There are many ethical considerations that should be taken into account in the field of counseling. Keeping professional boundaries is essential to the counselor-client relationship and assures that the sessions are as beneficial as possible to the client. Counselors take on an unquestionably important role in their clients’ lives and this oftentimes leads to some ethical questions. After reading through some of the literature about self-disclosure, dual relationships, and other ethical considerations, it’s clear that most don’t have a single right or wrong answer. While there are rules laid out by the APA, gray areas are still prominent and come up during sessions.

The first issue that caught my attention is value imposition. In Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy, the author defined it as “counselor’s directly attempting to define a client’s values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.” (Corey, 2015, p. 23) As a counselor, I think it’s especially important to put your own beliefs aside so you can enter therapy with a new client objectively. Client’s often come in with sensitive issues and being sensitive and mindful of those issues is quintessential. In a study done by Hanson, the author wrote about a client that was upset about a self-disclosure where the counselor imposed his values onto the client. “Sometimes, therapists communicated negative attitudes or beliefs about their clients, leaving them feeling worse about themselves. Mary's first therapist, a man in his forties when she was a 'fatherless teenager', labeled her as promiscuous. She said, 'I think I really wanted to know that he liked and approved of me, and … the label of promiscuous … hurt…'” (Hanson, 2005) This labeling of promiscuity is understandably offensive and is a poor decision on the therapist’s part. The counselor managed to ruin the entire relationship with the client based on that comment. 

Self-disclosure is one of the most talked-about ethical considerations within the counseling realm. While there’s no consensus among professionals or academics on the topic, there are different things to consider when deciding whether or not to self-disclose. Knox defines self-disclosure as, “[interactions] in which the therapist reveals personal information about him/herself and/or reveals reactions to the client as they arise in session.” (Knox, 1997, p. 275) I thought this was a valuable explanation for self-disclosure. It’s important to have consistent rules and definitions even when there are gray areas. As a whole, it seems that clients usually feel closer to their therapist when they do choose to self-disclose, but there are times when it seemed inappropriate. In the Hanson article, the author talked about unhelpful disclosures. A particular situation was when, “In her second session, Israela expressed her fear of divorce, especially since her children were still small. In response, her therapist revealed that he was divorced and had small children, so 'it could be done. Israela concluded that he must have told her this because he wanted to date her. She never went back, because she felt 'emotionally unsafe'.” (Hanson, 2005) People going through a divorce or thinking about it are in quite a fragile state, so counselors should really think twice before they self-disclose about their personal experience with divorce. I do find it interesting to think about what would’ve happened if it was a female therapist disclosing the same situation, Israela may have felt completely different. Despite poor judgment on the therapist’s part, I think it should be noted that therapists are people who make mistakes, they are human, and sometimes they may make a “bad call”. An example from the same article of a positive disclosure was, “Cardinal described how, in their first session, her therapist, in response to Cardinal's revelation that she was an incest survivor, revealed briefly and without details that she too shared a similar experience. Cardinal said she knew then that she could trust her therapist, she felt safe, and knew that she would not be judged negatively.” (Hanson, 2005) While some counselors may think this was an over-step, it worked positively in this situation with this particular client. 

Dual relationships or multiple relationships are something that can arise in the counselor-client relationship and one that should be dealt with skilfully. The definition given by Corey for a dual relationship is, “Either sexual or nonsexual, occur when counselors assume two (or more) roles simultaneously or sequentially with a client. This may involve assuming more than one professional role or combining professional and non-professional roles.” (Corey, 2015, p.49) The example given by the same author was attending a client’s wedding, which is a fairly intimate experience. While sexual roles are seen as an absolute violation of ethics by all professionals, attending a wedding or something like that falls into a gray area that is left to the counselor’s discretion. After exploring several articles and texts, it seems that dual relationships can make things more complicated for both sides. In literature by Green on feminist theories in counseling the author explains that “Feminist theorists dealt with the issue of multiple relationships and possible exploitation or harm to clients while also cautioning that the issues known about the healthy women’s psychological development not to be sacrificed for the theory that separation, individuation, and independence be the only standard for healthy emotional development.” (Green, 1990) The way I interpreted this is that while dual relationships can be harmful to clients, sometimes they may benefit them. Helping clients get to a healthy level of emotional intelligence is part of the job, and shouldn’t be ignored. Emotional intelligence or development isn’t about separating oneself away from their emotions but rather embracing and dealing with them in a productive way. 

It’s well known that there’s a power dynamic in the counselor-client relationship. This power dynamic can be difficult to see, but often unavoidable, and the best things you can do are try to minimize risk by setting boundaries, self-monitoring, and involving patients when making decisions about their treatment. (Corey, 2015) Walker talks about this power dynamic and states that “Exploitation and harm are seen as most likely to occur when the therapist does not hold equal respect for the client’s power as well as their own” (Walker, 2002) While counselors are often thought of as having the majority of the power in this type of relationship, they must also recognize and respect that client’s hold a different kind of power as well. Client’s can choose whether or not to see that counselor anymore, or can even deter others from going to see that counselor if they have a bad experience. It’s essential to always conduct oneself in a mature, ethical, and professional way. In dual relationships, as a counselor, you must have clear boundaries to uphold an ethical stance with the client. Corey describes boundary-crossing as, “A departure from a commonly accepted practice that could potentially benefit a client” (Corey, 2015, p. 51) I think the keyword there is potentially, and crossing a boundary always has the potential to put the relationship at risk because you don’t know for certain how that client will take it. While there’s a stark difference between boundary-crossing and boundary violation, they are extremely important in the counseling field.

After considering all the problems that may come up in counseling, it appears that these are client-specific and must be dealt with as such. While some counselors have a strict non-disclosure policy, and others may be more lenient, I think as long as the integrity of the client is upheld, and ethical policies are not violated, it should be up to the individual. Having been in therapy myself, and seen several different counselors, I can attest to the notion that it’s really dependent on the situation when deciding how to deal with these issues.


References: 

  • Carew, L. (2009). Does theoretical background influence therapists' attitudes to therapist self-disclosure? A qualitative study. Counselling & Psychotherapy Research, 9(4), 266-272. 
  • Hanson, J. (2005). Should your lips be zipped? How therapist self-disclosure and non-disclosure affects clients. Counselling & Psychotherapy Research, 5(2), 96-104.
  • Walker, L. (2002). Feminist ethics, boundary crossings, dual relationships, and victims of violence. In A. A. Lazarus & O. Zur (Eds.), Dual Relationships and Psychotherapy. (pp. 432-445.) New York, US: Springer Publishing Company.
  • Corey, G. (2015). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy
  • Susan L. Green (1986) Ethical Dilemmas in Family Therapy. 
  • Judith Worell (2000) Feminism in Psychology: Revolution or Evolution? 
  • Knox, S., Hess, S. A., Petersen, D. A., & Hill, C. E. (1997). A qualitative analysis of client perceptions of the effects of helpful therapist self-disclosure in long-term therapy. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 44(3), 274-283.

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