Short Answer Questions - Ethics Essay Example for Free

Short Answer Questions Ethics Essay 1.Name two important circumstances in which counsellor would consider breaching confidentiality. What factors would need to be considered and what steps might be taken, before making this decision? Confidentiality is someone who is trusted with private or secrecy matter; confidential whisper or issue. (Credo Reference, 2001). Certain situations where the confidentiality between client and therapist, may need to be breached to ensure the safety of the client him/herself, the community or ourselves. Two important circumstances would be a client/child under 16 who has been abused or a client needs hospitalisation because they have been considering taking their own life or other concerning issues (Corey, 2009). In both of these cases as counsellor I would need to breach the client / therapist confidentiality by speaking with my supervisor, to explain what the best interest would be for both client and therapist. I also would have to reveal information to another professional about the client, furthermore I would try and gain a written consent from the client, as per the agreed term/agreement , this way the client will see why another professional is being consulted to avoid any confusion in the future (Geldard and Geldard, 2009). This will ensure that the client is receiving the best quality of care and is in the best outcome for everybody involved, if the client refuses the help/advice and is a danger to themselves or the community then relevant information will become informed the significant authorities and health professionals will be contracted. Corey, (2009) claims even though confidentiality is vital to developing a trusting relationship between client and therapist, clients are always informed of the limits in confidentiality and its successfulness can still be achieved in counselling. 2. Outline the factors you would consider, and the actions you would take if you found that your values were negatively affecting an already established client/therapist relationship, e.g. you may not believe in abortion but find your client is seeking assistance with the issue of whether or not to have an abortion? As everybody is different and comes from different backgrounds, therefore give us all different values and beliefs, it is important to have an effective client-counsellor relationship based on four main areas of duty of care 1. Helper competence, 2. Client autonomy, 3. Confidentiality, 4. Client protection (Nelson-Jones, 2008). There will be times throughout the sessions with clients that your own values and belief creep in, and you do make judgement, therefore you as a counsellor have to know and acknowledge this happen and understand why it is happening. In the case of you may not believe in abortion but your client is thinking/seeking information and assistance with this issue whether to or not to have an abortion, is a very hard position to be put into if your values and beliefs say not to. Perhaps seeking information on behalf of the client and finding out the real reason behind the issue why or why not to abort, is because of the relationship situation, financial situation, housing/accommodation situation or age of client if authorities need to be advised, or suggested professionals that can help the client physically (other professionals) and emotionally (Counsellors). 3.There may be periods where a counsellor is not competent to engage in therapeutic relationship with a client. Name two cases where this may be so, and give reasons why terminating the relationship may be advisable? In case one the client and therapist may engage in a personal/private relationship outside of the practice, this is unethical and makes the therapist incompetent to continue a therapeutic relationship with the client involved. Two reasonable reasons why terminating the relationship both therapeutic/private would be a respectable idea, to keep a professional work ethic and appropriate appearance of counsellor in the workplace and community. The second reason would be to keep your oath to the legal obligations of the professional practicing counsellor, as this may lead to court case, as you failed your due to duty of care to the client. 4.What is burnout, how may this be recognised and what are the counsellor’s responsibilities relating to this to themselves, the client, other counsellors? Burnout has identified three primary fragments they are: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished personal accomplishment. Two viewpoints have emerged over the past few decades. The first view is based on conflicts in interpersonal/social relationships (Counselling). The second separates burnout as a result of job-specific mismatches with the individual (Wrong job type for suitable persons) (Credo Reference, 2001). How burnout is recognised in counselling it the stress of interpersonal relationships. This is the unbalanced relationship, with the counsellor doing most of the giving and client doing most of the receiving (Geldard, D., Geldard, K, 2009). Some responsibilities that counsellors have in relating this to themselves, their clients and other counsellors understand what is causing this burnout, whether it is a heavy workload, or having a very high ideas and unrealistic expectations of what the need to achieve to be successful. By having realistic expectations counsellors can lead themselves to believe that the usual outcome is helpful for the client. Another responsibility is to understand and accept that burnout is normal, as stated in (Geldard, D., Geldard, K, 2009) counsellors realise that burnout feelings do occur in normal, competent, capable and caring counsellors, then they will be able to start accepting their own burnout feelings and share those with their peers, other counsellors and other professional, to seek help. 5.Thinking about self-disclosure describe the benefits and difficulties associated with this in a client/ therapist relationship (ie. is it helpful, unhelpful or both). Justify your answer. Therapist self-disclosures are verbal statements that reveal something personal about the therapist (Hill Knox, 2002). There are at least seven subtypes of disclosures: disclosures of facts, feelings, insight, strategies, reassurance/support, challenge, and immediacy, (see table 1) clearly all different types are used at different times and can have quite different impacts on the therapy process between client and therapist. The benefits of knowing about self-disclosure as a therapist will help you understanding the barriers and difficulties surrounding your personal throughs and feelings towards clients and worldwide issues of important. Yes, I do think having self-disclosure will help and also be unhelpful if the therapist gives into the unimportant aspects of those feeling, insight and strategies of counselling but understands and accepts that personal statements will enhance the therapy process between client and therapist, therefore giving the best counselling system you can provide in your practise and between therapists.