Problem: Read the following:
Initial Post:
Welcome to the course! Self-disclosure can be valuable and quite helpful between the client and counselor. When a counselor chooses to self-disclose, it is important to do so with relevance and purpose. It is a strategy that helps to build connection through transparency, however, boundaries should be in place when doing so. Keeping limitations intact are essential so understanding the purpose for self-disclosure are key. Need Assignment Help?
Then answer the following:
After reading the information provided write a reply to the initial post provided above. It must be written in complete sentences and integrate this week's reading material where relevant. This must be written in the latest version of APA format. Please provide all in-text citations and a reference list. Must be at least 150 words in length with at least 3 references, no older than 5 years old. This week's reading material is below:
Guise, R. (2015). Study guide for the Marriage & Family Therapy National Licensing Examination. In the "Crisis Management" Chapter of the book.
Grande, T. (2018). Self-Disclosure as a Technique in Counseling [Video]. YouTube.
Transcript for YouTube Video Below:
Hello this is dr. grande today's question asks what are my opinions about self disclosure in counseling and the self disclosure being referred to here is self disclosure on the part of the counselor not the client now self disclosure is a controversial issue and it has a number of facets to it so first I'm going to start by dividing self disclosure into a few categories and some of these categories we see in the research and some of them I use so the first is information that has to be disclosed based on rules and regulations like the license status of a counselor or what type of training they've had in most places this is information that has to be disclosed so this quantity of information as compared to all that can be conveyed in counseling is fairly small in the second category of self disclosure I have some different information information that's routinely shared it's not sensitive for example if a client asked something about an upcoming storm I wouldn't expect a counselor to say something like I don't want to discuss whether I get information from TV or the internet or you know that just seems like it's routine the weather is a topic that's routinely talked about another area in this category would be information that's inevitable in terms of whether it's going to be discovered or not so if you have a degree on the wall and it says what school you graduated from the client is gonna see that at some point and it seems odd to not discuss that openly and the last part of this category would be small talk and this is similar to what I talked about earlier with information that's routinely shared so small talk is normal and it could be argued of course it's not therapeutic but it's not unusual particularly at the beginning or the end of a therapeutic session to have some small talk this isn't really what I mean by self disclosure in the controversial sense of self disclosure now the last category is the area that gets more controversial and this is personal and or sensitive information and I divide this in two ways so this third category has two subcategories feelings about the client so if a counselor is proud of a client if they're worried about a client and that's disclosed in session that's a self disclosure of a personal insensitive nature and the second subcategory here would be external information so if the counsellor discusses something about their personal life they bring that into the session or about the logistics of their life for example what type of house they live in what type of cars they drive who they know in the outside world you know what type of relationships they have it's easy to see how sometimes this external information category could be mixed with information that's routinely shared as well so it's not always clear where the self disclosure would be put in these categories so as I mentioned self disclosure is controversial and we know a little bit about self disclosure from the research but it doesn't always help us resolve the controversy for example self disclosure tends to vary a lot by modality if we look at the psychodynamic modality for instance self disclosure is typically frowned upon in this modality now if we move to a modality like cognitive therapy self disclosure is often encouraged and specifically if we look at cognitive therapy used to treat substance use disorders it's not unusual in substance use treatment if a counselor has a history of substance use for that to be revealed at some point during therapy so it varies by modality and it can also vary by timing so I talked about timing I'm talking about the entire therapeutic process so if a client is being treated for symptoms in that treatment last six months toward the end of that six month period we would expect to see more self disclosure than we would early on if any self disclosure takes place there's also variance based on the symptoms that a client presents with research shows us that when clients are more sim pneumatic self-disclosure by the counselor tends to be lower the research is mixed on whether self-disclosure is effective in counseling we have all different types of results and there's no consensus which makes this issue of self-disclosure even more difficult to contemplate and to figure out now when we talk about mental health counseling of course there are a few codes of ethics that apply depending on where somebody is and what organizations they have joined and we look at other mental health treatment professionals they're also sometimes multiple codes of ethics there as well generally though when we look at efforts we would expect to see that a mental health clinician or a counselor has to do good do no harm and that the welfare and the interest of the client needs to be first that needs to come first so when we think about self disclosure we're really weighing the ethical codes all of them including those principles and trying to figure out if it's something that's going to be useful or harmful and if it really focuses on the client's needs and interests now on this topic sometimes I've heard that as I mentioned I have that category of information that is going to be inevitably learned right that's in that second category I have and I've heard individuals say that if a client can find out anyway if it's something that is public or functionally public that it's really not a self disclosure but I have a different opinion when it comes to this I think there's a difference between knowing and revealing so there's information about a counselor that a client is going to be able to figure out or find out without any trouble or with some work but either way it would be as I mentioned public or functionally public but the process of revealing is something different that's something that would be done in session it could be a sign of trust it's active and not passive so the process of revealing needs to be considered more so than what can be found out publicly or not those two constructs aren't the same thing also on the topic of self disclosure we have to consider the process it is important to consider the content what information is actually disclosed but also the process was the process thought through did the clinician take a step back when they heard a request or self disclosure or when they felt the need to self disclose take that step back and say does this make sense is this helpful so we have to respect the idea of revealing versus knowing and the process of self disclosure now as I mentioned there's mixed results in terms of the research but generally we know there are some pros and cons of course to self disclosure on the pro side one of the ones we hear a lot is that it builds rapport and it builds trust and on the con side we often hear that it causes role confusion and it can create an expectation that the client is supposed to share information now so if the counselor spontaneously self discloses then there's this pressure for the client to self disclose now there are other cons too and I think when I look at self disclosure overall I probably see more cons than pros although I can certainly see it's appropriate sometimes but in terms of other cons it could meet the need of the clinician more than the client that would definitely be a negative and inappropriate it could also tend to exploit the client and it could place a burden on the client so there are a lot of pitfalls when considering the use of self disclosure so I discussed earlier the process of revealing so what should a counselor consider as part of this process well one is that the same disclosure could help one client and hurt another so it's very important to consider the context also it's important to slow down when a request is made for self disclosure or a counselor feels the need to self disclose that's a good time to slow down other than the mandatory disclosures that depend on where somebody lives like potentially license status or training as I mentioned before a counselor does not have to self disclose so the counselor always has the option to really take a step back take some time and think about the best course of action and finally if it's difficult to figure out whether a self disclosure is appropriate seek supervision supervision is a process that's helpful for counselors in general for a lot of different areas but specifically it does help with determining these type of boundary issues and really this controversy around self disclosure or this technique of self disclosure depending on how you think about it is really a boundary issue and I think supervision is almost always a good idea when somebody's in doubt about how they're practicing counseling I hope you found this description of self disclosure to be interesting thanks for watching
Grande, T. (2018). Self-Disclosure as a Technique in Counseling [Video].