You are a social worker who works in a family service agency. You have been working with a family (father, mother, two kids) for over a year. Much of your work has been to empower the mother and have recommended she consider attending Al-Anon to learn more about dealing with her husband's drinking behavior. You have also been attending a local Al-Anon group for quite a while and have established a support network through that group for yourself. Lo and behold when you attend the weekly group who walks in but your client! Yes, you suggested Al-Anon to her, but you never expected her to show up in YOUR group! You feel uncomfortable sharing like you usually do. What do you do?
6 Comments
lzoll
12/10/2010 03:56:07 am
Wait for them to make the first move. Let them approach you. They might not want others to know that they know you. Talk about it in the next session.
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Nova Star
12/30/2010 09:03:03 am
I think I would have anticipated this beforehand, and would have asked which group she was likely to attend. If she said it was my group, I would have let her know that I sometimes attended that group as well, and worked out with her how we would respond to one another if we appeared in the same one.
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1/7/2011 02:26:20 am
Avoiding dual-relationships is part of social work's code of ethics. If you and your client attend the same Al-Anon meeting you will most likely develop a dual relationship, which is a violation of our code of ethics.
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1/31/2011 10:13:58 am
Jonathan Singer was one of my mentors (without his knowledge!) during my MSW studies at Temple and I have the utmost respect for him. Having said that, I must disagree with what I consider to be his rather cut-n-dry, black-n-white explanation.
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1/31/2011 11:46:55 pm
Terry - I'm honored that I was doing something worthy of your respect during your time at Temple. As I read your response, I don't think you and I are in disagreement. We agree that dual relationships should be avoided when possible. We also agree that in some settings (e.g. rural, small religious communities, etc), dual relationships are inevitable. Thinking ahead and learning from ones mistakes is the hallmark of a master clinician. I agree with all of that.
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2/1/2011 04:36:59 am
Jonathan, Just to clarify, you are STILL doing something worthy of my respect! There's no way ANY graduate course can cover everything the student wants to know and having your podcasts to review helps fill in many of the blanks for me. Not blanks caused by Temple, mind you...just "my" blanks! LOL!
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