Trigger Client Assignment
Write a paper on a client or a group of clients you think you would not feel as comfortable working with. The professional ethical codes and state laws require that we only provide therapy that benefits our clients, and that we limit our practice to our areas of training & competency. When it comes to clients who make us uncomfortable or trigger our issues and biases, we simply avoid working with them. However, our ethical codes also require us to represent the field with integrity, and to practice non-discrimination particularly when it comes to areas of diversity such as gender, race, religion, sexual identity, age, etc.
Please do the following:
Reflect about what makes you reactive to this type of client, and write a brief statement about this.
Identify two types of clients who may bring up discomfort or bias for you: A client with some particular type of presenting problem, and a client with some particular type of multicultural identity.
Examples might include
Types of presenting problems
Clients who have battered a partner or child
Clients with sexual attractions to children
Clients with substance abuse issues
Clients with severe mental illness
Clients with a "dual diagnosis" (mental health and substances use)
Clients with intense anger issues
Clients who were sexually unfaithful to a partner
Clients with sever trauma in their history
Types of multicultural identity
Clients from a particular racial group that you know little about, or have stereotypes about
Clients from a class background much different from your own
Clients from a particular type of religious background that you believe may be in conflict with your own religious or spiritual beliefs.
Client from a sexual or gender minority group that you feel unsure or uncomfortable with
Clients with an identity similar to someone who harmed you in the past
Clients from a majority group that has oppressed people in your group
Research both the types of clients you have identified as triggering for you.
use books, book chapters, and journal articles that will help you learn more about individuals from these groups.
Source must be published within the last 5 years, and must be in scholarly publications or books. You may include, however, one or two less-scholarly sources as long as most of your sources are scholarly. Use as many references as you need to feel that you have a significantly improved understanding of the two groups you are studying.
write a paper summarizing what you have learned about each of these groups. Make sure you consider their common experiences, typical needs from counseling, ways in which counseling may not have met their needs well, and common counselor beliefs or stereotypes about them.
If you can find information on how counselors can reduce bias toward such clients or work effectively with them, include it.
Write about how you might appropriately work with people from this group, given your past experiences and what you now know.
The paper should be as long as it takes to clearly and succinctly cover the material
