Ethical Issues and Process of Therapy Discussion Responses

Please respond to the two discussion posts. Each response needs to be about 1-3 sentences.

Discussion: Watch the brief (approximately 7 minutes) video below. What are the three broad ethical areas discussed? What are your thoughts on the material presented? Discuss any related experiences you have had in your own clinical work with these topics.

1. Vanessa’s Post:

Boundaries – By allowing us to set boundaries with our clients we are teaching them they do not have access to us 24/7. One it is not healthy for us and two what sort of life skills are we teaching our clients by using us as their couches. We should be teaching and encouraging lifelong tools they can use once therapy is over, when that time shall come.

Setting Expectations – By setting realistic expectations with our clients we are establishing the relationship that therapists are not magicians who can fix all their problems sometimes it is not that simple and even incompetent of us a clinicians to think we can. Most importantly it would be doing harm to our clients to set them up for possible failure if things don’t get better.

Clear about the process of therapy – My first thought when I hear this is Informed Consent. Clients can come into your office and reveal information that by law we must report. When this happens it shouldn’t be a surprise to them if by being a competent clinicians we have gone over these items with them previously or right before we think they are about to reveal something that could demand us to report. Again, we are there to help and do no harm to them and this would be one of those circumstances in which we would have to take action.

I have yet to have the opportunity to apply these in a real world setting but I am looking forward to the day I get to.

2. Daria’s Post:

Three ethical issues that were mentioned in the video include appropriate therapeutic boundaries, setting realistic expectations in order to avoid making any promises that can’t be kept, and being up front and honest surrounding the possibility of mandated reporting or a breach of confidentiality. I like that Katie Morton is educating current and potential clients about what the therapy process is supposed to look like across the board. Therapists agree to be held at a higher standard when choosing this career path. Though I have not yet started seeing clients, I believe more accountability can only benefit the field as a whole.