Case Study: Multicultural, Couples and Family, and Group Counseling

Hi there,

Good work on the last two papers you did for me.  This one is is similar and uses the same Case Study as the others.  Let me know if you are able to do this and the other one I am submitting to you as well!

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refer to the Course Case Study found below and the ACA Code of Ethics. Visit the ACA Web site at:

http://www.counseling.org/Resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf

Reread the case study, looking specifically at issues related to multicultural counseling, ethics in marital and family therapy, and group counseling. Examine the specific sections in ACA’s ethical guidelines regarding these issues and answer the following questions:

• Looking at the ACA Code of Ethics, collect information about ethical violations related to multicultural counseling, ethics in marital and family therapy, and group counseling.
• Identify the ethical code numbers and definitions.
• Analyze how the counselor in the case study violated these specific codes.
• Examine the influence of your own personal values as it relates to diversity issues presented in the case.

Your response should be at least three pages long. 

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 relationships 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. 

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!”

 

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