Читать книгу Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling - Kenneth S. Pope - Страница 21

Ms. Huang, whose family had moved from mainland China to the United States 15 years ago, is a 45 year-old automobile mechanic. She agreed, at the strong urging of her employer, to seek psychotherapy for difficulties that seem to affect her work performance. She has been showing up late at her job, has often phoned in sick, and frequently appears distracted. She complains to her new therapist, Dr. Jackson, of the difficulties she is having coping both with psychomotor epilepsy, which has been controlled through medication, and with her progressive diabetes, for which she is also receiving medical care.

Although she has no real experience treating people of Chinese descent or patients with chronic medical conditions such as epilepsy, Dr. Jackson begins to work with Ms. Huang. She meets with her on a regular basis for three months, but never feels that a solid working alliance is developing. After three months, Ms. Huang abruptly quits therapy. At the time, she had not paid for the last six sessions.

Two weeks later, Dr. Jackson receives a request to send Ms. Huang’s treatment records to her new therapist. Dr. Jackson notifies Ms. Huang that she will not forward the records until the bill has been paid in full.

Some time later, Dr. Jackson is notified that she is the complainee in a licensing case and that she has been sued for malpractice. The complaints allege that Dr. Jackson had been practicing outside of her areas of competence because she had received no formal education or training and had no supervised experience in treating people of Chinese descent or those with multiple serious and chronic medical diseases. The complaints also alleged that Ms. Huang had never adequately understood the nature of treatment as evidenced by the lack of any written informed consent. Finally, the complaints alleged that “holding records hostage” for payment violated Ms. Huang’s welfare and deprived her subsequent therapist of having prompt and comprehensive information necessary to Ms. Huang’s treatment.