POINT
Attending Client Events JAMES L. JACKSON, JR., PHD, NCC, LPC-S, RPT-S
Client invitations present some of the most common ethical dilemmas counselors face (Pope & Keith-Speigel, 2008), requiring consideration example, the American Counseling Association (ACA; 2014) addresses extending counseling boundaries:
counseling relationships beyond conventional parameters… In extending these boundaries, counselors take appropriate professional precautions such as informed consent, consultation, supervision, and documentation to ensure that judgment is not
and graduations as events that counselors might consider attending; such examples underscore
circumstances in which accepting
client invitations might be the indicated course of action. From this perspective, adopting a rigid stance that avoids any consideration of invitations to attend client events might be considered unethical (Hermansson, 1997).
Although the literature is replete with examples of risks associated in favor of attending client events include the nature of client-counselor timing of events in relation to the therapy process.
Client-counselor boundaries: The increased incidental contact between clients and providers inherent in certain settings may promote boundaries characterized by increased complexity and intensity with
THE MIDDLE GROUND
corresponding anticipations that counselors attend client activities. For example, Lord Nelson, Summers, and Turnbull (2004) noted that families of students receiving special education services valued the participation of the professionals serving their children at events outside the school setting. Similarly, school counselors, counselors who provide in-home services, and residential counselors have more frequent opportunities to interact with clients and client families and demonstrate support of
clients and client family systems may also warrant the counselors’ attendance at client events. For example, in small-town environments, counselors who refuse to attend client events risk being perceived as aloof (Nickel, 2004). Additionally, attending events that are connected recognizing clients for their achievements and may serve to further intensify clients’ sense of accomplishment.
Event Timing: Finally, the timing of events in the context of therapeutic at celebratory rituals at or near the end of therapy help punctuate the successful termination of therapeutic relationships and further highlight the progress clients have made in therapy. For example, the with whom I had been providing services fell close to a
The family asked that I participate in the celebration to share end of the therapeutic relationship. I was deeply honored to be present
Weighing Ethical Standards to Accept or Decline a Client’s Invitation AMY M. WILLIAMS LONG, PHD, LPC, RPT-S
your e-mail. After a moment of confusion about receiving it in your business email, you realize it is for a client’s personal event…cue anxiety.
Receiving an invitation to a client’s personal event represents a professional dilemma for many play therapists. Before responding, play therapists need to consider their professional ethical standards. A critical examination of these standards shows that the answer to accepting or not is, “It depends.”
Above all, practitioners must adhere to the moral principles of
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harm; ACA, 2014; APA, 2017). Therefore, play therapists must determine harm to the client. If they determine their attendance has a therapeutic “Yes.” Conversely, failure to attend an event might impair the therapeutic relationship. For example, attending a child client’s long-awaited adoption court hearing (but not the subsequent family gathering) may show support for the family without crossing professional boundaries.
Play therapists from all theoretical orientations agree that the therapeutic Ethical guidelines stipulate that play therapists must avoid any situation that could impair their objectivity or impede the therapeutic relationship
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