HSCO 511 Ethics Paper

Clearly, confidentiality is essential to the healing process. However, though it may appear to be a relatively easy concept, its application in the therapeutic atmosphere has proven to be quite complex (Younggren & Harris, p. 589). One issue that causes confusion for many professionals pertains to the differences between confidentiality and legal privilege. Quite often, ethical obligations overlap with the legal requirements. Frequently, the practitioner is not well informed about these particular limits on confidentiality and this lack of knowledge can place both the client and the helping professional at risk (Younggren & Harris, p.590, 598).

At one point in a person life, they will participated in a group whether it is part of a specific committee, therapy, or social group. In recent years, there has been a rise in counseling within a group forum veering from the tradition individual counseling. Therapists, physiologist, and counselors believe that form of counseling is beneficial to both counselor and client. This allows the counselor to help several clients at once rather than one at a time decreasing their strenuous workload and demanding work hours. This form of counseling integrate individual that share similar issues, struggles, and experiences into one forum. This not only allows the clients to learn from the therapist but from their fellow group members. The group experience

Corey, G., Corey, M. S., & Haynes, R. (2014). Groups in action: Evolution and challenges (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Groups do not always start off fully-formed and functioning. Bruce Tuckman's model of the developmental sequence in small groups suggests that groups grow through clearly defined stages, from their creation as groups of

Professional counselors deal with many legal and ethical issues in the course of treating clients. Some of the issues they may come across include dual relationships, boundaries, bartering, sexual relationships, gift giving, touching a client, and how to begin or end treatment. Some of these issues may seem straightforward in theory, but they can become complicated in practice. In these cases, if possible, a counselor should seek consultation before making any decisions. Ethical dilemmas are an area where professional counselors should continually receive consultation and ongoing education. This paper provides a summary of how a video presentation, the ACA Code of Ethics, and Maryland’s board regulations for professional counselors handle dual relationships, boundaries, gift giving, touch, and beginning and ending treatment. The paper will go on to discuss my reaction to these issues. Finally, I will discuss how I plan to apply what I have learned to my own counseling practice.

There are several ethical dilemmas that the mental health professionals that are working as a team will face including “ensuring that the client has given informed consent, maintaining client confidentiality, and involving professionals, paraprofessionals, and family in appropriate coordinated processes that benefit the client” (Paproski & Haverkamp, 2000, p.96).

Breaking confidentiality is a serious ethical component in counseling and must be considered very carefully before doing so. Each state has laws regarding the disclosure of confidentiality whether it to the courts, the clients, relatives, lawyers, schools, or other unbiased parties (Corey et al., 2015). It is very important that the therapist is aware of the laws in regards to disclosure of confidentiality in the state in which they practice to ensure that they are practicing in an ethical manner and to avoid any legal

Group therapy for me was a very new concept. My understanding towards group therapy was that every one share their concern issues and goup members discuss about that issue and get different perspectives about how to deal with that issue by building cohession and trust among the members. According to zander (1968) a group is a collection of individuals who have relation to one another that make them interdependent to some significant degree. , Group therapy is a type of psychotherapy that involves one or more therapists working with several people at the same time.Generally, the counselling group has a speific focus, which may be educational, vocational, social or

In this essay I am going to look at the importance and purpose of the initial consultation between the client and the therapist and what happens during this preliminary session. I will also cover the ethical definitions that will need to be explored and established, to ensure the safety and wellbeing of both the client and therapist.

Lying on the Couch by Irvin D. Yalom has been both entertaining and interesting from a counseling standpoint in that it provides a scandalous and as was in most of the cases, a look at what could go wrong if ethics in a clinical counseling setting go awry. Following the characters of Seymour Trotter, Earnest Lash, and Marshal Streider in working with their clients and with each other the ethical lessons to be learned become obviously apparent, if not emotionally painful. Although, numerous issues arise throughout the book, there were at least three that will be covered within the context of this writing. In consideration of each of these ethical breaches there will be dialog on the nature of the ethical issue or violation, where the ACA ethical code applies, ramifications of the ethical issue or violation on both parties, and application of Kitchener?s five primary ethical principles that were involved or violated. In addition, the justification offered by the characters in the book for their actions or considered actions, application to the situation in the setting of Clinical Mental Health counseling, and indication of personal response to the situation presented. Understanding that the use of these ethical principles and considerations as they apply in counseling are unequivocally valuable tools in helping a practitioner in working with clients to make comprehensive decisions that will not create conflict within their ethical parameters and are aligned with the laws

Over the past several decades the advancement of group modalities in the mental health profession, has brought about several potentially challenging ethical and legal scenarios that pertain specifically to confidentiality, privileged communication and privacy in group work. The inherent power of therapeutic groups to bring about personal change for members has seen increasing recognition in recent years in the mental health profession (Corey and Corey, 2006). Historically however, individual therapy was viewed as the most effective form of treatment, and group therapy was a less crystallised alternative (Glass, 1998). Markus and King

Privileged communications are defined as “an exchange of information between two individuals in a confidential relationship” (“Privileged communication,” 2008). There are 5 generally accepted types of privileged communications: attorney/client, doctor/patient, psychotherapist/patient, parishioner/clergy and marital. This week’s unit focuses mainly on the psychotherapy/patient relationship. One of the main reasons this privilege exists is to allow a person seeking treatment to be completely honest with the psychotherapist without fear that the information they divulge will be shared with family, friends or the public in general. This allows for the therapist to have as complete a picture as possible of the patient to assist in the development

This paper will explore the concept of dual relationships between counselors and clients and the ethical implications of such relationships. In addition to presenting several examples of dual relationships, this paper will also explore how ethical decisions must be made to avoid potentially harmful or exploitive relationships in therapy as well understanding how different interactions between counselor and clients can be understood from an ethical standpoint, as well as how reviewing these ethical dilemmas may shape my future career as a counselor.

Another ethical issue unique to group therapy pertains to the screening of prospective participants. This screening is essential for determining the suitability of the members to the group. According to Finn & Barak (2010), groups that emphasize life skills, social skills, development or those involving personal issues are the ones that can benefit most from screening members. The screening process can help prospective members to clarify their expectations regarding the benefits they hope to reap from the group experience. The process can also aid in minimizing some of the complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity that members might have about their participation in the group therapy (Crespi, 2009).

Groups in business can be in many forms- formal committees, staff meetings, volunteer groups, or groups put together by management. In any of these it is important to stay organized, set rules, and stay on topic. Berko, Wolvin, Wolvin and Aitken (2016) discuss group operations as following these steps- group forming, group norming, group storming, group conforming, group performing and group adjourning (pgs. 252-256). Groups have an advantage of allowing different opinions to be heard, this can also be a disadvantage if the different opinions cannot be formed into a consensus.