PSYCH 660 DUAL Relationships AND Boundaries Lecture Notes PDF

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PSYCH 660 DUAL RELATIONSHIPS AND BOUNDARIES LECTURE NOTES In the field of psychology, professionals will always have some challenges that they will need to learn to navigate. Fortunately, the APA Ethics Code is in place to help psychologist navigate all of those challenges that they might face. One of those issues is setting boundaries when it comes to dealing with familiar people that sometimes would want to take advantage of their profession called dual or multiple relationships. When a psychologist is dealing with a situation that has to do with dual affiliations, it is necessary to set some limits to protect both the professional and personal aspects of one’s life. It can sometimes be challenging for people to set boundaries to separate their work from their own experience, this is also true for psychologists. In the field of psychology, professionals are driving to help people, which begs the questions, how can we turn people that we know away? Do we have to? What steps should we follow? In order to answer those questions, in this presentation we will be identifying ethical and unethical actions to be taken, when dealing with dual relationships, we will define what dual relationships are, we will present a scenario to explain dual relationships better, and we will tell how boundaries can set and the difficulties that come with that. In this dual relationship, it is a hard decision to make when you have a friend that is going through a rough time with their teenage daughter. As a friend and a psychologist who specializes in adolescents, you want to help but have boundaries that must follow. In this situation, it is terrible to mixed business with family or friends, because it can affect the relationship between the two, and that it can cause more problems with the teenager. The ethical thing to do in this situation is to refer them to another psychologist that can help them. That way it would not make things wrong in a case between personal and business. An unethical action would be to talk to the friend daughter and try finding out what the problem is with the teen. Also, even taking further steps to help them, that they would not do for no other client. Breaking the code of conduct, because they are not supposed to evaluate friends or family because it causes a conflict of interest turning into the psychologist losing their license if any of this was ever to get reported. Therefore, it is just better to give little advice and refer them to someone that may help them with the situation. That way it can avoid a conflict of interest, and not affect their relationship. Dual relationships also called multiple connections to occur when numerous roles exist between a therapist, or other mental health practitioners, and a client. Examples of dual relationships are when the client is also a student, friend, family member, employee or business associate of the therapist (Zur, O. 2013). Standard 3.05 of the APA ethics codes outlines the definition of multiple relationships as follow: (1) a professional and personal relationship that takes place simultaneously between psychologist and client. (2) The psychologist has a relationship with a closely related or connected person to the client, and (3) the psychologist has intentions to enter into a future relationship with the client or someone closely related to the client (APA, 2013). A psychologist should avoid coming into multiple connections if the multiple relationships could reasonably be expected to impair the psychologist’s objectivity, competence, or effectiveness in performing his or her functions as a psychologist, or otherwise risks exploitation or harm to the person with whom the professional relationship exists. Multiple links that would not reasonably be expected to cause impairment or risk exploitation or damage are not unethical Fisher, 2013). It is good that the APA developed guidelines for professionals to follow when trying to discern whether to pursue dual relationships on any level. With the scenario that presented to was a close friend of a mental health professional wants help for her teenage daughter who seems to be having problems can cause a dual relationship also known as multiple relationships. The friend is asking that you see the adolescent daughter because your specialty is with adolescents. This would not end up being a perfect situation as the psychologist would need to refrain from entering a dual relationship as it could end up impairing his judgment because that they are close friends. If the psychologist were to enter into this agreement and see the daughter as a client, it could end up becoming something more severe as the psychologist is close with the family. The psychologist would more than likely have a hard time remaining bias when trying to help the teenager and may feel that there

could be some responsibility to the close friend who is seeking help for her teenage daughter. There would be a conflict as they already have a relationship outside of this and it would be considered a preexisting relationship before seeing the teenage daughter. Since the psychologist knows the family and is close to them, it could cloud the judgment and clarity when trying to counsel the daughter. Dual relationships occur when there is more than one relationship taking place. For instance, a psychologist may serve as a client’s psychologist and his or her professor. This type of dual relationship has a limited ethical implication. However, there are some dual relationships may present ethical issues. For example, dual relationships may cause problems ethical if the connection is impaired. The moral situation is said to arise if there is role impairment, exploitation or harm (Fisher, 2013). Furthermore, misinterpretation of a relationship can cause ethical issues. For example, a psychologist is seeing a friend’s child for therapeutic reasons, and the client’s parent and or client misinterprets her feelings and emotions. This can lead to an unethical dilemma because the client has misread the psychologist role and has made false accusations because of the misinterpretation of the relationship. In the scenario, there were no boundaries set leading up to the ethical issues. Limits are essential because boundaries establish, diminish and eliminate any moral implications. “Unethical multiple relationships often emerge after psychologists have engaged in a pattern that “progresses from apparently benign and perhaps well-intended boundary crossings to increasingly intrusive and harmful boundary violations and multiple relationships” (Fisher, 2013). There are two significant challenges presented by boundary issues in professional psychology, and both challenges have to do with being unaware that ethical boundaries violated. One of the sufficient problems is that people who are receiving professional psychological assistance are more likely to be unaware that ethical boundaries crossed in a situation that involves multiple relationships, “Clients/patients, students, research participants, and supervise have less experience, knowledge, and power compared with psychologists providing assessment, treatment, teaching, mentoring, or supervision. Consequently, they are unlikely to recognize inappropriate boundary crossings or to express their concerns” (Fisher, 2013, pg.106). It is possible that a professional psychologist knowingly has multiple relationships with an individual that is in violation ethical boundaries, and the clients/patients, students, research participants, would remain unaware that ethical boundaries have violated because they would be less experienced in being able to detect boundary issues. An individual who is unaware of ethical issues who is involved in multiple relationships with a professional psychologist would lack the necessary knowledge needed to be aware of boundary violations and would be less likely to report an ethical issue. Another major challenge is that a professional psychologist could be unaware that they have violated ethical boundaries. However once a professional psychologist realizes that they are boundary issues they must take the necessary steps to resolve the situation, “If a psychologist finds that, due to unforeseen factors, a potentially harmful multiple has arisen, the psychologist takes reasonable steps to resolve it with the best interests of the affected person and maximal compliance with the Ethics Code” (Fisher, 2013, pg.113). It is possible that a professional psychologist becomes involved in certain multiple relationships that are innocent, but unforeseen events result in the relationship violating ethical boundaries. In this situation, a licensed psychologist should always reexamine any various relations in which they are involved, and that includes numerous unavoidable connections. A dual or multiple relationships occur when a psychologist is in a professional and personal role with a person at the same time such as a psychologist and relative(Fisher, 2013). We dealt with the situation of a close friend of a psychologist was having difficulty with her teenage daughter and asked the adolescent specialist to talk to the daughter to hopefully straighten her out and get her on the right path. The unethical actions taken identified. The concept of a dual relationship was defined - an analysis of the present dual relationship between friends. As a psychologist, a discussion and explanation of the issues and challenges were current to create and set boundaries for a double or multiple contacts in the discipline

of psychology. It is the psychologist responsibility to keep the relationship professional in order not to exploit or harm the daughter.

APA (2013). American Psychological Association. “Ethical principles of psychologist and code conduct.”

of

Fisher, C. B. (2013). Decoding the ethics code: A practical guide for psychologists. Thousand CA: Sage.

Oaks,

Zur, O. (2013). "Dual relationships, multiple relationships, and boundaries in psychotherapy and mental health." https://www.zurinstitute.com/dualrelationships.html...