Blurring Boundaries between Social and Legal Ethical Issues - Case Study Example

Social, Legal and Ethical Issues: Ass 1 Name Institution Date Social, Legal and Ethical Issues: Ass 1 Introduction In an ethical framework, a counselor should offer the clients counselling services to that promote the autonomy and development. A counselor is therefore supposed to be aware of the relationship between the client and the counselor since this awareness eventually affects the outcome of the counselling. According to (Corey, 2001), a counselor is an instrument and his/her willingness to be a real person within the relationships with their clients. This essay describes my counselling session with a client who is a recovering alcoholic, and the social, legal and ethical issues involved which included the client offering me a gift. In addition, the essay reflects our relationship, boundaries as well my counselling skills during the counselling session. Session Overview The counselling session took about 18 minutes of counseling with my client and I began the session by greeting my client and asking how she was and this was meant to open free communication and build rapport. My client was a lady who is a recovering alcoholic and this was a continuation of a previous counselling session. She has quit alcohol but according to her it is so difficult to restrain herself from the drink especially when alcoholic drinks are present, for instance when she attends parties. According to her, she feels more confident and more outgoing when she takes alcohol but feels completely low, and socializes less when she is sober. One of the reasons why she cannot entirely avoid places where alcohol is, is for example she attends family parties, where her family members expect her to be present and alcohol is always available and resisting the temptation is normally so difficult for her. She also argued that those around her in particular her sister do not understand what it means to be alcoholic so basically they do not have an idea of what she is goes through in her attempt to recover from alcoholism. To keep herself busy and distract herself from the temptation of drinking, she prefers to listen to music, something she enjoys immensely. Social, Legal and/or Ethical Issues The main ethical issue that encountered during the counselling session was where my client offered me a gift in form of a recorded music. I declined the gift and explained to her that our company policy did not allow me to receive a gift from a client. She was a bit dissatisfied and went on to enquire what would happen if a client offered a Christmas gift and I explained to her what normally happens. Specifically, I was faced with the dilemma of refusing the gift in that my client would feel that I was not appreciating her gift and she could take it a form of rejection (Knox, 2008). Since I was concerned that this would impact our relationship, I further explained that the company rules does not allow that but further went to tell her that she was free to inform me the songs in the record and then I would listen to them from my computer. She seemed satisfied with my suggestion and thus my decision to reject her gift did not affect our counsellor-client relationship which can result to a dual relationship between the client and the counsellor (Knox, 2008). According to the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia (PACFA, 2010), dual relationships can be helpful or detrimental and should be considered cautiously and should be avoided as much as possible if there is impairment to objectivity. Additionally, accepting gifts from clients represents a special gratification of suitable boundaries and this can undermine therapy and result to similar transgressions. Therefore, the only direct material reward that a counsellor should receive from a client is payment of his/her services. The potential of exploitation and distortion of the professional relationship makes the receiving of gifts from a client an ethical concern and this is the reason why I declined my client’s gift (Smith, 2003). A counsellor is required to promote objectivity and integrity as well as maintain highest standards and therefore the primary duty of a counsellor is to assist clients in tackling the problem. During the counseling session with my client I upheld this principle by trying my best to help her deal with the drinking problem (Dove, 1995). For instance, I advised her that the next time she goes for the party to hold a wine glass with lime as this would help her handle the temptation of drinking. Additionally, the practice scenario with set strategies will help her to recover appropriately from alcoholism. I went ahead to inform her that the set strategies would be beneficial in her recovery, she seemed so happy that she would be able to recover from alcoholism completely. Another ethical practice is informing the client the form of action a counsellor intends to take in order to help the patient (Dove, 1995). Accordingly, I informed my client that in the next session we would address social status where there will be practice scenario if she was comfortable with that. She readily accepted that and went further to enquire if that would help her. I informed and explained to her that the practice will be like a party and alcohol will be present, and the set strategies will be used to handle the cognitive behind her drinking which will be so much helpful in her recovery. Counselling Skills I used listening and reflective responding skills when my client was telling of her experience to get to know how far she was working on quitting alcohol and to know if our previous session had any effect as this would enable me know if the counselling was effective and what should be done to help her (Kitchener, 2004). For instance, when she told me how she had difficulties in resisting alcohol during a party that she attended, I asked the feelings she had during that encounter and this put her experience in recovering from alcohol in some perspective, where she began explaining her feelings. According to Egan (2010), a counsellor should aim at helping the client tell his/her story, reframe his/her story to assist in gaining and using other perspectives and lastly a counsellor should focus on matters that will make a difference in the life of the client. Accordingly, I focused on experiences, feelings, opportunities, and behaviors of the client that would help me know what she was going through. For instance, I asked my client her feelings when the temptation to drink is so high and she explained that the temptation is so irresistible and this makes her feel very uncomfortable. Likewise, when I gave a suggestion of avoiding places with alcohol she explained that for instance her family situation obliges her to be there during parties where alcohol is normally readily available and her sister doesn’t understand what it feels to be a recovering alcoholic, and this suggested to me that she was not getting adequate support from those around her in her path to recovery. In this case, I used advanced empathic responding which enabled me to listen for messages behind her responses and thus I was able to know what my client was going through (Tracey, 2012). During the session, I asked my client open questions, for instance “what are the feelings in situations where alcohol is present”, “what are the things that you enjoy doing, for example, poultry, dancing”, and “What do you like about drinking”. Walmpold (2001) states that during counselling open questions help in promoting free flow of information from the client and the counsellor is able to understand the client’s situation better because the information is detailed (Janice, 2012). Accordingly, the open questions prompted my client to further elaborate her situation, which made me understand what she was going through better. However, I found asking her a closed question “So your social drinking has become a habit”. Since this question was not open-ended, my client just responded with a “Yes” and did not offer further explanation when compared to other open questions. I was also confident during the entire session and I seemed to understand my client’s situation and this gave my client an impression that I was effective in what I was doing. Additionally, I built strong rapport with my client and this created a relaxed environment for her. Creating a relaxed environment makes the client easy to talk and discuss his/her problem, gives the client confidence in the counselor as well as in self, and encourages the client to give any information that otherwise she may not give. I believe the relaxed environment played a role on how she talked freely regarding her situation (Capuzzi, 2006). Conclusion Generally, I feel that I effectively applied counselling skills during the counselling session. For instance, my client was able to narrate her story adequately while I listened, stayed focused and gave reflective responses. In regard to legal, ethical and social issues, the primary duty of a counsellor is to help the client to handle her problem and inform the client the intended course of action, the reason I came up with set strategies to help her recover and informed her accordingly. Lastly, there was an ethical issue where my client offered me a gift, but I declined because the company policy doesn’t allow it and accepting the gift had a probability of affecting our professional relationship. I feel that I conducted the session within the ethical framework provided by Psychotherapy & Counselling Federation Australia (PACFA) and Australian Counselling Association Inc. (ACA). The only area I think I should improve is to entirely avoid using closed-ended questions during all my counselling sessions. References Bentler, L. (2000). David and Goliath: When empirical and clinical standards of practice meet. American Psychologist, Vol. 55, 997-1009. Capuzzi, D. (2006). Legal and Ethical Challenges in Counseling Suicidal Students. Professional School Counseling. Vol. 6/1. Corey, G. (2001). Theory & Practice of Counselling & Psychotherapy. Brooks: Cengage Learning. Dove, W. (1995). Ethics training for the alcohol professional. Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly. Vol. 12/4. Knox, S. (2008). Gifts in Psychotherapy: Practice Review and Recommendations. Psychotherapy Theory, Research, Practice, Training. Vol. 45/1. Kitchener, K. (2004). Ethics in counseling psychology. Counseling Psychologist. Vol. 12/15. Janice, Y. (2012). Balancing Multicultural Competence With Social Justice: Feminist Beliefs and Optimal Psychological Functioning . The Counseling Psychologist. Vol. 40: 1101-1132 Smith, D. (2003). Ten ways practitioners can avoid frequent ethical pitfalls. Inpsych. American Psychological Association Monitor on Psychology. Vol. 2/5 Tracey, T. (2012). Counseling Psychology. Journal of Counseling Psychology. Vol. 5/73. Walmpold, B. E. (2001). The great psychotherapy debate – models, methods and findings. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Psychotherapy & Counselling Federation Australia (PACFA) Australian Counselling Association Inc. (ACA) Read More