Ethics in Group Counseling Term Paper

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Ethics in Group Counselling

Ethics in Group Counseling

Group Therapy Counselling: Ethics

The ethical concerns of therapists have been getting larger in quantity and sophistication. Managed care demands professionals to think about problems with discretion as well as delivery associated with proficient treatment whilst other decisions might include informed consent, a variety of relationships together with customers, and ignoring discretion given clients' harmful conduct. These types of deliberations have been happening inside a transforming culture since the communities which counsellors deal with have been significantly varied bringing up concerns of proficiency as well as accessibility to psychological health solutions. Additionally, therapists have been working inside a culture that has been progressively more litigious; consequently, the requirement for codes associated with ethics from the numerous mental healthcare professional institutions providing guidance has been very clear (NAADAC, 2011). In this paper, we will discuss the different aspects of ethical dilemmas aforementioned; these dilemmas will be discussed within the context of both group therapy and individual therapy.

Confidentiality

The confidential relationship amid psychological health care professionals as well as their customers signifies an essential professional duty and sustained foundation in this supporting field. A few have contended that therapy may be inadequate devoid of the trust that confidentiality strains (Epstein, Steingarten, Weinstein, & Nashel, 1977). In talking about the actual amicus briefs related to the U.S. Mental and Psychiatric Associations, Justice Stevens declares, "Efficient psychiatric therapy … is determined by an environment associated with confidence as well as trust wherein the individual has been prepared to create an honest and comprehensive disclosure associated with details, feelings, remembrances, and concerns. Due to the delicate nature related to the issues wherein people seek advice from psychotherapists, disclosure associated with discreet communications created throughout counselling sessions could cause humiliation or shame. Because of this, the actual prospect of disclosure might hamper development related to the confidential association essential for effective therapy" (Jaffe v. Redmond, 1996).

Cullari (2001) surveyed customers about their most significant anticipations as well as needs associated with therapy and a couple of the top ratings had been "a sense of security and safety" and "the opportunity to speak with somebody safely as well as devoid of being nervous about repercussion" (g. 104). Strangely enough, study unveils only mixed support for that presumption that discretion has been necessary for efficient therapy. A few scientific studies sustain that personal privacy guarantees have been mandatory (Miller & Thelan, 1986), whilst various other results display such guarantees have minimum impact on motivating disclosures (Muehleman, Pickens, & Robinson, 1985), and that limitations to discretion impact only a few customers in certain conditions (Taube & Elwork, 1990). Even devoid of undeniable proof, confidentiality has been the cornerstone within the psychological health field (NAADAC, 2011). This is why we see a trend amongst therapists to rely on individual therapy whenever the clients are more inclined about confidentiality being a high priority. Individual therapy sessions, more so then group sessions, give the sense of much needed security and privacy that customers demand. Also, the individual therapy sessions allow the therapists and customers to freely interact and discuss issues that they would normally not be open to discussing in a group. However, this is not to say that confidentiality does not exist in group sessions, as most group therapy sessions, like Alcoholics Anonymous, maintain confidentiality through maintaining anonymity of the members of groups.

Ethics: factual or opinion-based

For more than 2000 years individuals have discussed whether what is appropriate and right along with what is inappropriate and wrong is a case of unbiased meaning truth, or perhaps a case of viewpoint - which is whether, whenever we assess an individual's behaviour as wrong or right, we all have been (Barnes and Murdin, 2001):

• explaining factual facets of their own conduct (just like all of us explain factual facets of an individual whenever we state they've got a specific weight or perhaps height) or • indicating the feelings with regards to the person's conduct or • revealing typical social views about that.

In the event that Jane states to her friend Sue: 'John had been wrong to get intimately engaged with his client Mary', is she

• mentioning some truthful quality associated with 'wrongness' with what John did or perhaps

• stating that the lady disapproves of his conduct; or • mentioning that this kind of behaviour has been traditionally disapproved of? (Barnes and Murdin, 2001)

Should you have been the one who constitutes an ethical judgement, you might view it as mentioning the moral fact or even declaring a truth.

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Hence Jane could see herself as stating that John's conduct really has been inappropriate, not simply indicating her disapproval or even declaring that his conduct flouts tradition. She might support her certainty by determining facets of his conduct which will make this inappropriate: he had intentionally prompted the patient's addiction, purposefully made it possible for their shared attraction to build up, not necessarily ended the professional association when the appeal grew to become apparent, and so forth (Barnes and Murdin, 2001).

However, should you have been the individual taking note of the ethical judgement, you might see the presenter as indicating a viewpoint instead of declaring a well-known fact -- particularly if, just like Sally, you have been unsure whether or not you accept exactly what has been stated (Barnes and Murdin, 2001). Suppose, many years later, when John has been blissfully married to Mary, both Jane as well as Sally, once again, dwell on their own conduct. Right now Sally has been crystal clear in her own perspective. She believes John should have recognized the potential of creating a satisfying relationship with Mary as well as observed that the only method for this to develop had been by preserving their own professional relationship. Because whatever he did has resulted in this type of successful result, she views it as being the appropriate and right decision, despite the fact that she is aware it flouted the traditional perspectives of his occupation. Jane, nevertheless, still views John's conduct as inappropriate due to its very character, regardless of the happy result: to her it has been the moral proven fact that it had been incorrect, not a case of viewpoint. She understands, nevertheless, that Sally simply cannot begin to see the reality of this because Sally considers John's conduct from a totally different viewpoint (Barnes and Murdin, 2001).

Furthermore, this situation brings home the reality for both individual and/or group therapy that in the example aforementioned, similar to Jane, we regard our ethical decisions as mentioning ethical details; we must recognize that others might not be capable of seeing them all. So even when we have been accurate, there have been certainly moral facts, we might be unable to convince other people that there have been. For what we have seen as proof of them, others might not. Individual therapists who, by comparison, respect ethical decisions as indicating either the actual speaker's views, or even the standard perceptions related to the tradition to which the speaker belongs, may believe that to try to show moral facts exhibits a misconception related to the dynamics of morality. These therapists take into account that values just aren't about facts or even truths whatsoever, but about morals as well as principles which individuals happen to support in a specific time in a specific tradition; hence, we see high morality surfacing in individual therapy sessions more so than in group sessions as the individual therapy session structure allows very little room for opinions to penetrate beyond the morals of the situation (Barnes and Murdin, 2001).

However, the fact is that this ethical dilemma or facet especially surfaces during the group therapy sessions when the members listening in on others and their problems tend to form personal judgements about the behaviours and choices made. They tend to discuss these with their friends or family, not as an intentional ethical breach but as merely a declaration of an opinion or observation. The same is true for therapists in group therapy sessions when they tend to show support and express minimal opinions during the sessions but tend to discuss their cases (maintaining as much anonymity as they can) with either other therapists to gain an insight on their conclusions or sharing with a friend. The ethical dilemma does get a little complicated when therapists do express their opinions even if it is to gain insights; the way to avoid ethical misconduct is by maintaining confidentiality and privacy.

Therapists who observe decisions as articulating the speaker's views may consider Jane's conviction that she has been declaring information about John's conduct as merely indicating the potency of her approach towards this: so firmly will she disapprove of whatever he carried out that its wrongness appears to be a case of simple fact to her. People who take into account that decisions express traditional behaviour will regard her conviction that she has been declaring a well-known fact as proof of how….....

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