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Chapter 4
Client Rights and Counselor Responsibilities
FOCUS QUESTIONS
1. What are some steps that counselors should take to safeguard the welfare of their
clients?
Points instructors may want to make:
2. Do you believe a counselor should be allowed to refuse to provide counseling
services to some groups of people who request them? If so, which groups and
under what circumstances?
Points instructors may want to make:
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Recent court cases have indicated that counselors may be terminated from their jobs
if they refuse to provide counseling to clients based on the clients’ sexual orientation.
• Two other court cases have indicated that counselors-in-training may be dismissed
from their training programs if they are unwilling to learn how to affirmatively
counsel LGBTQIQ clients.
3. What kinds of information do you think clients need, in order to be able to give
their fully informed consent to enter into a counseling relationship? When does the
information given become too much information so that it inhibits clients from
entering into counseling relationships?
Points instructors may want to make:
4. Under what circumstances do you think it would be acceptable to terminate
counseling services to a client?
Points instructors may want to make:
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IN–CLASS ACTIVITY
Title: Exploring One’s Values
Learning
Goal: To increase self-awareness of personal values that might affect the counseling
process.
Procedure: Ask students to write a brief description of the “most difficult client” that they can
imagine being asked to counsel in the future. Put the students in small groups and
instruct them to discuss the values and value conflicts that their descriptions elicit.
Point/Counterpoint (Debate) Topics
Title: Determining the Counselor’s Boundaries of Competence
Learning
Goal: To consider various ways that counselor competence can be assured.
Procedures: Assign (or allow students to volunteer) 2 groups of students (preferably 3-5
students per group) to each take one of the positions described below and
prepare a 5-minute argument in favor of that position. Have each group present
its argument. Next, allow the groups to confer for 2 minutes and then have each
group present its rebuttal to the other group’s argument. Lastly, have the class
members who served as the audience vote for which side was most persuasive.
Point: Counselors, as professionals, should be allowed to determine their own
boundaries of competence.
vs.
Counterpoint: Specialty licensure should be required for counselors to practice in
specialty areas such as marriage and family or substance abuse, as a measure protect
consumers of counseling services
Title: Duty to Warn when Clients May Pose a Danger to Others
Learning
Goal: To consider the issues involved in having a legal duty to warn intended or
foreseeable victims of a potentially dangerous client.
Point: Counselors should be held to the legal duty to warn intended or foreseeable
victims.
vs.
Counterpoint: Counselors should be “held harmless,” legally, when they exercise
their best judgment regarding whether or not to warn an intended or
foreseeable victim.
OUTSIDE CLASS ACTIVITY
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Title: Personal Informed Consent Document
Learning
Goal: To begin acquiring the legal and ethical skills necessary to become a competent
counselor.
Procedure: Assign students to develop a personalized informed consent document.
Resources that can be utilized include the examples given in the text, consent
documents from counselors at practicum or internship sites, examples provided
on the website of your state’s counseling licensure board, or a professor’s
personal consent document. Have students bring rough drafts of their document
to class and break the students into groups of 3-4 to discuss possible additions
or deletions to the documents. The next week, have students turn in the
completed documents.
Topic for Self-Reflection/Journaling
Topic: What are some of my strongest personal values, and how might those values
potentially interfere with my counseling effectiveness?
CASE STUDY
Joan, a counselor in private practice in central Texas, has been asked to accept a new client
who is Asian-American and who is having difficulty adjusting to her new home in Texas. There
are very few Asian-American individuals in Joan’s community. Consequently, Joan is wondering
whether she is competent to accept this new client.
Case Study Discussion
1. What are the particular concerns and issues Joan might be thinking about?
2. What steps should Joan take before seeing this client for the first time?
SHORT PAPER OR ORAL CLASS PRESENTATION TOPICS
1. Developing practices for promoting counselor self-awareness and/or strategies for working
through “unfinished business.”
2. Determining when it is necessary—or why it would be beneficial—for counselors to enter
personal counseling.
3. An overview of best practices and legal requirements for providing adequate Informed
Consent.