Client Counseling & Moral Responsibility

Counselors see people in times of crisis and emotional vulnerability. Clients rely on counselors for guidance and support to cope with emotional and psychological issues, as well as weather the changes and challenges in their lives. The advice counselors and therapists offer can have a great impact that may ultimately affect not just a client, but everyone in the client's life. That's why ethical training is an important part of the education psychologists, psychiatrists, marriage and family therapists, social workers, grief counselors and drug rehabilitation counselors receive.

Religion and Spirituality

• Clients and therapists may have strong religious and spiritual beliefs. Although therapists can use the morality they derive from their religions to guide their conduct as professionals, they cannot offer religious or moral counseling as part of their practice. Certainly, the counseling professions recognize that there are boundaries of right and wrong. Counselors may ask a client if the client believes she is behaving morally or doing the right thing. However, professionals cannot provide spiritual and religious reasoning or guidance. Additionally, professional ethics mandate tolerance and respect for people of all religious backgrounds.

Duty to Report

• Although confidentiality is an essential tenet of psychological therapy, there are moments when a moral and ethical crisis creates a need and requirement to breach. State laws and professional ethics require therapists to report possible suicides and homicides to law enforcement and medical professionals. Additionally, therapists must report child abuse if they see signs, or know it is occurring. These breaches of confidentiality are considered moral requirements for the protection of clients and society.

Personal Involvement

• The therapist-client relationship has boundaries. Professional ethics, as outlined by the American Psychology Association and most state practice laws, require therapists to look after client welfare by avoiding personal relationships. Counselors should not have social interaction with clients outside the confines of therapy. This is especially true of romantic or sexual relationships. In many cases, professional boards view a therapist's sexual involvement with a client as particularly wrong, because it may result from taking advantage of a client's emotional vulnerability or trust in the therapist.

Consideration

• Therapists have to consider their words, actions and advice carefully. The things they suggest, ideas they introduce or emotional reactions they trigger in their clients can have profound consequences. People take action based on advice and counseling. They also may come to conclusions about themselves or others that can be regressive and harmful. Although no one can predict what another person will do, and therapists are not responsible for a client's poor decisions, they have to consider how they are contributing to and affecting people. The goal of counseling is to help, and therapists are obligated to always work in their client's interest to the best of their ability.