Marriage and Family Therapy

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In my personal opinion, I believe that therapists initially join the practice to help individuals with issues that they themselves experienced, either directly or indirectly. As therapists, or any human being that has compassion and a genuine drive to help others, being emotionally tied to the work may not be easily avoided. Talking with professionals in the field, both psychologists and professors, in more instances than not the counselor themselves have directly been affected by the issues that they have had or currently face professionally through the lives of their clients. I bring up the ethical issue of dual relationships because within the context of my personal life, I feel as if the relationships that I have created over recent years can potentially conflict with the relationships I hope to maintain with future clients. How can a therapist maintain a healthy relationship with their client while also being intimately and romantically involved with someone going through the issues their client is facing as well without being biased? A dual-relationship ethical issue, the therapist may engage in other individuals or people that are not in the interest of their client, and even though these people may have no association to the client, the ethics and behaviors the therapist engages in personally, can directly affect their client as well. Whether the negative consequences would be biased diagnosis, an inefficient therapeutic process, ignoring the client’s ambivalence to change, or the treatment plan altogether, can be greatly affected if the therapists’ perception is skewed because of his or her own attachment to the issue itself. In other words, it becomes an ethical issue then, when a therapist is not far from their client in regards to ethical competency, emotional stability, or destructive behavioral patterns and relationships, creating both negative consequences of counter transference as well as creating conflicting roles, blurring the lines between association and facilitation, smudging the boundary between therapist and client.

In conclusion, although it can be beneficial in numerous and unique ways for a therapist to have gone through similar situations of not the same situation as their client, if the therapist is living a life that is not in line with the ethical standards of being unbiased and objective in the process and relationship for their clients, then is the client-therapist relationship non-ethical, and should withdrawal and referral be the ethical option for the therapist, in order to protect the privilege of their client? Should a therapist’s life always be in line with the ethical standards for the preservation of their work and their clients? Is this an ongoing life-long process, an ensuring process of checks-and-balances of ethics and competence? According to ethical standards, in order to establish and maintain appropriate boundaries in the client-therapist relationship and to ensure the best clinical and therapeutic care for their client, it is an obligation for the therapist to seek constant consultation and therapy so that the therapist is proactive in avoiding these ethical issues that can deem detrimental to the progression of the client.

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