Marriage and Family Therapy
Psychology in the modern world is becoming increasingly popular. This is especially true in the sphere of assistance to families and married couples. This determines the fact that the family is one of the most important and valuable institutions of public life. To get a better understanding of how the process of providing assistance in such cases, interviewing a psychologist may be effective. Moreover, you can learn about the ethical and legal dilemmas that the interviewees face and how they deal with them and solve them.
Family and marriage psychologists are engaged in counseling, diagnosis and correction in matters related to family problems. The problems also include misunderstanding between family members, divorce, infidelity, jealousy and other issues related to this cell of society. Thanks to a family and marriage psychologist, it is possible to see a difficult situation from the outside and realize the motives and causes of behavior, deep desires and a way out of the situation. Family therapy has the greatest effect if people understand why they turned to a specialist. It is important to realize that any situation is given to a person by force. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the measure of responsibility and willingness to work. During a consultation with a psychologist, you can openly discuss the problem, knowing that it will be met with understanding and trust. A specialist can provide the support and understanding people need in difficult situations. The complexity of the work lies in the fact that, in some cases, it is necessary to remember the pain and negative emotions that people hid, but it takes time, faith and strength to solve the existing problems.
Steps to Become a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
The specialist with whom the interview was conducted emphasized that in her youth, she had never thought about the profession of a family and marriage psychologist. She wanted to connect her life with helping people but preferred the profession of a doctor. However, after the divorce of her parents and entering into a conscious relationship with the opposite sex, the woman realized that she was interested in the sphere of psychological aspects of human interaction. In order to get a profession and become a licensed family and marriage psychologist, she studied at a higher educational institution. There, she completed a four-year training program, in which the first two years studied general psychology and then concentrated on aspects of family and marriage therapy.
Ethical Dilemmas in the Practice of a Marriage and Family Therapist
It is noted that the leading paradox associated with the sphere of ethics in psychology is the fact that the more specialists know the unique inner world of people, the more they become objects for them. Such a characteristic feature of psychological specialists is the ability to understand and predict worsens their strength and skill of reflection. At the moment, this problem is becoming increasingly popular, as such a phenomenon as manipulation is also beginning to occur more often. It can be defined as the use of psychological theories and practices in the interests of a particular social group or individual.
The main ethical problem that still appears from time to time in the practice of the interviewed psychologist is the setting of boundaries with the personal and ethical aspects of work. This is due to the fact that objectivity plays one of the most important roles in this profession. It is important to remember that it is necessary to adequately perceive clients and their problems without experiencing too much empathy or other feelings for them that may interfere with achieving an effective result of therapy. The frequently encountered ethical dilemmas in the work of a psychologist can also include the clash of interests of society and an individual, the views and values of a psychologist and a patient, and various ethical systems and their levels.
The development of technology is undoubtedly a positive side of public life, but sometimes they can interfere with the work of a family and marriage psychologist. The main problem is that many people prefer to read an article on the Internet on a psychological site, causing a trip to a psychologist as a waste of money and time. However, such platforms cannot provide a complete and comprehensive approach to the study and solution to the issue that has arisen.
How to Handle the Ethical Dilemma
It is quite difficult to deal with this dilemma and psychologist does it to this day. She notes that it is especially difficult to adhere to the ethical code in particularly complex and controversial cases. The solution to the problem, firstly, lies in the direct work on oneself. It is important to understand that the ultimate goal is successful therapy, not sympathy and empathy for a particular patient. As resources emphasize, “clients’ level of engagement was primarily dependent on whether the therapist was able to create a positive therapeutic atmosphere” (Holyoak et al., 2020, p. 97). Secondly, it is important not to take all the information received on yourself and pass it through your judgments and opinions, since adhering to the postulates of psychological help is critical.
Legal Dilemmas in Practice as a Marriage and Family Therapist
A woman considers following the rules on non-disclosure of personal information to be a legal dilemma when working as a family and marriage specialist. This is because all clients who take part in psychological work with a specialist sign a non-disclosure paper. In particular, this aspect applies to cases of divorce of parents who have children. However, sometimes, a psychologist experiences such strong feelings about a particular case that it is simply impossible to keep this kind of emotion to oneself and not tell for a long time. Another problem is a late payment or lack of it for some clients. There may be cases when people attend therapy but do not pay, accumulating huge debts.
How to Handle the Legal Dilemmas
A specialist in family and marriage affairs believes that it is important to adhere to the legislation of the country and set boundaries with clients. To solve these problems, the psychologist introduced the signing of two mandatory contractual papers before starting work; the first is the consent to the non-disclosure of personal information and customer data. The second is an agreement on the time of payment for psychological services with a prescribed schedule, payment terms and possible penalties for their violation.
Marriage and Family Therapist
The psychologist replied that she considers the actions performed by her rational and working, as they still help her avoid such situations. Of course, during the activity, there are some problems of a slightly different nature, but the measures taken by the woman still provide great assistance to her. Moreover, the therapist considers that the main qualities that a specialist providing psychological assistance should have are centralization on the client and the priority of healing, not therapy (Davis & Hsieh, 2019). It is they who help to build a policy of interaction with people in this work with great success.
AAMFT Code of Ethics
American association of marriage and family therapy code of ethics is one of the main and essential documents for the work of the psychologist. AAMFT code of ethics was introduced in 2015 by the board of directors of the American association for marriage and family therapy pursuant to the association’s bylaws (“Code of Ethics”, n.d.). The interviewee specialist adheres to the point of view that the ethical principles of the psychologist’s work in the field of family problems and marital relations contribute to the preservation and significant improvement of professionalism, humanity of the workflow and respect. In addition, the main features of the assistance process are moral and moral values.
Training to deal with Ethical Dilemmas
The therapist replied that her studies had given her substantial knowledge of dealing with ethical dilemmas. However, at the same time, the program provided more widely occurring examples without considering cases of a narrow focus. At the same time, she does not consider this a problem since the knowledge gained at the educational institution became the basis and a guide for solving all other problems, which helped a lot.
In addition, a psychological specialist in the field of family and marriage noted that such a training technique as reframing helps her a lot. Weeks & D’Aniello state that “teaching practitioners the skills necessary to develop their own reframes will ensure they understand the conceptual skills necessary to tailor reframes to their clients” (2017, p. 304). This approach is used to change the perception of an event. It promotes rethinking and consideration of various situations from the other side.
Personal Value System, Culture, and Ethnicity Impact on Clinical Practice
The psychologist believes that personal value systems, culture and ethnicity directly impact the process of working with clients. However, the specialist notes that she tries to give herself free rein and holds back her own opinion, trying to focus on people who come to her with a problem. Moreover, the interviewee pointed out that taking into account cultural characteristics and values not only their own, but also others can significantly speed up the work process, as they give a better understanding of people based on their background.
Assistance in Handling an Ethical Question or Concern
When asked about the need for help in solving an ethical issue or problem, a specialist’s likely course of action would be to turn to evidence-based practices. The other effective way for the woman is to consult with other psychologists working in the field of marriage and family. She explained this by the fact that she prefers to base her conclusions on proven data, on techniques and decisions that are backed up by real cases, rather than simply writing unsubstantiated information.
Advocacy for Policies, Programs, and Services that are Equitable and Responsive to the Unique Needs of Couples and Families
The interviewee specialist noted that due to a relatively small practice, she was not involved in any areas of propaganda, in your opinion, are necessary for family and marriage therapy. However, the psychologist noted that the main reason why it is currently important to promote such practices and policies is due to the increasing number of divorces in the United States of America every year. In addition, cases of separation of spouses have become more frequent, and the number of couples experiencing a deep crisis in marital relations has increased. All these factors have a negative impact not only on the spouses themselves but also on their children and families in general.
Technology in the Practice of a Marriage and Family Therapist
The development of technology provides a huge number of opportunities for modernization and improvement of the effectiveness of family and marriage therapy. Many of them can be applied directly in the process of working with a specialist or used independently by clients. One of the simplest such innovations is psychological podcasts. In applications such as the Apple Podcast, patients can listen to various stories of people with similar problems and analyze them. This method helps to look at the problem from the outside and will significantly improve the performance of the program during therapy.
It is essential for psychological specialists to have both theoretical and practical knowledge of their competence in order to conduct successful and fruitful psychological work. Thus, this kind of work should be based on such principles as trust, empathy, security, and non-partiality. In this regard, one of the most important components of working with clients in the field of family and marriage is compliance with ethical standards by specialists. In the age of technology development, this is especially important since technology exposes a person to ethical risks, the main one of which is the confidentiality of information.
References
Code of Ethics. (n.d.). American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. Web.
Davis, S. D., & Hsieh, A. L. (2019). What does it mean to be a common factor, informed family therapist? Family Process, 58(3), 629-640. Web.
Holyoak, D. L., Fife, S. T., & Hertlein, K. M. (2021). Client’s perceptions of marriage and family therapists’ way‐of‐being: a phenomenological analysis. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 47(1), 85-103. Web.
Weeks, G. R., & D’Aniello, C. (2017). Teaching reframes in a master’s level marriage and family therapy program. Journal of Family Psychotherapy, 28(4), 303-316. Web.