Summative Assessment Ethical Decision-Making Paper

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University of Phoenix *

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Psychology

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Jun 26, 2024

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pdf

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Summative Assessment: Ethical Decision-Making Paper Rose A. Primus Department of Psychology, University of Phoenix MFCC/553CA Professor Michael Henderson, LMFT 4 March, 2024
Summative Assessment: Ethical Decision-Making Paper Scenario: I am seeing Marco, Alissa, and Trevor, the three have come to you in hopes to gain help in navigating their polyamorous relationship. Within the relationship they are all committed to each other, however the lack of understanding and support from their friends and families, jealousy, issues with communicating are bringing up complex issues that are starting to hinder the functionality of the relationship. The couple is coming to me seeking guidance on how to form a closer connection between the three of them. Trevor feels that Marco and Alissa have a closer relationship which makes him feel as if he is not as much of a part of the relationship. Alissa is worried she is being split between Marco and Trevor. I grew up in a household where monogamy was highlighted, this has brought up a conflict within myself. I have decided that I would need to speak to my supervisor on how to proceed with handling this situation. Being a counselor, I am aware that it is my responsibility and role to provide a safe space for my clients to be able to navigate through their thoughts and emotions, while offering guidance. The role of a counselor is to not impose one's own beliefs on their clients. Being that I was raised within an environment where monogamous relationships were in favor, it puts me in a conflicting position. When doing a self-evaluation for risk management, I would want to identify whether I would be able to continue seeing them as clients. “For example, Knapp (1975) found that 33% of her sample of counselors believed that people who pursued a polyamorous lifestyle had personality disorders and neurotic tendencies, and 20% suggested that such people might have antisocial personalities” (Herbert). With such a high percentage of counselors who have conflicting beliefs about polyamory, I would feel the need to truly set a clear understanding for myself of my abilities in taking on this therapeutic relationship.
Through the ethical decision-making model we would see the limitations that would be set on the progression of the therapeutic relationship in assisting the couple through their polyamorous relationship. The lack of knowledge would be a major element that would put the clients in a position that might. One primary factor is that I would be practicing outside of my scope of practice, as therapists one of the responsibilities is to ensure that one is always practicing within their scope of knowledge as to not negatively impact the client. When entering a therapeutic relationship it becomes the counselor’s role to ensure the wellbeing of the client over all else. While looking into the risk management required to ensure that the clients will not suffer based on the decisions being made. Within this case following the deep dive into the potential biases that could arise I believe that the best and only option that would benefit both client and counselor would be for me to redirect the clients to a colleague whom I would find to be a good fit for their needs. As I have and am aware of the difference in stances regarding polyamorous relationships, I would not want to unintentionally place my views into the therapeutic relationship. I would ensure to navigate through the process with my clients to clearly address the circumstances. To bring this paper to a conclusion, it had brought a lot of attention to the necessity of being able to evaluate and process through risk management when taking into consideration the long term effects of a decision made between counselor and client. Though it could be perceived that the transition out of the therapeutic relationship would be linear. The counselor is required to protect the client from any negative impact.
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