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As mental health services become more mainstream the individuals seeking those services become more diverse. The need for culturally competent counselors is on the rise. The following will highlight a scenario in which I am morally opposed to homosexuality and find myself working with a client who discloses he is homosexual and is having problems in his romantic relationship with another man. How I would handle this situation, ways in which my own moral standards in the context of this therapeutic relationship would be maintained, ways in which my moral stance might impact therapy, ways in which disclosure of my moral values may come into play, and considerations for how to address clashes between my own values and client values in the future will be the topics of discussion. Regardless of what issues a client presents in session a counselor should first identify if the client’s issue will cause an issue for them. For example, if a counselor is in recovery from alcoholism and a client needs to address their own addiction issues this may be too close to home for the counselor to handle in an unbiased and professional way. Therefore a counselor should always ask themselves, ‘will this be an issue for me’ when presented with a client issue. Secondarily as counselor should identify if they are competent in their abilities to address the client’s issue. Is the topic something the counselor is comfortable with, educated on, or has experience with? It is unprofessional, unethical, and potentially harmful to the client to agree to address issues that one is not competent to address. If a counselor finds that they are competent and the client’s issue does not cause an issue for the them than the counselor can proceed to identifying new go... ... middle of paper ... ...useful properties. However, transference can quickly turn a strong alliance into a weak one. Transference can cause issues such as ambivalence and distrust towards the counselor or therapy in general ADD Source. Lastly a strong morally opposition to a client’s behaviors, beliefs, et cetera can result in limited ability to help the client. A counselor may be subconsciously unwilling to help or even openly unwilling to help a client with a particular issue they have taken a stance on. In inability or unwillingness to help a client certainly impacts therapy. It can impact what a client is willing to talk about, the progress that is able to be made, and determines if a client should seek services elsewhere. If a client does not feel their issues are being adequately addresses they will either retreat and give up on addressing them or move on to an alternative solution.

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