When it comes to sexual health, clients may face many difficult decisions for which their choices can have significant consequences for many years to come.
When it comes to sexual health, clients may face many difficult decisions for which their choices can have significant consequences for many years to come.
This includes decisions about contraception and abortion. Many of these decisions address very sensitive concerns that clients may experience with a certain degree of embarrassment, misinformation, and uncertainty. Consider for instance, a couple that faces a decision regarding abortion in order to increase the viability of a multiple birth, or a couple whose religious beliefs prevent them from using contraception even though a pregnancy might be fatal to the mother.
Counselors may have the opportunity to help their clients make such decisions in an informed, honest, and thoughtful manner. Counselors also need to be very cognizant of how their own and their clients’ beliefs and values about these decisions are influenced by the contextual background, such as their spiritual beliefs, cultural backgrounds, and current relationship dynamics.
Because these sexual health issues are so very sensitive in nature, counselors must approach them with a solid knowledge base, sound clinical reasoning, and a high level of self-awareness. This week’s assignments will aid you in beginning to consider how best to work with clients in relation to these issues.
Objectives
By the end of this week, you should be able to:
• Explain strategies for helping clients make healthy, informed decisions regarding their sexual health
• Analyze factors that influence clients’ decisions regarding abortion
• Explain how personal beliefs regarding contraception and abortion influence counseling sessions
Please proceed to the Resources.
Helping Clients Make Informed Decisions
According to the ACA Code of Ethics, the “primary responsibility of counselors is to respect the dignity and to promote the welfare of clients” (Standard A.1.a). Counselors also should be “aware of their own values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors and avoid imposing values that are inconsistent with counseling goals” (Standard A.4.b). Keeping both points in mind, counselors must sometimes help clients make informed decisions about behavior that is harmful to themselves and, potentially, others. Whether or not to use contraception is one potential area related to sexuality counseling for which counselors may need to inform clients about potential risk.
Base your responses to this week’s Discussion on the following case study:
You are a counselor working in a college counseling center. You just completed your intake evaluation session with Josiah, a 20-year-old sophomore. Josiah was mandated to attend six counseling sessions after he received a citation from the campus police for underage drinking at a party sponsored by the fraternity to which Josiah belongs.
During the intake session, Josiah was very verbal and willing to share information about his background and current experiences. He shared with you that he frequently drinks six to eight beers or other alcoholic beverages at a time, typically every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday when he “parties with my friends.” He described this as normal behavior among his peer group, saying that this is “just how we unwind from all the stress of school every week.”
When you asked Josiah about his relationships and sexual behaviors, he stated that he has not had a steady partner since high school, saying, “People here just aren’t into long-term relationships.” He admitted that he typically “hooks up” with at least one or two partners each weekend, and when you asked him what he meant by that, he said, “Sex.” You asked if he uses any contraception in these sexual encounters, and he said, “No, I don’t like how they feel, so I won’t have sex if the other person would make me use one.”
You asked Josiah what his goals are for counseling and what he would like to change, and he responded, “Not much really. I like my life and have fun with all the partying we do here. I guess I need to learn to be a little more careful with my drinking since I got that police citation, but otherwise I feel really happy with my life right now and can’t think of much that I really want to work on in counseling.”
With these thoughts in mind:
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When it comes to sexual health, clients may face many difficult decisions for which their choices can have significant consequences for many years to come. was first posted on October 26, 2019 at 10:20 am.
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