Boundary Issues in Counseling

Multiple Roles and Responsibilities

Barbara Herlihy, Gerald Corey

• Publisher: American Counseling Association
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781556203220
• eBook ISBN: 9781119026235
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

Fully revised in accordance with the 2014 ACA Code of Ethics and the current ethical codes of other mental health organizations, Boundary Issues in Counseling reflects the helping profession's most up-to-date thinking on this topic and offers a wide range of opinions and perspectives. Ethics experts Barbara Herlihy and Gerald Corey, along with 40 guest contributors, share their thoughts on the ethical issues surrounding sexual dual relationships; multiculturalism and social justice; counselor education, supervision, and consultation; group counseling; couples and family counseling; and school counseling. In addition, coverage extends to specialty areas, such as disaster mental health, private practice, addictions and rehabilitation counseling, rural practice, counseling in the military and forensic counseling.

This highly regarded book is essential reading for counselors struggling to find a clear personal position on the myriad issues that can arise with multiple relationships. It is also an ideal supplemental text for courses in ethics and professional issues, as well as for practicum and internship seminars to train the next generation of counselors.

*Requests for digital versions from ACA can be found on wiley.com. *To request print copies, please visit the ACA website.

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Chapter 1
Boundary Issues in Perspective

Dual or multiple relationships occur when a professional assumes two or more roles simultaneously or sequentially with a person seeking his or her help. This may involve taking on more than one professional role (such as counselor and teacher) or combining professional and nonprofessional roles (such as counselor and friend or counselor and lover). Another way of stating this is that a helping professional enters into a dual or multiple relationship whenever the professional has another, significantly different relationship with a client, a student, or a supervisee.

Multiple relationship issues exist throughout our profession and affect virtually all counselors, regardless of their work setting or the client populations they serve. Relationship boundary issues have an impact on the work of helping professionals in diverse roles, including counselor educator, supervisor, agency counselor, private practitioner, school counselor, college or university student personnel specialist, rehabilitation counselor, and practitioner in other specialty areas. These issues affect the dyadic relationship between counselor and client, and they can also emerge in complex ways in tripartite relationships (such as client/supervisee/supervisor or client/consultee/consultant) and in family therapy and group work. No professional remains untouched by the potential difficulties inherent in dual or multiple relationships.

This book is a revision of our earlier editions, Dual Relationships in Counseling (Herlihy & Corey, 1992) and Boundary Issues in Counseling: Multiple Roles and Responsibilities (Herlihy & Corey, 1997, 2006b), but with an expanded focus. Since we last wrote together about this topic, helping professionals have continued to debate issues of multiple relationships, roles, and responsibilities; power; and boundaries in counseling.

Because of the complexities involved, the term multiple relationship is often more descriptive than dual relationship. Dual or multiple relationships occur when mental health practitioners interact with clients in more than one relationship, whether professional, social, or business. In the most recent versions of the ACA Code of Ethics (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2005, 2014), both of these terms have been replaced with the term nonprofessional interactions to indicate those additional relationships other than sexual or romantic ones. In this book, we continue to use the terms dual or multiple relationships to describe these nonprofessional relationships as well as dual professional relationships.

This revised edition is based on the assumption that counseling professionals must learn how to manage multiple roles and responsibilities (or nonprofessional interactions or relationships) effectively rather than learn how to avoid them. This entails managing the power differential inherent in counseling or training relationships, balancing boundary issues, addressing nonprofessional relationships, and striving to avoid using power in ways that might cause harm to clients, students, or supervisees. This book rests on the premise that we can develop ethical decision-making skills that will enable us to weigh the pros and cons of multiple roles and nonprofessional interactions or relationships.

Beginning in the 1980s, the counseling profession became increasingly concerned with the ethical issues inherent in entering into multiple relationships and establishing appropriate boundaries. Much has been written since then about the harm that results when counseling professionals enter into sexual relationships with their clients. Throughout the 1980s, sexual misconduct received a great deal of attention in the professional literature, and the dangers of sexual relationships between counselor and client, professor and student, and supervisor and supervisee have been well documented. Today there is clear and unanimous agreement that sexual relationships with clients, students, and supervisees are unethical, and prohibitions against them have been translated into ethics codes and law. Even those who have argued most forcefully against dual relationship prohibitions (e.g., Lazarus & Zur, 2002; Zur, 2007) agree that sexual dual relationships are never acceptable. We examine the issue of sexual dual relationships in detail in Chapter 2.

In the 1990s and until the turn of the century, nonsexual dual and multiple relationships received considerable attention in professional journals and counseling textbooks. The codes of ethics of the ACA 2014), the American School Counselor Association (ASCA; 2010), the American Psychological Association (APA; 2010), the National Association of Social Workers (NASW; 2008), and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT; 2012) have all dealt specifically and extensively with topics such as appropriate boundaries, recognizing potential conflicts of interest, and ethical means for dealing with dual or multiple relationships. Since this book was last revised in 2006, new articles on these topics have slowed to a trickle in the professional literature. There has been an increasing recognition and acceptance that dual or multiple relationships are often complex, which means that few simple and absolute answers can neatly resolve ethical dilemmas that arise. It is not always possible for counselors to play a singular role in their work, nor is this always desirable. From time to time we all will wrestle with how to balance multiple roles in our professional and nonprofessional relationships. Examples of problematic concerns associated with dual relationships include whether to barter with a client for goods or services, whether it is ever acceptable to counsel a friend of a friend or social acquaintance, whether to interact with clients outside the office, how a counselor educator might manage dual roles as educator and therapeutic agent with students, how to ethically conduct experiential groups as part of a group counseling course, and whether it is acceptable to develop social relationships with a former client.

In this chapter, we focus on nonsexual dual relationships that can arise in all settings. One of our guest contributors, Arnold Lazarus, makes a case for the potential benefits of transcending boundaries. He takes the position that benefits can accrue when therapists are willing to think and venture outside the proverbial box. The following questions will guide our discussion:

• What guidance do our codes of ethics offer about dual or multiple nonprofessional relationships?
• What makes dual or multiple relationships problematic?
• What factors create the potential for harm?
• What are the risks (and benefits) inherent in dual or multiple relationships, for all parties involved?
• What important but subtle distinctions should be considered?
• What safeguards can be built in to minimize risks?

Ethical Standards

The codes of ethics of all the major associations of mental health professionals address the issue of multiple relationships. To begin our discussion, consider these excerpts from the codes of ethics for mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, social workers, school counselors, and psychologists.

The ACA Code of Ethics (ACA, 2014) provides several guidelines regarding nonprofessional interactions. Counselors are advised that:

Sexual and/or Romantic Relationships Prohibited

Sexual and/or romantic counselor–client interactions or relationships with current clients, their romantic partners, or their family members are prohibited. This prohibition applies to both in-person and electronic interactions or relationships. (Standard A.5.a.)

Previous Relationships

Counselors consider the risks and benefits of accepting as clients those with whom they have had a previous relationship. These potential clients may include individuals with whom the counselor has had a casual, distant, or past relationship. Examples include mutual or past membership in a professional association, organization, or community. When counselors accept these clients, they take appropriate professional precautions such as informed consent, consultation, supervision, and documentation to ensure that judgment is not impaired and no exploitation occurs. (Standard A.6.a.)

Extending Counseling Boundaries

Counselors consider the risks and benefits of extending current counseling relationships beyond conventional parameters. Examples include attending a client’s formal ceremony (e.g., a wedding/commitment ceremony or graduation), purchasing a service or product provided by a client (excepting unrestricted bartering), and visiting a client’s ill family member in the hospital. In extending these boundaries, counselors take appropriate professional precautions such as informed consent, consultation, supervision, and documentation to ensure that judgment is not impaired and no harm occurs. (Standard A.6.b.)

Documenting Boundary Extensions

If co...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Preface
• About the Authors
• Guest Contributors
• Chapter 1: Boundary Issues in Perspective
• Chapter 2: Sexual Dual Relationships
• Chapter 3: The Client’s Perspective
• Chapter 4: Multicultural and Social Justice Perspectives on Boundaries
• Chapter 5: Issues in Counselor Education
• Chapter 6: Issues in Supervision and Consultation
• Chapter 7: Education and Training of Group Counselors
• Chapter 8: Group Counseling and Couples and Family Counseling
• Chapter 9: Boundary Issues in School Counseling
• Chapter 10: Focus on Specialty Areas: Disaster Mental Health, Private Practice, Addictions Counseling, and Rehabilitation Counseling
• Chapter 11: Focus on Specialty Areas: Rural Practice, Counseling in the Military, Counseling Clients With End-of-Life Concerns, In-Home Service Provision, Forensic Psychology and Counseling
• Chapter 12: Key Themes, Questions, and Decision Making
• References
• Index
• Technical Support
• End User License Agreement