Ethics in Counseling Psychology, Research Paper Example

There are several main stream changes that always occur in the ground rules and expectations of the people in the society. For instance, counselors always expect their clients to reveal their top most secrets those which will modify the dynamics in the counseling field. The counselors my handle the presented cases in such a way that at the end of the process, he or she is violating the rules and expectations. The counseling process should therefore follow the agreement signed at the beginning of the counseling session.

If in the beginning of last year, you were selected to be manager in a case concerning two couples who would like to marry each other. It later own comes into your realization that the client who wants you to counsel is dating your younger sister. The client later own informed you that he is HIV positive. The client is not aware of your relationship with the lady.

There are several problems which may arise according to the situation. The client is admitting that he is HIV positive and he wants to date you sister who in the first place is underage. On top of being positive, he had married other three wives who have divorced because of some untold stories. This is contrary to the Florida law which prohibits bigamy. Failing to report this felony can make the counselor to lose his job on top of other ethical issues.

The counselor has found himself in a situation where he is not sure of what to do due to conflict of interest on whom is obligated to protect; his sister whom he loves so much and whom they have grow up together in the same family or the client who he has just known some few months before. This entire dilemma faced by the counselor brings the adage. The counselor knows clearly about the laws governing the privacy law however does not want his loving sister to die. If he tells his sister about the status and behavior of the boyfriend, then he is violating the law hence can be sued by the client on the lawsuit and criminal charges. On the other hand, if he does not inform the sister, then he is going to ruin her life that he could otherwise saved from the psychological trauma.

Another arising problem is the relationship between the sister’s boyfriend and the client who is a brother to the lady. After sometimes, the client may be distorted by the sister’s boyfriend and girlfriend’s sister and is in the client’s point of interest hence may hinder progress being achieved.

The counselor should take his time to understand the possible outcomes of his reactions. If taking side can cause more complications, then he should refer the counseling procedures to another counselor who is not related to either of the two individuals. Since the relationship is still young, the councilor can advice his sister to go for counseling in a different place where she will be advised deeply on matters concerning relationships and safety on new relationships. The counselor can as well advice to use condoms should she have sex with the client who is his boyfriend but should not touch anything about that man. He can counsel her on the general knowledge rather than showing that his boyfriend is infected. On the matter concerning other wives of the client, the counselors can as well advice the sister on impacts related to polygamy in the current world.

Another possible solution that the client can opt to is to remain silent and leave the two individuals to settle their own issue by just tackling where the client has requested to be handled. This can be attained by the counselor by following the rules and regulations of the ethics in counseling psychology as stated.

What the counselor should do to overcome these dilemmas are; first of all, he should weigh the advantages and disadvantages of alerting the authorities. He should determine if this would benefit both the parties involved that is the clients other wives, children, and the current girlfriends or if the parties will suffer a lot as a result of the client going to prison. The counselor should inform her supervisor immediate on the situation and they can together determine if they should begin the process or refer the case to the other counselor or seek possible action. In case the customer wants to know as why he is referred to another client, then he should be informed of the complications in the counseling procedures. Another possible solution would be to remain silent so that the two parties will remain ignorant to the fact that you new each other’s relationships.

For me as a counselor, if this was to occur to me, I cannot assume to have kept quite to my sister to enter into such a trap which can ruin her entire life. I would inform her to further explore her boyfriend before reaching conclusion (“Fight Bigamy”, 2005).

References

Fight bigamy. (2005, October 23). Retrieved from

http://fightbigamy.typepad.com/my_weblog/bigamy_laws

Freeman, S. (2000). Ethics: an introduction to philosophy and practice,1e. Thomas Learning