Reference no: EM133306027

Personal Disclosure

The ethical issue that comes to mind is that of when to make personal disclosure to a client, especially when the disclosure is of something that could be considered negative about myself. In my field placement, I worked with women who lived in abusive relationships. One woman, Helen, has low self-esteem and felt that she would feel at any attempt to reach goals. She felt life was not worth living. I used to be in an abusive relationship and still sometimes, even though I'm a student in a human service program, feel doomed to fail. If I disclosed this, would the commonality help Helena? Or would it limit my ability to help her? Or would it limit my ability to help her? Would I just be unloading on her- meeting my own needs?

Describe the ethical and clinical issues the intern is facing.

What professional guidelines are relevant to the intern's situation?

With whom might Elaine consult about this?

Self-help groups rely on self-disclosure; it is accepted that participants can be meeting their own as well as others' needs at the same time through this self-disclosure. Is there a difference between the relationships in a self-help environment and a professional helping relationship? Should there be a difference?

How can a helping professional's self-disclosure benefit the client? How might it harm the client?