And to clarify Dr. Reid and wondering, I did not say specifically that the therapist in question was behaving unethically. I said that a therapist who would burden a client in such a way does not have the client’s best interests at heart and suggested to find an ethically behaving therapist - that’s just my opinion. Ultimately it’s the clients decision as to whether or not to seek a new therapist if she or he feels troubled by such self disclosure on the part of the therapist. And frankly if the client is bothered by the personal information the therapist has revealed, and discusses this idea and also the possibility of finding a new therapist with the T, I personally think it would be wrong for the therapist to try to talk the client out of considering a dew therapist. Because the client is demonstrating that she or he is being responsible for his or her own mental health situation and continuing to seek assistance and stay on track, and that's a good thing and should never be discouraged. There is also specifically in both APA and NASW codes (section 1.02 for NASW - there is something in the APA code which is similar) which refer to self determination for client - for a therapist to attempt to prevent client self determination is specifically unethical unless of course there is serious, foreseeable, and imminent risk to client or others, which was never brought up in the original post and since imminent risk was not an issue in the original post it’s obviously not a factor, because were it a factor that would have been a major part of the discussion from the beginning. Now on the other hand if the client says to therapist that she is considering dropping therapy all together and not even look for a new therapist, that’s a separate issue entirely and in that situation I think the therapist would be right in saying to client that client should continue with therapy and possibly seek a new therapist if that is what it would take to continue.
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