Responsibilities of Couples and Family

Therapists

1. Couple and family therapists arguably face more ethical challenges than individually
oriented therapists.
2. When managing with multiple clients at a time the dilemma is that at some instances
an intervention that serves one person’s best interests could burden another family
member or even be countertherapeutic.
3. For instance, a mother's request for her child to be better behaved might ease the
mother's tension, and perhaps even provide secondary benefits for the marriage, but
not be advantageous to the overall development of the child.
4. The very reason that couples or families tend to seek therapy is because they have
conflicting goals and interests.
5. In a couple therapy, a wife's goal may be to overcome her fears of terminating the
relationship whereas the husband's goal may be to maintain the status quo in the
relationship.
6. Even if family members' overall goals are not in direct conflict, there may be
disagreement over how to obtain those goals.
7. Though both spouses desire improved communication, one may advocate complete
openness and honesty while the other advocates tempered disclosure.
8. Therapists avoid becoming agents for any one family member, believing that all family
members contribute to the problems of the whole family.
9. Ethical practice demands that therapists be clear about their commitments to each
member of the family, and the California Association of Marriage and Family
Therapists (CAMFT) (2011a) Code of Ethics confirms this stance:

When treating a family unit(s), marriage and family therapists carefully consider the potential
conflict that may arise between the family unit(s) and each individual. Marriage and family
therapists clarify, at the commencement of treatment, which person or persons are clients and
the nature of the relationship(s) the therapist will have with each person involved in the
treatment. (1.9.)

And the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) (2015):

Marriage and family therapists advance the welfare of families and individuals and make
reasonable efforts to find the appropriate balance between conflicting goals within the family
system.
Therapist Responsibilities in Counseling
Couples

1. Therapist responsibilities are crucial issue in counseling with couples especially when
the partners do not have a common purpose for seeking counseling.
2. How do therapists carry out their ethical responsibilities when one partner comes for
divorce counseling and the other wants to work on saving the marriage?
3. Their responsibility may be more challenging when they are not to favor either client (except
domestic abuse or substance abuse).
4. And also they are not suppose to settle arguments but to help couples resolve their own
differences.
5. The key is counselors to not just focus on the individual, but on the couple as a system. In
marriage counseling, the problem is almost always a “we” problem in which both individuals
contribute something.
International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors Code of Ethics (IAMFC)
A division of the American Counseling Association

Section A: The Counseling Relationship and Client Welfare

Couple and family counselors advocate for the family as a whole system while
considering the uniqueness of each family member. Couple and family counselors use
systems perspectives and theories as they practice counseling.

Couple and family counselors promote client autonomy and facilitate problem solving
skills to prevent future problems. They do not make decisions for families or family
members when the decision-making rightfully belongs to the family and/or family
members. When it is beneficial, couple and family counselors share clinical impressions
and recommendations for the purpose of better informing families.
● Sometimes couples therapists struggle over the issue of when to consult where a
person (or couple) is already involved in a professional relationship with a therapist
and seeks the counsel of another therapist.
● What would you do if a husband sought you out for private counseling while he and
his wife were also seeing another therapist for marriage counseling?
● What would you do or say if the husband told you that the reason for initiating contact
with you was to get another opinion and perspective on his marital situation and that
he did not see any point in contacting the other professional?
ACA CODE 2014 & IAMFC Code of Ethics
A.3. Clients Served by Others
When counselors learn that their clients are in a professional relationship with other mental
health professionals, they request release from clients to inform the other professionals
and strive to establish positive and collaborative professional relationships.

Section D: Collaboration and Professional Relationships

Couple and family counselors maintain professional relationships with other mental health
professionals within and outside the field of counseling. Since interdisciplinary
relationships may be required to best serve clients, couple and family counselors actively
promote these relationships while maintaining their own ethical boundaries. Further,
couple and family counselors are knowledgeable of the roles and functions of other mental
health disciplines, such as psychiatry, psychology and social work, as well as other
specialties of professional counseling. As they work with others, couple and family
counselors promote and maintain healthy boundaries and organizational climate. Thus,
couple and family counselors avoid splitting, triangulation, gossip and other indirect forms
of communication that are harmful to colleagues or organizations
Therapist Responsibilities in Intimate
Partner Violence
Intimate partner violence is highly prevalent issue that affects people from all ethnic and
socioeconomic backgrounds.

Most victims of domestic violence who seeks help from therapist are women. However men
may also be victims.

Under current law, mental health providers generally are not required to report intimate
partner violence.

It is assumed that clients would not be talk about their abuse, either as victims or
perpetrators, if they knew the situation would be reported.

However they do come to therapy with symptoms such as depression, anxiety, insomnia,
flashbacks, anger, guilt or exhaustion.
Counselors working with clients experiencing intimate partner violence need to make difficult
decisions regarding how to intervene in such cases if reporting is not done.

The therapist’s goal is to protect victims from any further harm, including protecting any
children the couple may have at home because children can be psychologically damaged
when subjected to domestic violence in the home, the counselor may report a situation of
child abuse if children are known to have witnessed domestic violence.

The American Counseling Association (ACA) and the American Mental Health Counselors
Association (AMHCA) state that counselors have an obligation to promote the welfare of
clients (ACA, 2005, Standard A.I; AMHCA, 2000, Principle I.A.I.
● It is important that counselors thoroughly understand both their role and responsibility
in promoting safety and how to assess and facilitate client safety.
● When dealing such subject counselor need to examine the complex issues pertaining
to intimate partner violence by answering few questions:

○ What are some potential clinical benefits of not having to report the existence of domestic
violence in a relationship?

○ What drawbacks or risks exist to the counselor, the perpetrator, and the victims by not
reporting intimate partner violence?

○ Because counselors are not mandated reporters, are they part of the problem?
1. In legal obligations counselors may require to put the welfare of an individual over that
of a relationship.
2. It is unethical to conduct couples therapy while there is ongoing domestic violence
which puts the abused in a dangerous position.
3. Underestimating domestic violence can have disastrous consequences for both the
family and the therapist.
Core competencies for therapists working in
domestic violence

1. Ability to respectfully explore the client’s personal experience,

2. Assessment of risk, including understanding the evidence-based factors that indicate
dangerousness,
3. Knowledge about the impact on victims and of trauma-informed work practices to achieve
recovery, and
4. Understanding of the system in which victims find themselves, such as police and court
processes.
http://www.al-edu.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Carr-Family-Therapy-Concepts-
Process-and-Practice.pdf

https://www.texcpe.com/html/pdf/fl/FLETH.pdf

https://www.pocatello.us/DocumentCenter/View/640/Couples-Counseling-PDF

http://www.continuingedcourses.net/active/courses/course085.php

http://extensionpublications.unl.edu/assets/pdf/g2144.pdf

https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/she-wanted-out-i-didn-t-couples-who-go-
to-counselling-1.3229240

https://www.corwin.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/2984_10TFJ01.pdf

http://file.zums.ac.ir/ebook/082-Couple%20Counselling%20-%20A%20Practical%20Guide-
Martin%20Payne-1848600496-Sage%20Publications%20Ltd-2010-200.pdf

https://ce4less.com/Tests/Materials/E108Materials.pdf
Confidentiality in Couples and Family
Therapy
1. Therapist in couple and family therapy have unique confidentiality responsibilities
because the “client" in a therapeutic relationship may be more than one person.
2. The overriding principle is that couple and family therapists respect the confidences of
their client(s).
3. But the challenges to confidentiality is more critical, as practitioners work with multiple
people in one room Kleist and Bitter (2014).
4. Goldenberg and Goldenberg (2013) emphasize that ethical family therapy involves
therapists making their position clear on all aspects of confidentiality from the outset
of therapy.
5. “Confidentiality in Counseling Couples and Families” provides some guidelines for
best practices.
1. Another view is that therapists should not divulge in a family session any information
given to them by individuals in private sessions.
Differing Perspectives on
Confidentiality With Multiple Clients

1. Therapists have differing perspectives on the role of confidentiality when working

with couples or families.
2. One view is that therapists should not divulge in a family session any information
given to them by individuals in private sessions. In the case of couples counseling,
some practitioners are willing to see each spouse for
● individual sessions. Information given to them by one spouse is kept confidential.
1. Some therapists who work with couples or entire families have a policy of refusing to
keep information secret that was shared individually.
2. The client needs to know that this policy is designed to prevent a conflict from arising
between an individual participant and the unit being treated.
3. Other therapists tell family members that they will exercise their own judgment about
what to disclose from an individual session in a couples or family session.
Informed Consent in Couples and Family
Therapy

1. Part of the informed consent process involves couples and family therapists clarifying
their position regarding confidentiality from the outset.
2. When therapists take the time to obtain informed consent from everyone, they convey
the message that no one member is identified as the source of all family's problems.
3. Clients have a right to know that the family system will be the focus of the therapeutic
process and the practical implications of this approach.
4. This structured informed consent procedure increases the chances of instilling a sense
of trust that is foundational for future therapy sessions
5. An informed consent document is essential for family therapy to begin.
6. There is no professional agreement on whether it is necessary to see all the family for
change to take place, but we believe it is particularly important when it comes to therapy
with children.