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Family Counseling

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-What are your responsibilities regarding informed consent and confidentiality when working with a family? Cite specific ethical standards and state laws that are relevant here.
-What would be important to discuss with this family about the counseling process during the first session?
-How would you know whether this information had been understood clearly by each family member?

Case:
Imagine that you are a counselor who will be meeting with a wife, husband, and their children (ages 17, 13 and 9) for an initial counseling session. This is the first time anyone in this family has been in counseling, and during your initial phone call with the wife it was apparent that neither she nor her husband fully understood what the counseling process was really about.

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This solution discusses family counseling in relation to issues of informed consent and confidentiality. A case study is presenting addressing issues in family counseling.

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Confidentiality and informed consent in family counseling

? What are your responsibilities regarding informed consent and confidentiality when working with a family? Cite specific ethical standards and states laws that are relevant.

The therapist has the responsibility in promoting the welfare of each family member. Hare-Mustin, Marecek, Kaplan, Liss-Levinson, Handelsman, Galvin et al (1979) note that the APA(1990) contained no specific set of ethical principles related directly to confidentiality in counseling within multiple relationships. However, they cite Standard 4.02 of the 1992 as addressing the question of confidentiality in family counseling by requiring that psychologists obtain appropriate informed consent (p. 194). According to Hare-Mustin et al, Standard 4.02 also obliged psychologists to inform potential participants of the manner of therapy. However, in their opinion, the issue of confidentiality is still debatable. For instance, relative to this case study, children are involved. As Hare-Mustin et al point out, questions arise that involve children such as: should they have the right to consent to therapy, or do they have rights to privacy? They assert that therapy with children brings up special considerations, and therapists find it difficult to support parental goals that deny the rights of the child client. Koocher (1976) argues that a client who does not have the capacity to ...

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