage and family counseling, yet as human beings, they are equipped with all the talent to have an insight into the individualistic problems of the clients and hit the ball at the right point. There is no doubt in the fact that proper training of an individual in the family and marriage therapy enables him/her to optimize on his/her counseling skills, yet the basic training a mental health counselor is acquainted with is not quite as insufficient to understand the core issues and identify the right course of action. A mental health counselor is exposed to a wide variety of situations to deal with which, he/she has to improvise or adjust his/her knowledge formerly acquired through education and training. Marriage and family counseling case is only one of these innumerable cases and the improvisation is just as much as it exists in any other case. Hence, I believe that the authors have provided an exaggerated account of the inconsistency between the mental health practice and the practice of the family and marriage therapy. When I reflect upon my own experiences with the cases of marriage and family, I realize that my knowledge of rehabilitation counseling assists me well in the identification of the underlying issues and the suitable solutions, though I remain conscious that I take certain precautionary measures that include detailed study of the personality of the client and his/her attitude. Also, before taking a certain case, I make sure that I draw a comparison between the possible benefits the client can obtain from my training based on the knowledge of the rehabilitation counseling and my weaknesses as a marriage counselor. I agree that the commitment of a mental health counselor to the informed consent of the client and the people influencing him/her makes it difficult to deal with the cases of marriage, yet any marriage counselor is exposed to the same challenges and there is hardly anything that he/she can do that a mental health counselor can not. Biobliography Beamish, P. M., Navin, S. L., and Davidson, P. (1994). Ethical Dilemmas in Marriage and Family Therapy: Implications for Training. Journal of Mental Health Counseling. 16(1): 129-42. Article Review 2 There has conventionally been a debate about the usefulness and inconveniences caused by the non-sexual dual relationship between a counselor and a client. In this article, Nickel (2004) has explored the merits and demerits of this extra-therapeutic relationship through review of the relevant literature. The ethical dilemma presented in this article is the non-sexual dual relationship between a counselor and a client. If a counselor refuses to take the case of a relative, it destroys the familial relationship between the two. If he agrees to take the case, the dual relationship has many implications upon the counseling. This puts a counselor into the state of dilemma. Small communities frequently expose a counselor to such situations and making rational decision is vital for successful delivery of the service. One of the ethical principles of counseling identified by the author is that extra-therapeutic counseling may not be always avoided particularly in the cases of rural communities. It is wrong to consider such relationships entirely unethical because they assume immense tendency to benefit all the concerned parties in quite a lot of cases. However, when the counselor and the client expect certain behaviors from each other and these behaviors become incompatible, it is the counseling that fundamentally suffers. Codes of ethics that are conventionally consulted impose limitations upon the relationship between a counselor and a client. When sufficient empirical data is unavailable, a counselor must rely upon personal intuition to decide the extent to which the clinical and the non-clinical relationship can be overlapped. I personally believe that dual relationships between a counselor and a client are both helpful and harmful. It both helps and retards the counselor’s ability to give the service in their own respective ways. When a counselor personally knows a client, he/she knows the case history of the client much better than he can understand as a stranger. The counselor already has an insight into the personal life of the client which, by all means, only facilitates the counselor in drawing the most rational course of action from among a variety of options. This not only saves the time required by the counselor to identify the problem, but also remains very convenient for the client in a number of ways. The client may not have to regularly visit the counselor to seek the guidance. Consequentially, the client’s time, energy and money is saved. Hence, extra-therapeutic relationship between a counselor and a client makes the process convenient for both the parties. On the other hand, there are certain drawbacks of the extra-therapeutic relationship between a counselor and a client. For example, when a counselor knows the client personally, he may not be able to develop the right kind of chemistry between the client and himself. The right chemistry between a client and counselor develops better when the two are strangers and is conducive for the delivery of an appropriately professional service. A client may not take the counseling sessions very seriously when the counselor is a friend or a family member. The frankness between the two disrupts the development of a bond that should ideally exist between a counselor and a client. Another potential problem posed by the extra-therapeutic relationship between a counselor and a client makes it difficult for the counselor to draw the fee from the client. Either he has to make a concession. In other case, the client may not feel very happy by giving full fee to a person he already knew. Although this does not directly affect the service, yet it indirectly affects the relationship between the counselor and the client which ultimately has an impact upon the clinical service. In my practice, I give a concession to my friends and family members and sometimes, the service has to be given free of cost. Obviously, the friends and family members expect me to be that gentle towards them. I also frequently experience difficulty in making the clients come to the office regularly when I have a dual relationship with them. They expect me to conduct the process informally due to which, certain details are missed out. Nevertheless, since I know them personally and am well-acquainted with their case histories, the difference is balanced out. When I encounter such a situation, I particularly make sure that every meeting with the client that I make and any conversation that I have with him is documented for reference in the future. Although it seems a bit difficult to achieve when the relatives are not very cooperative in this formality, yet this step is inevitable and often saves me from many potential confusions in the future. Bibliography Nickel, M. (2004). Professional Boundaries: The Dilemma of Dual & Multiple Relationships in Rural Clinical Practice. Counseling and Clinical Psychology Journal. 1(1): 17-22. Article Review 3 One of the most sensitive issues of counseling is the maintenance of confidentiality of the patient. Things become even more difficult when maintaining the confidentiality is harmful for the society. Efforts of the authors in this article are directed at identifying the ways courts balance out disclosure and privacy in particular cases. The ethical dilemma discussed in this paper is that on one hand, the counselor assumes the responsibility to safeguard the privacy of the client because the client discusses personal issues with the counselor solely on the basis of trust. But if the counselor does not leak out information about the client’s harmful intentions and evil machinations, he would get a burden upon his conscience. On the other hand, if the counselor leaks out the information, he would compromise upon the client’s confidentiality. Either way, the counselor feels trouble. Confidentiality is very essential for the development of a professional relationship between a counselor and a client. Clients require the counselors to hide their secrets from others in order to discuss potentially embarrassing problems. Confidentiality in the relationship between a counselor and a client is conducive for the development of empathy and trust between the two. There are limits to the privacy that a counselor should be aware of and should discuss them with the client. However, in certain circumstances, revealing the personal information becomes inevitable particularly when the case is of drug abuse or when the client intends to victimize others. In order to do their service professionally, it is imperative that psychotherapists know the exceptions to confidentiality. Such exceptions originate in two ways. First, when the client’s confidentiality clashes with the policies enforced by the government. Second, when the behavior of the client clashes with the reason initially stated for protecting the privacy. There is often a tie between confidentiality and privilege and it may often be very difficult for a counselor to realize where the two start overlapping. He may expose the confidentiality with an intention to protect the society from the harmful intentions of the client yet the court may refuse to take action on account of the privilege of the client. In order for a counselor to execute the work professionally, it is imperative that he/she understands the difference between privilege and confidentiality. I personally believe that it is quite had for a counselor to depict the interface between confidentiality and privilege, yet an counselor assumes immense responsibility to change the circumstances for the better by warning the right people at the right time. I believe that a counselor can enhance his judgment by having an objective understanding of both law and ethics. I agree that the written form of informed consent helps a counselor in avoiding the issues about the privilege and confidentiality. I think that it is extremely important for a counselor to establish limits for the collaterals since they are involved in the process and can be a potential source of information leak-out. Defining the confidentiality limits can be particularly cumbersome when the matter is related to children and their parents. It is hard to convince the parents to protect the child’s privacy particularly from the rest of the family. In such circumstances, a counselor may also have to take guidance from the law regarding the extent of information that can be leaked to the parents. I agree that it is advisable for a counselor to limit the leak-out of a patient’s records on the basis of privilege. In my practice, whenever I am caught in such a dilemma, I draw guidance from the law. I establish the treatment rules with my client before the start of counseling and make him aware about all possible ways in which the information about the treatment might be availed. This makes it clear for me about the patient identity, the sources of information release and the usability of information. Before starting the session, I encourage the patient to ask me any questions he has to be clear about the concept of the informed consent. I always seek guidance from my peers who have good knowledge of the law and ethics whenever I encounter any confusion regarding confidentiality before taking any action. At the same time, I avoid seeking guidance from the attorneys of other people because they are not quite likely to speak in my interest. A state psychological association can given better legal guidance. When somebody comes to me for a patient’s record, I refuse to offer that declaring it as the patient’s right to privilege. Bibliography Younggren, J. N., and Harris, E. A. (2008). Can You Keep a Secret? Confidentiality in Psychotherapy. Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session. 64(5): 589-600. Read More