Starting with a realistic case, the article explains the ethical obligations of a counsellor.
Sr. Regina was in counselling with Sr. Miranda, a member of her own Congregation, but from a different community. A few weeks after Regina began counselling, there was a gathering of religious. Both Regina and Miranda were present at the gathering. Both sat together sharing snacks and engaged in conversation for quite some time about many things, including issues dealt with in counselling.
A week later Regina was talking to Sr. Francis, a friend of Miranda who worked at the same hospital as Regina. “I understand you are having problems with your superior.” Francis told Regina. “What makes you say that?” Regina asked. “Oh, I know. I also know you are going for counselling.” “Who told you this?” Regina asked, quite perturbed. Francis told her.
Francis too had been at the religious gathering and had seen Regina and Miranda engaged in serious conversation. A few days later Francis had met Miranda and during their conversation had told Miranda: “I saw you and Regina in serious conversation at the religious gathering. Is she also one of your clients?” Miranda told Francis that she was helping Regina with some problems with her superior. Regina was very upset on hearing this.
At the next counselling session Regina told Miranda. “You had told me that you would keep everything in confidence. But you didn’t….. I am stopping counselling.”
Regina’s experience is not rare. It is easy for a counsellor, unless she is very careful, to violate ethical boundaries in counselling. Great harm is done to the client when the counselor does not respect ethical principles and boundaries.
In an February issue of MAGNET we had looked at some important ethical boundaries. In this issue we shall try to understand some important ethical principles that have to guide the counselling process and the counsellor.
Ethical Principles
The counsellor has to put the welfare of the client as one’s primary responsibility and focus. This involves a number of factors. The very first is: The counsellor does nothing that is going to harm the client. The Code of Ethics, that guides each Counselling Association, spells out certain major principles and practices that flow from this fundamental stance.
COMPETENCE
Commitment to the welfare of the client demands that a counsellor maintains high levels of competence. If a counsellor is to help and not harm the client, it is essential that she has the competence to offer the help that the client is seeking. This means the counsellor has sufficient training and experience. Specifically,
she does not use an approach or a technique for which she has not received sufficient instruction and training.
It also demands that she keeps abreast of developments in the counselling field and updates her knowledge and skills.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Clients can be deeply wounded and damaged when the trust they placed in the counsellor is betrayed by the counsellor divulging information gained in the counselling process to third parties. Whatever the clients have shared with the counsellor is privileged information and is not be divulged to anybody unless the law demands.
A counsellor takes great care to safeguard the anonymity of the clients. Miranda, in the incident described above, not only failed in this, but also broke confidentiality. She betrayed the trust Regina had placed in her. Turning a social encounter into a counselling session, was violation of place and time boundaries.
In cases where a client has been referred for counselling by a third party, such as a provincial or a bishop, the counsellor clarifies at the outset the nature of the relationship with each party and what information can be shared with the referring party. For example, the referring party may request a report of the counselling process and its outcome. Written permission would be required from the client for such report at the outset. The client has the right to have a copy of the report in case one is to be given to the referring party or to anyone else.
The counsellor has an ethical responsibility to keep client records and recordings of sessions safe and inaccessible to third parties. She secures the client’s permission before recording or sharing in a public forum any personally identifiable information gained from the client in the course of counselling.
However, confidentiality is not absolute. It is important that at the beginning of the counselling process the counsellor informs the client about this. The basic precept of do no harm and the correlated principle of avoid harm, provides certain exceptions. There are situations where divulging privileged information is necessary to prevent harm or injury to the client or others or when mandated by law.
CONSENT
Consent refers to the right of clients to be informed about the nature of the counselling offered, the approaches and dynamics involved, counsellor obligations, limits to confidentiality, and expectations from the client including payment for services. The client then has the freedom to consent knowingly and without undue pressure to participate in the counselling process. It is a regular practice on the part of many counsellors to get written consent from clients, using specific Consent Forms.
CONDUCT
The counselor respects clients and their rights, and refrains from relationships and behaviours that compromise one’s ability to provide effective service to the clients.
There are certain specific expected behaviours from the counsellor both within and outside the counselling relationship. These expected behaviours are often codified in Norms and Guidelines.
The counsellor refrains from dual relationships with clients. Dual relationship occurs when a counsellor has another relationship with a client in addition to the primary counselling relationship. These secondary relationships may be social, family, or business.
A dual relationship vitiates the counselling relationship and affects especially the client’s freedom. It can impair the counsellor’s objectivity, create conflict-of-interest situations, and can become exploitative.
The counsellor avoids all forms of financial, emotional, or sexual exploitation of clients, and charges only legitimate fees. She does not use the clients to meet one’s own needs for closeness, intimacy or sex or to gain favours from third parties. It is unethical, for example, for the counsellor to use a client to get connected to government officials or business people to gain favours from them.
The counselor works through counter-transference issues. These are feelings evoked in the counsellor by the client’s issues. Supposing the client is dealing with issues arising from her sexual abuse experience and the counsellor also is an abuse survivor. Then it is quite likely that the client’s experiences will evoke in the counsellor very strong feelings – such as rage, shame – arising from one’s own abuse experience. These emotions can affect objectivity and compromise one’s capacity to help the client. In such situations the counsellor has to seek supervision or engage in her own personal counselling to work through these issues.
To be able to help others, counsellors have to take care of their own physical and emotional health. It is important to set limits to the help a counsellor can give. A counsellor with a “Saviour Complex” – the compulsive need to save everyone and be always available– is setting oneself up for burnout. Establishment of clear boundaries – of time, place, frequency etc.—is necessary.
Introspection
- If you are a counsellor or is or has been a client in counselling, what does this presentation of Ethical Principles evoke in you?
- What have been your experiences regarding these Principles? Does any specific incident or experience stand out in memory? If so, how have you been affected by it?
- In case you are a Formator or a Provincial, what is your stand in regard to referring your formees or members for counselling? Do you have contacts of trustworthy and competent counsellors to whom you can refer them?
– Rev. Dr. Jose Parappully, SDB, is the Founder-Director of Sumedha Centre, which runs courses and retreats in psycho-spiritual integration. He also does individual and group therapy.
To subscribe to the magazine Contact Us
