Warrior Exam

Ethics

Provides standards that help professionals determine appropriate actions towards clients. colleagues, and the community.

Ethics helps educate professionals and the public about sound ethical conduct by providing guidance on appropriate professional behavior and decision-making. It helps protect clients from harm, exploitation, and unethical practices, while still protecting therapists by providing professional standards for them to follow.

Ethics can act as a catalyst that encourages improvement in professional practice, while providing a mechanism for accountability through the use of self-monitoring and serving as a basis for reviewing and resolving ethical complaints or violations. 

Principle ethics

determining if a situation is ethical or not, and consists of a set of obligations and methods designed to address moral issues. The goal is to solve moral dilemmas and establish a framework that can guide ethical thinking and behavior in the future.

Virtue ethics

Focuses on ideal character traits individuals should aspire to have. Rather than concentrating just on solving dilemmas, it emphasizes the importance of the therapist’s character traits and nonobligatory ideals professionals should hope to acheive.

Ethics Integrated:

In ATR 650 Methods and Materials, we learned that art therapists have an obligation to avoid causing harm and to ensure art materials are used safely and therapeutically. Ethical principles help therapists select materials that are appropriate for a client, taking into consideration their developmental level, emotional needs, physical abilities, and cultural background. An ethical art therapist would strive to maintain competence and be informed of the effects of different media, such as how certain materials can evoke intense emotional reactions from clients who have experienced trauma, engage in self-harm behaviors, or have cognitive impairments.

Ethics Personal:

-Could discuss situation with JS discussing aggressive friend that wants to be a murderer.

-Could discuss how Nonnie’s friend goes to art therapy with her husband and I had to be ethical and ensure that I do not observe her.

-Could discuss how I had to be ethical in not observing client that was in my class.

What is the difference between Ethics and law? What does a therapist need to be aware of, and which is more important to uphold? When in an uncertain situation, what should the therapist do?

Ethics are a set of guiding principles that therapists use to solve dilemmas. They can be relatively fluid and may leave room for grey areas. They are typically compiled in a set of codes, like the American Art Therapy Association.

Laws are more firmly established and are enforced by governing bodies. These carry specific penalties and consequences in the instance they are broken.

One may take priority depending on the situation. A therapist may be ethically obligated to maintain confidentiality, but also legally required to break confidentiality if court ordered by a judge (in this case legal obligation takes precedence). The therapist should document this process and make a final decision that prioritizes the client’s best interest and complies with local laws.

Ethics versus Law: Integrative

Ethical guidelines and principles may interact differently with certain laws depending on the type of client the therapist is treating. For example, privileged communications may not apply for group, couples, or family therapy. Due to the variety of clients we are currently seeing in the clinic, having an awareness of these exceptions is important for clinical practice. In our group class last semester, we learned how difficult confidentiality is to uphold in a group setting, due to the increased number of clients and risk of disclosure outside of the group. This makes it even harder to protect client privacy and furthers the need for the therapist to consistently educate clients on these regulations and receive informed consent from each group member.

Why is confidentiality important? Under what circumstances can a therapist break confidentiality?

A counselor’s ethical duty is to protect private client information and ensure it doesn’t get revealed to third parties. It’s important because it’s what creates a foundation of trust between a client and therapist. When clients feel confident that what they share will remain private, they are more likely to discuss sensitive topics, emotions, experiences, and behaviors with full honesty, helping the therapist assist the client and give them the help and services they need to heal. It creates more room for openness, helping the therapist get a better understanding of their client’s concerns and be able to effectively care for their client’s needs.

The exceptions when a therapist can break confidentiality are when a client may harm themselves or others, when there is either suspected or known abuse in a certain situation, or if the therapist is court-ordered to break confidentiality. Other situations may be when a client requests a release of information, when there is a request for reimbursement, when clerical assistants are handling information, when a counselor consults with experts or peers, when a counselor is under direct supervision, when a client consents to third-party individuals accessing their information, and when a treatment team is involved to help a client.

Confidentiality: Integrative

It is recommended to follow a six-step process when breaking confidentiality. Preparation, telling the client the truth, obtaining truly informed consent, responding ethically to legal demands for information, avoiding any preventable breaches, and talking openly about confidentiality. Clients should have a clear understanding of confidentiality so that they understand your boundaries as a therapist and when you may be legally required to break their confidentiality for either their safety, someone else’s safety, or due to the law. This is especially true with minors who may be more susceptible to harm and also may understand mandated reporting less. They should understand the parameters of when you need to report.

Confidentiality: Personal

With ZP, when we had to explain confidentiality to her after we talked to her parents. We felt that after we talked to her parents, she was closed off and thinking she could not share anything with us without us just telling them everything. This was our fault for not ensuring we had this conversation prior, so she was right to think we were just telling her parents whatever we wanted. In the future, we ensured we checked with her about talking to her parents to give her that autonomy and make her feel more open and comfortable. We reminded her we only had to break confidentiality if we were concerned for safety.

What is informed consent?

Informed consent is the process of providing clients with clear information about the therapeutic process so that they are able to make knowledgeable and voluntary decisions about whether to participate or not. Informed consent helps ensure that client understand their rights and the nature of treatment, and any important policies before therapy begins.

Four examples of information that might be included in informed consent

-The purpose and goals of therapy

-Confidentiality

-Fees, payment policies, and cancellation policies

-Clients’ rights, including the right to ask questions or discontinue treatment.

Informed Consent: Integrative

In group therapy, we learned how important informed consent was, especially considering the extra factors when working with groups, like confidentiality. Group members need to be aware through informed consent forms that the therapist will work to protect their confidentiality, but that they can’t guarantee other group members will do the same.

Also in our research class, we learned about informed consent with research, specifically minors, who need to sign consent and assent forms.

Informed Consent: Personal

When working in the clinic, I had to make sure my new client had an informed consent form signed to be able to use them in an assignment for class. This is especially important in scenarios like the student clinic where all clients can be observed, are supervised, and will be discussed in the student’s classes.