Foundational Knowledge (Course Group)
To join this group, please first commence the ”Foundational Knowledge” course, which includes access... View more
Organizer:
- Organized by
-
-
Counsellor dating a client – Advice
-
Counsellor dating a client – Advice
I have a friend who needs some legal advice. He was seeing a counsellor, not a psychologist, but a qualified counsellor in the state of Queensland, for general anxiety. She was approached by a family member about nine months into her counselling, and her family member had advised her that they needed help because their marriage was not in a good place. So she referred her family member and the family member’s wife to counselling, to the same counsellor she was seeing. She advised the counsellor that she was referring a family member onto her for assistance, and the counsellor acknowledged her email and that she would accept the family member’s referral. She started seeing the family member and wife in a couples counselling approach, and after only a few sessions, the couple decided they were going to separate, but the family member decided to continue seeing the counsellor and for one-on-one sessions. One day, the family member also decided they would ask the counsellor for a personal date, like a romantic date outside of counselling sessions, and the counsellor agreed to go on this date. As it stands today, they are officially in a relationship and dating. My friend has found that her whole life has been sort of turned upside down. She’s obviously stopped seeing the counsellor herself because of, you know, privacy and confidentiality reasons, but feels it is deeply disrespectful for a counsellor to take this many clients on from one family unit and then decide to totally infiltrate her life and start dating someone from her family. She feels that it is extremely unprofessional and that she is potentially breaching something, but she is not sure what she’s breaching. She needs help. So far, she has identified that the counsellor is qualified to provide counselling sessions. The counsellor is not registered with a counselling association in Australia, which counsellors do not have to be registered with these types of bodies like Australian Counselling Association or the PACFA Association. She has contacted both these associations and they have confirmed that this counsellor is not registered with them. She has gone on to ask the ombudsman what to do next and the ombudsman has asked her to please submit a formal complaint against the counsellor that the counsellor may have breached something, but they are not sure yet. She is uncertain whether to go down this route because she has a living situation whereby, you know, there’s a housing crisis and her family is totally okay with the other family member seeing a counsellor despite her… Concerns that the counsellor is, you know, going against privacy, has totally disrespected my friend, et cetera. So, there is a family dynamic going on where the family disapproves of her not agreeing with the counsellor’s behaviour and infiltrating her personal life without her consent. So, she has documented a lot of evidence, a lot of evidence. If you need more information on what evidence she has or have legal advice on what evidence she should gain further, this would be greatly appreciated. She is unsure whether to approach the ombudsman for a complaint, but it appears that she will be proceeding down this path. Once the ombudsman are informed, it does mean that there is a likelihood that her wider family will be made aware of her complaint to the ombudsman because the counsellor is now associated in her wider family and has developed deep roots in her family, which she is not, my friend is not disapproved, my friend is not approving of. She would like to know if there is any legal route she can take here outside of contacting the ombudsman. Obviously, she will get to a point where she contacts the ombudsman, submits the formal complaint, and ideally then there is some sort of formal action or disapproval from the ombudsman, but she would like to know, would there be any no-win, no-fee lawyers out there that would take her case if she were to take this to court and request compensation? and for the counsellor to be disqualified from counselling in the state of Queensland and beyond.
-
3 Replies
-
Hi Jodie. I just read your request for advice and am sorry to hear that your friend is having to deal with so much. I also want to recognise the distress that you may be experiencing as a result of having to support your friend through such a difficult time.
Marriage and other relationship breakups are often painful and difficult to deal with but also often a necessity as personal growth takes each individual down a different path. Accepting the end of a relationship is the first challenge. We have a tendency to hold onto things because they are familiar to us even though the situation may not be to our highest benefit.
It is often easier to work through the process of letting go of someone when there is a clear break in the relationship as this allows us to focus on “me” and not “them”. When there is a third party In the equation, the focus shifts from a healthy “what i need and want moving forward” to a focus on others as appears to be the case with your friend.
What i picked up on from the content of your request for advice was a very strong focus on the need for some form of retaliation stemming from the pain from the loss of a relationship.
I don’t want to dive into the ethical and professional issues that you raised other than to say that at the end of the day, we are talking about two individuals and human nature running its course whether right or wrong. My concern for your friend is that she is focusing all her energy into vengeance which is a very unhelpful and sometimes dangerous emotional driver.
Whilst your friend may be looking towards you for support in relation to some form of retribution towards the counsellor, my advice to you would be to redirect her and support her to deal with acceptance. Sometimes one door has to close before another door can open.
It is well known that rebound relationships have the least success generally because they are a stepping stone during a period of adjustment and if your friend intends on salvaging any form of friendship with her ex-partner, taking steps to damage the new relationship is not going to support this happen.
I appreciate that my advice may not be the advice that you were looking for but i do feel that if understood, may prove to be helpful moving forward.
sent with sincerity
Jacquie
-
Hi Jodie
There are few options when someone is not with an association. If she were then she would need to abide to scrict ethical guidelines. Counselling has not been accredited like allied health in Australia for this reason. Sadly the responsibility is on the client to ask to see credentials. A counsellor with credentials and association will have these readily available. There are many charlatans calling themselves counsellors and in reality they can do this legally if they have completed a counselling course. They might attend a 5 day ‘learn to be a counsellor’ online. In Australia this field is highly unregulated and as a result you have no legislation to support you directly related to practice standards. I doubt small claims would listen due to the unregulated nature of counselling. You could go through small claims to claim back any money given to her for her services although I imagine this could be touch and go. There is naturally ‘though shall do no harm’ hence you would need to demonstrate how she did cause you harm. In America counselling is as regulated as Psychology and held in high credibility but Australia is a long way from this place. Hence it comes down to ‘buyer beware’.
-
This is what AI said about the issue.