Clinical Supervision

Assignment 2: Case Study: Clinical Supervision

For this assignment you will refer to the Course Case Study.
Reread the case study, looking specifically at issues related to
clinical supervision. Examine the ACA’s ethical guidelines related to
the issue of Supervision in Section F and answer the following
questions:

• Was the counselor’s behavior with his clinical supervisor a breach of ethics on the counselor’s part?
• Was the counselor’s behavior with his clinical supervisor a breach of ethics on the supervisor’s part?
• Examine the influence of your own personal values as it relates to the issues presented in the case.
• Compare this violation to the APA’s ethical
  standards and describe the similarities or differences in the
  ethical code, using the following Web site:
  www.apa.org
  www.counseling.org
• Imagine you are a member of the ACA ethics
  committee. Recommend appropriate behavioral codes for counselors
  with reference to relationships with clinical supervisors.

Submit your response to the M2: Assignment 2 Dropbox by Wednesday, September 11, 2013. Your response should be at least two pages long.

PSY430 Ethics in Psychology Case
Study

Joe, a 35-year-old, male
mental-health counselor, received a client referral, 35-year-old Jill, from a
community-counseling clinic. He began providing counseling services to her.
Jill’s problem was that she was unsatisfied with her current job as a bank
teller and was experiencing mild anxiety and depression. Joe had been providing
services to Jill for three weeks when she disclosed that she was confused about
her sexuality because she was sexually attracted toward women. Joe immediately
responded to Jill with wide

eyes and a shocked look. He told
Jill that he was a traditional Catholic, who felt that this type of feeling was
immoral and wrong. He informed her that she should avoid thinking about this
and pray for forgiveness. He also told her that he

felt uncomfortable talking about the
issue any further. Jill continued to talk to Joe about dealing with her family
issues. Joe had recently read about a new technique and immediately became
excited about trying it in therapy. He explained to her that he read an article
in a magazine about a new technique called rebirthing. The new technique was
being used in Europe to help people change their views about their relationship
with their family. “It is supposed to be really effective in almost wiping
out your memory of your family; it is like hypnosis” Joe said. “I
would really like to try it on you today, what do you think?” Jill declined
his offer and continued to talk about her family. Joe thought to himself that even
though Jill said no, he was still going to try to hypnotize her as they talked.
He thought she could benefit from hypnosis. Jill disclosed that she was raised
in a traditional Asian-American home with many cultural influences and
culture-specific

rules and behavior. Jill was
struggling with balancing her individualism and her cultural

heritage. Joe explained to her that because
he was living and working in a rural

community, mostly consisting of people
of East European descent, he could not

relate to Jill’s culture and the issues
with which she was struggling. He apologized and explained that he was not
required to study these cultural issues because of his geographical location. Jill
moved on to talk about her depression. She began talking about feeling lonely and
how it contributed to her depression. During a counseling session, she revealed
that she was attracted to Joe and would like a closer, intimate

relationship with him. Joe, aware
that he was also attracted to Jill, talked about

his feelings toward her but
explained that engaging in a relationship outside the

established counseling relationship
was unethical. He informed her that because

of the mutual feelings of attraction,
the counseling relationship would be

ineffective and that he would refer
her to another counselor for continued services. Jill agreed and they
terminated the counseling relationship. Jill asked for time to think it over
and left the office. Later, she contacted him to continue counseling and to
discuss the referral. Joe agreed to meet her that evening at a restaurant and
bring her the referral information. That night they began an intimate sexual relationship.

Page 1 of 2

PSY430 Ethics in Psychology

© 2011 Argosy University Online
Programs

Joe never got around to providing
the referral for Jill even though he was aware

of her ongoing state of depression
and anxiety. Joe stopped seeing Jill after a month of intimate sexual
encounters. Joe enjoyed the relationship but felt guilty due to the unethical
nature of the relationship. Because of his continued concern

about Jill’s depression, Joe
considered going to his current clinical supervisor to

discuss the case. However, he
decided against it and never contacted her. This

was because he and his supervisor
had recently started a sexual relationship,

and he knew it would hurt the
supervisor’s feelings if she knew of his sexual relations with Jill. Joe
decided to call Jill’s boss at the bank to check on her and see how she was doing.
He called her boss and explained that he had been counseling her for anxiety
and depression and wanted to check if she was feeling fine. Her boss informed
Joe that Jill had quit her job and was in the county hospital undergoing treatment
for severe depression. Joe quickly hung up and decided not to call or visit the
bank again. After thinking it over, Joe decided that general counseling might
not be for him. He decided to

begin marriage and family therapy.
He ordered some business cards and advertised in the yellow pages. He thought, “after
all, I am a health counselor and it

can’t be hard to counsel a couple.
You don’t need anything special. I already have one degree, and that’s enough!”

Page 2 of 2

PSY430 Ethics in Psychology

© 2011 Argosy University Online
Programs