Ethical Dilemma for your final Ethical Decision Making Assignment
You own your own private practice in a small rural town in GA. You are one of a few counselors in this county. You specialize in treating women with trauma. In the last year, you have attended workshops and continuing education events focused on EMDR training, complex trauma in women, and interventions and assessments specific to dissociation in clients with PTSD.
A week ago, a client contacted you for counseling services. She is a 38-year-old Caucasian female who reports trauma in her past. After a brief phone call with her, you schedule a consultation session in your office. To prepare for the first session, you have emailed her the informed consent. You have asked her to review it and bring it to the first session. You have also sent her your intake forms and asked her to send them to you a couple days before your first session. Your intake forms include things like psychosocial history, family dynamics, general demographics info, presenting problems, history of these problems, treatment history, medications, etc. Per your request, she completed the intake forms and emailed them to you the next day. To your surprise, she also sent you her consent form, signed.
In reviewing her intake information, you notice that she lists an eating disorder as one of her main concerns. She did not mention this in the phone call when you asked why she was seeking counseling.
You do not have current training in eating disorders but have been practicing for 10 years and have some knowledge about it.
The client emails to ask if you have stairs going to your office because she does not like elevators. You reply that you do. She emails again asking if parking is close to the building, you reply that it is. The client emails again asking if she can change her session time. You do not have more openings, and you tell her that is the only time you have available that week. She replies that she is a bit upset at that but agrees to keep her appointment. After careful review of her intake, you email her inquiring about the eating disorder. You let her know that you do not specialize in eating disorders, and you can refer her to someone who does. She replies that she messed up on her intake form, that her eating disorder was 10 years ago, and didn’t mean to put to list it as her presenting concern. She expresses some anger about you trying to “get out of seeing me” and says she has already signed the informed consent. She goes on to say that she really needs a counselor and that you come highly recommended. She also mentions that it is a small town and there aren’t many other counselors she can turn to.
This email is followed with a couple more emails that vacillate from anger to desperation to be seen. She indicates that if you cancel her session she is coming anyway. At this point, you can’t help but to get annoyed and your sessions haven’t even started with her.
What do you do? Do you see the client for the consultation session, or not? Is she a client at this point? how does this factor into your decision making?
Attached is the ACA Code of Ethics, Practitioners guide to ethical decisions making, the ethical decision making model template
