Dual Relationships, Multiple Relationships Essay

Gurman, A. S. (2008). Clinical handbook of couple therapy (4th ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Fairy tales tell us that once upon a time a girl met a boy; they fell in love, and lived happily ever after. Reality is not that simple. Long-term relationships force couples to get to know each other, involve themselves in each others’ worlds, fight through the hard times, and eventually develop deeper connections as noted through distinctive stages of Knapp’s relationship model. Although I have dated the same person for over two years, our communication through relationship stages makes it seem as though I am now dating a different person than the one I met years ago. Following dissolution and subsequent repair, I realize the most exhilarating of roller coaster rides develop through sets of ups and downs, much like the

Kitchener, K. (1988). Dual role relationships: What makes them so problematic?. Journal of Counseling and Development.

There are a multitude of reasons why an individual may need or want therapy; whether it’s due to learning how to cope with a mental disorder or disability, life happenings such as traumas or abuse, addictions, or even PTSD. Anybody can receive it – individual persons, families, or groups. It isn’t hard to argue that most therapists and psychologists will agree that the therapeutic alliance is one of the most beneficial foundations of a therapy session. Also referred to as the working alliance or working relationship, it represents the bond between therapist and

In conclusion there are ways to maintain the healthy relationship with your client. No matter when the dual relationship may occur, before during or after, it should be avoided at all cost if it jeopardizes the

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the counseling profession and its ability to work on cases in multidisciplinary teams. A variety of scholarly journal articles were taken into account in order to gain insight into the field of counseling and some of its specializations. For this paper, the focus was, aside from general counseling, on marriage and family therapy as well as addiction counseling.

Geyer (1994) defines dual relationships as occurring when a mental health practitioner, “relates to a client in roles other than that of a mental health practitioner outside the therapeutic context” (p.187). Areas outside of context may include church, social gatherings, and organized events to name a few. The term dual relationship is interchangeably used with multiple relationships or nonprofessional relations. Corey et al. (2011) further defines this role as a professional who assumes multiple, two or more, roles at the same time with a client. The following paper will look to address a literature review of dual relationships along with a review of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapist (CAMFT) and American Counseling Association (ACA) ethics codes regarding the topic. I will further provide personal reflections and values as they relate to dual relationships. In closing I will provide an ethical resolution to a hypothetical case and provide final thoughts.

Most major professional codes of ethics have a policy or rule against dual relationships (Gottlieb, 1993). Dual relationships exist when a professional acts at the same time or sequentially in two roles (Gottlieb, 1993). Through the course of this paper, the concept of dual relationships will be examined. Ethical issues with dual relationships will be explained as well as the clarification and analyzation of a specific dual relationship. Not to mention the explanation of challenges presented by boundary issues in professional psychology.

There are two relationships present; one is a counselor/client and the other is familial. Being a family member of a client is problematic since there’s a bond based on family, emotion and love, which are all things that a counselor/client relationship cannot have. You’ve created an overlap in relationships, which can be confusing to the client (Miller,

For that reason, in the mental health professions, dual relationships are generally not recommended. Thus, if your friend who’s a psychologist assumes two more roles consecutively with a client, this is considered a dual relationship. For instance, if an individual held a role as a counselor and business partner, or client and friend, this is a considered a dual relationship. Common examples of dual relationships include: bartering therapy for goods or services; providing

There are many values this writer wishes to incorporate into a counseling relationship. The fundamental values this writer wishes to incorporate are: flexibility, self-awareness, self-regulation, and empathy. The ability to be flexible and alter what one does in order to fit the client’s needs is crucial to establishing and maintaining a therapeutic relationship. Flexibility can be demonstrated in many different ways, such as the way the therapist interacts with the client, the tone of voice that is utilized, down to the way the therapist provides material to the client. In being flexible, treatment is able to remain focused on the client and his or her needs (Egan, 2014).

According to Syne (2006), a dual relationship occurs when people take on multiple roles in their relationships with other people. While dual relationships

A therapeutic relationship is a professional, inter-personal alliance in which the nurse and client join together for a defined period to achieve health-related treatment goals (Chauhan & Long, 2000), which may only last for a short period of time but

There has been some recent argument against the current understanding of the place of relationships in psychotherapy. While most theories argue that relationships are important or even essential to good mental health, other theorists claim that the way relationships are conceptualized in these theories is insufficient (Slife & Wiggins, 2009). Most of these theories conceptualize the individuals first, and then talk about the way these individuals relate. Relationships are often understood as two or more independent self-contained individuals interacting (Slife & Wiggins, 2009). An alternative way to look at relationships is offered by relational psychoanalysts and other theorists, though again it should be noted that

In view of the continuum of multiple relationships, which ranges form boundary crossings that ‘may be harmful, helpful, or benign to the therapeutic process’ (Hermann, 2006, Moleski & Kiselica, 2005, Rosenbloom, 2003,) to boundary violations which ‘place clients, and the therapeutic process at a high risk’ ( Gutheil & Gabbard, 1993; Simon,1992), there seems to be something more than ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to the non-sexual boundaries issue.