Читать книгу Theory and Practice of Couples and Family Counseling - James Robert Bitter - Страница 105

AAMFT (2015) notes that confidentiality and informed consent are interrelated. Specific applications of confidentiality and its limitations need to be discussed early and often in treatment. Furthermore, the family practitioner and the clients need to agree on not only those limitations mandated by law but also those that the therapist may set for effective treatment.

ACA (2014) echoes this position, calling on counselors to

clearly define who is considered “the client” and discuss expectations and limitations of confidentiality. Counselors seek agreement and document in writing such agreement among all involved parties regarding the confidentiality of information. In the absence of an agreement to the contrary, the couple or family is considered to be the client. (Standard B.4.b.)

Even if you are successful in negotiating a contract that identifies the client as the whole family, issues of confidentiality persist. The limits on confidentiality with a whole family are the same as those that exist in group counseling or therapy: The practitioner cannot guarantee that members of the family will not disclose essentially private information to others outside of the session. This potential dynamic also weakens, if not removes, the legal benefit of privileged communication (Remley & Herlihy, 2020). In short, communication between a client and you as the counselor is valued legally, in that a court of law may find that the benefits of protecting privacy outweigh the public’s need to know the content of therapeutic conversations. However, once another person is present in the room, as in couples and family work, legal protection of privileged communication no longer exists. If they viewed their individual rights and protections from a legal perspective, clients might find that agreeing to family counseling might not be in their individual best interest.