BSHS 335 Maintaining Ethical Standards

Maintaining Ethical Standards
Angela Lippy
BSHS/335
October 19, 2014
Jenny Coon
Maintaining Ethical Standards
Recently I have been introduced to a new patient Cinderella, in our first meeting several ethical issues have been brought to my attention and therefore this documentation is needed. In this report I will review all the ethical issues that I have noticed as well as what the core principles in the AAMFT codes of ethics are in order to help this client to the best of my ability.
Cinderella by far is one of the most challenging clients I have been involved with in this practice. During first meeting, she was very calm and open to how she is doing today in her role as wife and princess. It did not take long however to realize she
Also required by law was my responsibility to Cinderella that confidentially (principle 2) is one of the most important aspects of services being rendered. However I did state that in terms of her mentioning anything in regards to harming herself our others that this agreement would not hold in this case. Since this therapy is not court ordered no waiver is necessary in terms of confidentiality. I have also made clear that I will maintain the highest of standards of professional competence (principle 3) and always continue to improve my skills to better help her. I stated to my client that I will not exploit the trust or dependency (principle 4) and will avoid multiple relationships unless they apply to family therapy. In this case exploitation will never be made on any terms. During any training while she is under my care, I will be careful as to always respect the dignity and protect her welfare at all times. (Principle 5). As with other professional therapists, I will never accept a client that is already being seen by a therapist without consulting with that therapist in which we will work together to
We also discussed the father dying and the step mother raising her, the issue of abuse did come in the form of Cinderella forced to clean the house, live on scraps and be treated as a servant instead of a child. In result of these I do believe Cinderella is suffering from a deep depression that began at a very young age. I do not feel she ever complete dealt with her mothers or fathers death in a way any child should. Cinderella admitted that she never talked about the deaths or mistreatment done by her step mother; she simply kept it to herself. She tried to deal by developing people pleasing skills, maybe in hopes to forget about the pain. As you would imagine Cinderella although we see her as a beautiful girl does exhibit low self esteem and this will be an issue that will take time to overcome. Before our first meeting Cinderella has married, she went to a ball (this was the first time away from home and social contact) and danced with the prince till midnight at which she decided to leave without even telling him her name. To her surprise, the prince did track her down and asked her to marry him in which she said yes. This happened during the second meeting of the two; the prince was the first man to ever pay attention to her and as result married him after 1 week of knowing him. I do believe this quick marriage is