Dual Relationships Within The Mental Health Field

In the mental health field, dual relationships can often be damaging to both the client and the therapist. There are several situations where dual relationships, whether considered ethical or not, affect the course of treatment for the client, and the personal lives of therapists. Although some forms of dual or multiple relationships are unavoidable, engaging in a personal relationship between patient and client always involves the possibility of skewing therapeutic results. Dual relationships are defined as having relations with the client outside of therapy, and in most cases it is considered to be unethical. There are four main types of dual relationships including professional, social, business, and sexual. A professional dual†¦show more content†¦Once a therapist enters into a dual relationship with their clients, feelings of mistrust, unhealthy attachment, and exploitation are common. In a survey conducted by the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, a group o f various females who admitted to having sexual contact with their therapists/ psychiatrists were interviewed and given a questionnaire to measure their self-esteem, depression, attitudes, and psychosomatic/psychological assumptions. The results showed that the women ranging from ages 26-45 developed a strong mistrust and anger toward these health care professionals (Feldman-Summers Jones, 1984). This study demonstrated how much influence a therapist has on their client and shows that the bond between therapist and client is delicate and needs to be treated with both respect and understanding. â€Å"Sexual boundary violations are considered the most serious ethical infraction in the mental health profession, as well as in higher education and pastoral counseling. Recognized as unethical due to the power imbalance inherent in the structure of the therapist-patient and teacher-student dyads, erotic contact between therapists and patients has been revealed in prevalence studies to o ccur at an unacceptably high incidence rate (9 to 12 per cent) among mental health practitioners† (Czlenza, 2007). The imbalance of power when there is a sexual relationship present can be extremely damaging to