Question

You have a client who is of a different culture and faith than your own. You are not comfortable dealing with them due to past negative feelings from childhood. What are your ethical and legal obligations? Why are these legal and ethical obligations in place?

Answer 1

Ethical Standards 2.01 and 10.10(a) from the Ethics Code (American Psychiatric Association) are helpful in addressing this situation.

• 2.01 Boundaries of Competence: (a) Psychologists provide services, teach, and conduct research with populations and in areas only within the boundaries of their competence, based on their education, training, supervised experience, consultation, study, or professional experience.
• 10.10 Terminating Therapy: (a) Psychologists terminate therapy when it becomes reasonably clear that the client/patient no longer needs the service, is not likely to benefit, or is being harmed by continued service.

Under these considerations, it is best to terminate the therapy and refer the client to an appropriate counselor. These obligations are set into place primarily because if a counselor does not have the competence to treat a specific type of client or that can not provide a clinically appropriate level of treatment, continuing treatment risks exposing the client to greater harm than discontinuing treatment.