Dual Role Relationships : Impacting The World Of Counseling

The purpose of this study was to examine and understand the types of activities viewed as either ethical or unethical by psychologists practicing in different settings and orientation. Psychologists from the district of Hilo, Hawaii completed questionnaire and survey concerning the behaviors and acts that lead practitioners to engage in dual roles with client. Measures included demographic questionnaire and the Therapeutic Practices Survey. The participants rated the degree or level to which each behavior or act was ethical. A majority believed dual role behaviors to be unethical under most conditions and some reported that they have rarely or never engage in such behaviors. The profession and practice setting did not vary among terms of involvements, which includes incidental, social/financial, and dual roles. A review of previous studies and literature assisted in revealing the nature of relationships, ethical guidelines provided, and limits of boundaries for relationships. This study offers data to support the need for awareness of activities and behaviors leading to dual roles and the settings of practitioners most at risk.

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.

In a psychotherapist’s office, there are a multitude of occurrences that may prompt possible boundary crossings and violations - some that may impact the therapeutic alliance or some that may enhance the relationship. Therefore, a psychotherapist must weigh the possible risks and benefits when coming across such instances that may engender a boundary crossing, a boundary violation, or a formation of a dual relationship. Although, not all boundary crossings or dual relationships are considered unethical, psychotherapists should still be weary of trespassing such ambiguous territory, especially when the trespassing can lead to exploitation of a client or impairment on the psychotherapist’s professional judgment (Jensen, 2005). Thus, an analysis of decision-making is warranted in Lying on the Couch (Yalom, 1997), where psychotherapists, Dr. Marshal Streider and Dr. Ernest Lash, facilitate a myriad of dual relationships and boundary crossings via self-disclosure, without taking into consideration the implications this may have on the client.

Dual relationships can involve merging the role of the counselor with another professional relationship or combining the counselor role with a personal relationship. The ACA Code of Ethics does not use the terms “multiple relationships” and “dual relationships” due to surrounding issues being so controversial and complex; also because the ACA Code of Ethics does not consider dual relationships as necessarily unethical. According to the text, four characteristics of dual relationships make them problematic. One characteristic is they can be difficult to recognize, there are no danger signs that marks the point at which a professional relationship crosses the line into behavior which can lead to a relationship that is inappropriate. Another characteristic that makes them problematic is the fact that there is little consensus among mental health professionals regarding the propriety of dual relationships, with the exception of sexual dual relationships. The fact that some dual relationships are unavoidable is also a characteristic which makes dual relationships problematic. Lastly, their potential for harm ranges along a wide range from extremely harmful to caring or even beneficial which is a problematic characteristic of dual relationships as

Dual relationships are a topic that is widely talked about in many different professions and is a topic of ethics in the human service profession. To define a dual relationship would mean the professional would assume two roles at the

The ethics of social workers engaging in possible conflicts of interest in the case of boundary and dual relationships presents major challenges for the clinical social work supervisor. After the many mistakes in this realm during the formative period of social work during the 20th century the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the American Psychological Association (APA) have defined various code of ethics and practice standards in order to shield vulnerable clients from over-confident, manipulative, or confused

This includes the counselor not having sexual, and romantic relationships as well as not being able to counsel family members through physically and virtually. The counselor is not allowed to enter into a romantic/ sexual relationship with former clients and may not counsel individuals they may have been intimate with in the past since this creates a dual relationship between the client and counselor and there is no longer a barrier of professionalism. The therapeutic relationship is jeopardized due to the sexual and romantic relationship causing the client not to focus on their treatment but instead on the intimacy. There is no justice for the client and other clients since this client is getting more attention and the counselor may end up harming them during the process. For a CRSS they stated that “CRSS professionals will avoid relationships or commitments that conflict with the interests of individuals they serve, impair professional judgment, imply a conflict of interest, or create risk of harm to individuals they serve. When dual relationships are unavoidable, it is the responsibility of the professional to seek supervisory consultation to conduct him/herself in a way that does not jeopardize the integrity of the helping

There are many ethical dilemmas in the field of social work. Dual relationships are an extremely common issue that can be defined as when a therapist and client have multiple relationships. These relationships could be a friendship, a family member, a romantic relationship, an online relationship, and/or a sexual relationship. It can be debated whether some of these relationships can be acceptable to maintain while in a therapist-patient relationship due to ethical principles, and guidelines that may be broken to participate in the relationships.

All four articles discuss the issues concerning the ethical boundaries of psychologies in terms of their professional and personal lives. The concept of dual relationships, without doubt, can be ethically and maintained according to Chan, McBey, & Scott-Ladd (2011). The issues that come about from relationships with psychologies in relationships involving these dual circumstances are largely open to interpretation (Chan, McBey, & Scott-Ladd, 2011). In fact, Gullett, Do, Canuto-Carranco, Brister, Turner, & Caldwell, 2009 describes these issues are complex and multifaceted simply for the reason that though that can be managed, the dual relationships are challenging and can not only hurt individuals but the psychologist profession as well. Howells, 2014 believes that while certain actions concerning the relationships are ethically right when not mixed with the psychologists’ professions, they are still wrong. According to Howells (2014), there are just certain morals and principal that individuals should always uphold. Undeniably the ethical code in regards to dual relationships for psychologists is subjective, and situational (APA, 2010; Chan, McBey, & Scott-Ladd, 2011; Gullett, Do, Canuto-Carranco, Brister, Turner, & Caldwell, 2009; Howells,

I can see the risks and liabilities that can arise in these ethical situations. One liability, which is most concerning, could be that these counselors are not properly trained to provide these services. Most of the training they received was based on individuals with little or no training in marriage and family therapy. This is why there should be more opportunity for both individual and family therapists to receive further training in the areas that they have less training in. As we are doing with this module for example and in this class. It is important that all counselors and therapists get as much training and supervision as possible to ensure proper care for their clients and their presenting problems/issues. It would be beneficial for all those involved and could increase the potential to help and positively affect the outcomes for more clients.

Ethics codes are put in place to guide the conduct of their members and set the precedence of how one should behave. The ethical status of professional boundaries and the ethical nature of dual and overlapping relationships in the counseling realm remain continuing issues and are very complex. A boundary crossing is moving away from what occurs in a normal professional situation and it is beneficial to a client. A boundary violation is a breach that negatively affects the client. When and if a dual relationship involves exploitation of a client that relationship is definitely a boundary violation. Boundary violations are unethical (Corey, Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2014, p.260). As counselors we need to be cautious with dual relationships

Dual relationships are very controversial within all helping professions. It can bring positive and negative components to a situation. There should always be a clear boundary and form of consent and agreement set by the social worker, or any health service professional to their client. However in some cases, it is vital for a client and work professionals to establish a relationship. This is an important component for a successful session or procedure. In this paper, I will discuss the ethical dilemma revealed between Dr. Green, the Psychologist and teacher, and the client, 19 year-old, Ava Jones.

Ethical Issue in Case: the ethical issues could be whether to see the wife of a couple therapy before the couple session begin and how that could impair the counselor clinical judgment.

Ethics, boundaries and potential dual relationships are important for counselors to comprehend. Understanding the code of ethics and understanding the many facets of counselor /patient scenarios that can arise during a professional relationship. Dual relationships is a gray area in which there is a very paramount question that the counseling professional need to address and that is; whether a dual relationship is necessary. Simply put, impractical dual relationships can be charged with unnecessary jeopardy. Certain situations may arise in which a dual relationship could be hard