Board notifying her of a lengthy complaint from a former client that they had been investigating. As she outlined the different complaints and defenses, I told her it sounded as if she may well have all but 1 of them dropped against her.
I told her that the dual relationship charge may be hard to defend, and she was silent on the other end of the line. She knew she was in trouble here, but for all the wrong reasons. She had befriended the client early on in their relationship, taking her to lunch, inviting her to church, even inviting her into her house on occasion. My friend in no way imagined that the therapeutic relationship would turn sour, with her client accusing her of manipulation and taking control of her life. She complained that this is precisely what her client was doing to her, and when she resisted her demands to be offered 24-7, the client got angry and filed a complaint.
Ethics can be understood as values in action. They are the practical rules and boundaries that guide our professional or ministerial behavior. Regulatory or statutory law can be distinguished by a set of codified ethics that are deemed so critical by a specific state or the federal government, that civil and criminal penalties have been ascribed to them when these rules are broken. Different skilled organizations such as the American Psychological Association, the American Counseling Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors, and the American Association of Marriage and Family members Therapy, to name a few, have all established a comprehensive code of ethics to which members should strictly adhere.