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Benchmark - Counselor Ethical Boundaries and Practices

Benchmark - Counselor Ethical Boundaries and Practices

Dana Combs

Grand Canyon University: CNL – 505

January 21, 2020

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Benchmark - Counselor Ethical Boundaries and Practices

Benchmark - Counselor Ethical Boundaries and Practices

Counseling is based off relationships between patient and counselor. Boundary

issues/dual relationships, relationship with supervisors and colleagues, and working

collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team and some areas where ethical issues can arise and

knowing how to deal with these issues is an important part of practice as a counselor. The below

paper will address these areas of concern.

Boundary Issues and Dual Relationships

In determining whether a relationship with a client is ethical and appropriate when

dealing with boundary-crossing or dual relationships there are a few questions that needs to be

asked and areas that need to be examined. A boundary-crossing or dual relationship is one where

the therapist engages in another relationship with the client outside of the therapy role (Corey,

Corey, & Corey, 2014). This can be of a business, social or sexual nature. Not all boundary

crossing or dual relationships are detrimental. Those that can lead to harm to the client or are

likely to impair the objectivity or judgment of the therapist must be avoided (Barnett & Hynes,

2020). In dealing with these issues’ things like religion, culture and ethnic background needs to

be taken into consideration. There are times when a patient feels offended if a woman looks them

directly in the eye or touch from another sex would be deemed inappropriate. Knowing these

things will allow the therapist to become more aware of when and how lines can be crossed

unethically. According to Barnett and Hynes there are a number of factors that should be taken

into consideration when making a decision regarding boundaries here are a few:

 What are the motivations regarding the action? Is it to meet the therapists needs or the

client?

 What would the likely impact be to the client of the said action?
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Benchmark - Counselor Ethical Boundaries and Practices

 Is the action under consideration consistent with the widely accepted roles of a therapist

and in alignment with the ACA code of ethics?

 Is the action consistent with the agreed upon treatment plan and the client’s goals?

 Has the documented decision-making process been documented e.g. the rationale behind

the decision and the impact to client?

In helping to decipher whether an action is consistent with ethical behavior being

knowledgeable of the ACA code of ethics, consulting with other more seasoned counseling or

one’s supervisor can always help for the counselor to make sound decisions when one is unsure

of what action to take.

Examples of situations where I would apply the criteria to determine whether my actions

were ethical would be: A client from the Mid-Eastern region comes for counseling a male

counselor has taken on the case due to the fact that a female counselor was not available. During

the session the client begins to cry and as the counselor leans over to hand the client a tissue the

counselor wants to offer a touch on the arm as affirmation that they are concerned for the client.

Is this action culturally accepted? Could this action be taken as an offensive gesture? Are the

actions consistent with the widely accepted roles of a therapist dealing with this population? In

mid-eastern cultures touch of a man to a woman is unacceptable and could be looked at as a

violation of their rights and personal space. Therefore, the counselor should not make that

contact.

A counselor has a client they have been seeing for years. The client has made significant

progress on feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. During this time the client has started a

home-based business selling hand-made jewelry and asks the counselor if they would like to

purchase a piece. The counselor would like to buy a piece to support the efforts of the client.
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Benchmark - Counselor Ethical Boundaries and Practices

What would the likely impact be to the client if you decide not to purchase the jewelry, what

would be the consequence if you did? Is the action consistent with the agreed upon treatment

plan and the client’s goals, have you documented the decision-making process? In this situation

it would be more detrimental to the client if the counselor turned the client down for the offer.

Due to the nature of the counseling relationship buying from the client would be in alignment

with the progress made of increasing the client’s self-esteem. To ensure no ethical breaches may

occur in the future consult with more seasoned colleagues to ensure your decision is within

industry standards and possibly have the client sign an agreement for the transaction to include it

as part of the treatment plan.

A client has come to a practice as a new patient for counseling for depression and self-

image issues due to an unwanted divorce. After several months of counseling the therapist

realizes how good of a man the client is and is attractive as well. The client has made comments

during visits about how he should have married the therapist instead. The client asks for the

therapist’s personal cell number to keep in touch after sessions. The therapist is considering the

offer. What would be the likely impact be to the client, is the action in alignment with the ACA

code of ethics, what are the motivations behind the action? It is always inappropriate for a

therapist to engage in any sexual or presumed sexual behavior with a client. The therapist is seen

as being in a position of power and this type of interaction could cause the client great harm.

A therapist has been counseling a client for one year now. The client has expressed how

verbally abusive the spouse is to the client. The therapist has come to feel sorry for the client and

is hypervigilant in convincing the client to leave their wife. What are the motivations regarding

the action? Is it to meet the therapists needs or the client, is the action under consideration

consistent with the widely accepted roles of a therapist and in alignment with the ACA code of
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Benchmark - Counselor Ethical Boundaries and Practices

ethics, what would the likely impact be to the client of the said action? It should always be the

position of the counselor to remain neutral in counseling situations such as these. Although the

counselor wants to lead the client towards a more therapeutic relationship with the spouse or

towards a safer mental relationship, the counselor should not let their personal feeling cloud the

judgement of their counseling abilities. Just because the counselor may feel the client should

divorce this may not be the wishes of the client and therefore the counselor would be putting

their interests before the clients.

Professional Collaboration in Counseling: Working with a Multidisciplinary Team

Working collaboratively within one’s scope of practice with other mental health

professionals to ensure quality of care involves ensuring the appropriate clinical and

administrative processes are completed and open, clear communication is maintained with all

members of the team (ACA, 2014). Counselors may have struggles with working with a

multidisciplinary team because of the fact that counseling is the youngest of the helping

professions (Walz & Bleuer, n.d.). To overcome this all parties of the team should consider

themselves "therapists" (Walz & Bleuer, n.d.). Accurate understanding of the scope of practice of

other helping professions will help to facilitate collaboration within the multidisciplinary team as

well (Walz & Bleuer, n.d.). Accommodating schedules, input of each team member, alliance and

building therapeutic relationships where awareness and respect for the strengths and

contributions of the different training backgrounds, tools used to approach the collaboration, and

professional development issues can build a multidisciplinary team that is effective and

supportive of the community in which one serves (Walz & Bleuer, n.d.).

One can be expected to work with Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Social Workers, Family

and Marriage Counseling. Counselors role would be associated with developmental, prevention,
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Benchmark - Counselor Ethical Boundaries and Practices

and wellness orientation, Psychologist oriented toward testing, research, pathology, and distant

goals, social work is oriented to case management, community resources, systemic issues, and

administrative tasks, while MFTs orient around understanding the socialization process,

processing conflicts experienced, and sharing feelings of identity and role misunderstanding

(Walz & Bleuer, n.d.). Counselors work together with members of the interdisciplinary team to

clarify professional and ethical obligations of the team, and resolve ethical issues within the team

(ACA, 2014). Counselors are required to seek other avenues when confronted with issues that

cannot be worked out within the team (ACA, 2014).

Relationships with Supervisors and Colleagues

The role of clinical supervisor is to monitor the services provided by the supervisee’s

(ACA, 2014). Supervisors monitor client welfare and supervisees performance and professional

development (ACA, 2014). Supervisors incorporate principles of informed consent and

participation into their supervision, advise supervisees of policies and procedures to which

supervisors are bound, along with mechanisms for due process appeal of individual supervisor

actions (ACA, 2014). The primary responsibilities are to meet regularly with supervisees to

review work and help supervisees to become prepared to work in a wide range of environments

with a wide range of diverse clients (ACA, 2014). Supervisors work to ensure that supervisees

communicate the qualifications to clients in order to render services to clients, make supervisees

aware of client rights (ACA, 2014).

According to Bernard and Goodyear Ethical issues involved in the supervisor-counselor

relationship include:

 Due process: Supervisors follow processes necessary to protect and inform supervisees of

all aspects of supervision

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Benchmark - Counselor Ethical Boundaries and Practices

 Informed consent: Supervisee must receive information prior to entering the supervisor-

supervisee relationship explaining the process of supervision

 Dual relationships: supervisors and supervisees may participate in dual professional

relationships with one another. Ethical concerns are the likelihood the relationship could

impair the supervisor’s best judgement and risk of supervisee exploitation

 Competence: Supervisors need to participate in CE classes to maintain their own

competence

 Confidentiality: Supervisee need to know what information can be divulged from their

counseling sessions with clients

This is similar to the counselor-client relationship because the same issues arise when

counseling clients. The same disclosures need to be reviewed and the same rights are discussed

with the client. Ways this relationship is different is the supervisor can overlook some issues the

supervisee may be having during counseling sessions. Doing this could impede the growth of the

counselor and may lead to legal ramifications or harm to the client.

There are times when unethical behavior may be observed in their colleagues by

counselors. An unethical behavior would be to discuss or joke around regarding a case the

counselor may be involved in. If the colleague is not an active part of the clients care team then

session information should never be divulged. A decision-making model would be to ask the

following questions:

 Is this information needed by the colleague in the care of the client?

 Would one act the same way if the client was present?
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Benchmark - Counselor Ethical Boundaries and Practices

 If the conversation were brought up in a court of law would one be justified in their

actions

 What does the ACA code of ethics say about this behavior?

Development of Your Thinking about Ethics

The most important developments in my thinking about ethical practice that has occurred

during this course is dual relationships. I always thought that as long as your intentions were

pure that actions that are done out of love for God’s children and compassion would not be

considered unethical. Hugging, touching, exchanging gifts, visiting a family member could all be

considered unethical if taken in the wrong text and consent is not obtained prior to certain

actions. I will still have to control the way I speak to people as referring them to baby, Hun or

sweetie. This too can be taken out of text. I struggle with this as a nurse and have just subscribed

to me being this way, but as I venture into my new career, I will have to delve further into this

way of speaking to ensure I am not out of code.

Understanding boundary issues/dual relationships, relationship with supervisors and

colleagues, and working collaterally with a multidisciplinary team will help the counselor to

become well rounded and more effective in the counseling career one has chosen.
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Benchmark - Counselor Ethical Boundaries and Practices

References

American Counseling Association (2014). Code of Ethics. Retrieved from:

https://www.counseling.org/resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf

Barnett, J.E. & Hynes, K. (2020). Boundaries and Multiple Relationships in Psychotherapy.

Retrieved from: https://societyforpsychotherapy.org/boundaries-and-multiple-

relationships-in-psychotherapy-recommendations-for-ethical-practice/

Bernard and Goodyear, (1998). Supervision: Ethical and Legal Considerations. Retrieved from:

https://www.counsellingconnection.com/index.php/2008/09/12/supervision-

ethical-and-legal-considerations/

Corey, G., Corey, C., Corey, M., & Callahan, P. (2015). Issues and Ethics in the Helping

Professions (9th ed.). Retrieved from:

http://gcumedia.com/digital-resources/cengage/2014/issues-and-ethics-in-the-

helping-professions_ebook_9e.php

Hrovat, A.M., Thompson, L.K., & Thaxton, S.L. (n.d.). Preparing Counselors-in-Training for

Multidisciplinary Collaboration: Lessons Learned from a Pilot Program.

Retrieved from: https://www.counseling.org/docs/default-source/vistas/preparing-

counselors-in-training-for-multidisciplinary-collaboration.pdf?sfvrsn=6
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Benchmark - Counselor Ethical Boundaries and Practices