Ethical Considerations Presented By Multiple Relationships With Clients

Ethical Considerations Presented By Mutiple Relationships With Clients

Multiple or dual relationships are ones in which a marital and family therapist serves intwo capacities at the same time with the individual or people seeking their help. These positions can be both professionally and casually, such as therapist and manager, or a combination of both, such as therapist and an acquaintance or therapist and lover (Wilcoxon & P., 2014). “Dual relationships are troublesome since (a) these relationships are so common, (b) they can be hard to distinguish sometimes, (c) they sometimes are inevitable, (d) they can be detrimental but sometimes useful, and (e) they are the topic of opposing counsel.”

Multiple relationships might also jeopardize one’s neutrality and weaken individual’s professional judgment. Mental health professionals’ ethical rules forbid it or warn about the hazards of relationships including concurrent but conflicting relationships. Several occupations provide extra remarks on relationship changes over time, such as ties with previous clients. Investigate chosen items from several professional associations’ codes and standards of ethics governing both simultaneous and sequential connections incorporating therapists, patients, and others as a starting point for consideration of multiple relationships.

The American Counseling Association’s (ACA) code of ethics has a lot of information on concurrent relationships. The following are the ethical considerations issues that therapists should think about when they have several relationships with clients

Ongoing clients, their sexual partners, or close relatives are not allowed to have sexual or romantic counselor-client contacts or engagements.
For a period of 5 years after the last working relationships, sexual or romantic connections with former customers, their romantic partners, or their relatives is banned.
A non-professional relationship between a counselor and a client or former client might be useful. Going to attend a special ceremony (e.g., a celebration or graduation); ordering a service or product supplied by a customer or former client (with the exception of unrestricted exchange of goods); hospital visits to a sick relative; consensual subscription in a professional body, organization, or neighborhood are all illustrations of potentially beneficial interactions.
Therapists appreciate the difficulty of receiving presents from patients and know that modest presents are a symbol of respect and appreciation in certain communities and cultures.

Acknowledged are mentions of the dangers of a therapist’s connection with ongoing patients’ partners or relatives, the relevance of symbolic presents in particular cultural groupings, and problems in student-educator interactions including therapy in these entries. The fact that the ACA code of ethics has recommendations for good nonprofessional contacts or relationships is a formal acknowledgement that not all multiple partnerships are negative, despite the fact that they can be problematic. These are discretionary judgments that should be made with considerable