11.2 Professional and Non-Professional Relationships
A non-professional relationship occurs between people who engage with a sense of community for undefined and personally derived purposes, time length, structure, location, and share equal power. On the contrary, a professional relationship is one where participants engage with a sense of community and includes predetermined and assigned roles, time sharing, purpose, scope, preparation, financial arrangements, and external legal and ethical responsibilities enforced by a professional board (Barnett, 2007). Counselors engage in professional relationships with their clients. Counselors hold licensure, which confers legal responsibilities communicated in relevant federal and state statutes. They are also guided by ethical codes enforced by professional boards such as the American Counseling Association and the National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors.
Further, because counselors hold licensure in the state they practice, they have a fiduciary responsibility. A fiduciary is a person or entity with legal and ethical responsibilities toward another party/party based on respect, trust, and welfare (Jorgenson, 1998). The fiduciary’s legal duty to protect another party and show devoted loyalty is related to the ethical principle of fidelity, which the ACA defines as “honoring commitments and keeping promises, including fulfilling one’s responsibilities of trust in professional relationships (American Counseling Association, 2014). The responsibility to maintain the professional relationship over time falls on the counselor.
The purpose of the counseling relationship is to curate a space where clients can safely be vulnerable, share sensitive and personal information, and then receive counseling services to work toward goals, functioning, and well-being (DeAngelis, 2019). Another way is that client information gathered during counseling work is used for professional goals of benefitting the client, and the use of personal information for any other purpose is maligned with the ethical virtues and practices of the field. Counselors work to uphold legal and ethical obligations to promote client welfare and act in the best interest of their clients, not themselves. This is of utmost consideration regarding decisions to pursue dual relationships, as discussed later in this chapter.
Power Dynamics in the Counseling Relationship
Counselors remain aware that they engage in unique, ambiguous, and rife professional relationships with complex power differentials (Barnett, 2007). Many writers discuss various viewpoints regarding the power differential between a counselor and a client. It is undoubtedly true that the counselor holds power in the counseling relationship through knowledge, social position, and ability to influence people’s lives because of various forms of power (Zur, 2009). Additionally, clients who seek out services can be in vulnerable positions in living with mental health concerns, substance use concerns, disabilities, hospitalized or participating in inpatient/ residential treatment, or legal concerns such as custody arrangement or involvement with the criminal justice system (Zur, 2009). However, many beliefs surrounding power are overly “unitary, monolithic and unidirectional,” and one could consider power on a spectrum (Zur, 2009, pg. 161). The reality is that clients are not vulnerable, dependent, gullible, or suggestible, and counselors are not all-powerful. Instead, the reality is that power dynamics at play in a professional counseling relationship are complex, bidirectional, and shared among all participants. Table 11.1 outlines eight different sources of personal power that counselors must consider in evaluating the therapeutic relationship, and they are welcome to add others (Zur, 2009).
Both the therapeutic relationship and power dynamics persist after the formal ending of services, and counselors are encouraged to consider this when they engage in ethical decision-making processes about pursuing dual relationships with clients.
|
Source of Power |
Explanation |
Counselor’s Power |
Client’s Power |
|
Expert-Knowledge Power |
A person’s knowledge, skills, and expertise are formed through education and training. |
Counselors undergo training to build knowledge, skills and expertise in human behavior and counseling skills. In doing so, they hold power to diagnose, label others and influence social control. |
Clients are experts and hold power in fields related to their careers or interests. Some clients may also work as counselors. |
|
Legitimate Power |
The power a person holds due to an official-legitimate role with social position (ie. kings, judges, doctors). |
Counselors hold legitimate power through their licensure, which offers them social position, power and ability to make reports and grant involuntary hospitalization of clients. |
Some clients may have legitimate roles as part of their identity or social roles. |
|
Coercive Power |
The power a person has to force someone to act against their will. Means can include: threat, force, assertion of legal authority, blackmail, intimidation, coercion, intimidation, blackmail, extortion, etc. |
Counselors can assess functioning, fitness for duty and sanity. Counselors have the ability to involuntarily commit someone to treatment or hospitalization. Counselors also have influence over legal decisions, which can mandate people to participate in treatment. |
Some clients have physical strength, or behavioral patterns that can be used to manipulate or threaten their care team. |
|
Professional Power |
Power derived from a professional role one holds. |
Counselors have professional power due to their professional status, public image and societal ideas around counseling. Counseling work is isolated and somewhat of a mystery, which reinforces counselor’s professional power. |
Clients can exert professional power dynamics by showing up late to sessions, no showing to sessions, harassing their counselor, or filing invalid complaints. |
|
Imbalance of Knowledge |
The power one has over another person as a result of them having more information about the other. |
Counselors have more information about their clients than their clients do about them, giving them more power in the relationship. |
Clients have less information about their counselors. They may withhold personal information, pose questions to their counselor, or look them up on the internet to hold some power in the relationship. |
|
Reward Power |
Power that comes from a person who has the ability to give or withhold what another wants. Rewards may include: financial incentives, information, praise, appreciation, love, acknowledgement, recommendations, etc. |
Clients often seek love, approval, attention, praise, acknowledgement or recommendations from their counselor. This desire and potential for the rewards they bring gives the counselor power in the counseling relationship. |
Counselors want their clients to show up and may rely on completing appointments for business purposes, which gives client power. Clients can also exert reward power by withholding payments, resisting counselor suggestions or interpretations, interventions, or not acknowledging progress made. |
|
Referent Power |
Power that comes from people liking, admiring or desiring to be like the other person. |
Many clients admire their counselor, want to be like them, or believe they have important life answers, which gives counselors power. |
Some clients may have resources such as money, status, attractive features that give them referent power. |
|
Manipulative Power |
This is the power to manipulate people to get them to act against their will and in favor of yours. Means can include: deceit, being tricky, gaslighting, treats, charm, sex appeal, persistently violating boundaries, blackmail, false sense of victimhood. |
The nature of counseling work is influencing how people think and behave to evoke change. |
Clients can have creative ways of manipulating their counselor. There may be added incentives to do so for legal related issues; For example, trying to manipulate the counselor into signing off on their attendance for probation. |
Table 11.1. Types of bidirectional power in the counseling relationship (Zur, 2009).
Key Takeaways
- Professional relationships are structured, goal-oriented, and governed by legal and ethical standards, unlike non-professional relationships that share equal power.
- Counselors hold a fiduciary duty to act in the client’s best interest, emphasizing trust, loyalty, and ethical fidelity.
- Power in counseling is complex, bidirectional, and influenced by factors like expertise, coercion, rewards, and referent dynamics.
- Ethical and legal responsibilities require counselors to prioritize client welfare, maintain confidentiality, and navigate dual relationships carefully.
- Power dynamics in the counseling relationship can extend beyond termination, requiring thoughtful ethical decision-making.