Esq.
I want to talk about impending
threats to Christian counselors and I want to focus particularly on some of
the counseling ethics codes and focus on a specific area where I think we're facing
a major threat want to focus first of all on the American Counseling Association
in the American Counseling Association. Has in its ethical guidelines its
position on repairing a therapy or the broader term change
therapy in the guidelines it says this to refer a client to someone
who engages in change therapy or repaired of therapy in their view or their
terminology regarding same sex attractions communicates to the client that his or
her same sex attractions and behaviors are disordered and therefore
need to be change this the A.C.S. says contradicts the dictates of the two
thousand and five a CA code of ethics so we begin with that proposition the code
of ethics in the a CA also goes on to say that we find no
scientific evidence for published psychological peer reviewed journals
that conversion therapy is effective. Let me make sure we're on the same. Powerpoint page here is
the requirement for counselors. And this is a hypothetical that's given
in the code of ethics the counselor is presented with someone who is having
the same sex attractions they have not acted on the same sex attractions
they do not want to act on those same sex attractions and they do not believe that
they are homosexual that they are gay or **** they come to you as a counselor for
counseling this is what the A C. a code of ethics talks
about the requirement for a counselor in a situation like that any
professional It says that is engaging in such repaired of therapy or change
therapy must receive appropriate training in such treatment sounds reasonable you
need to have the training in the area of counseling but however the a CA goes
on to say there is no professional training condoned by the A.C.L.U. or other
prominent mental health associations so you start off with the proposition that
you need to have appropriate training which seems reasonable and then the AC
says but there is no such training so you know where this ultimately is
going in the counselor's the A.C.S. says stating that they can
offer conversion therapy or repaired of therapy must also offer
referrals to gay **** bisexual affirmative affirmative affirmation
firming counselors the code of ethics strongly suggests that ethical
professional counselors do not refer clients to someone who
engages in conversion therapy or if they do to proceed cautiously only
when they are certain that the referral counselor fully informs the client of
the unproven nature of the treatment and the potential risk and
take steps to minimize the harm so the A CA code of ethics is then moving
towards what the requirements for councillors are informed consent and obviously I think all of
us in this area where. I agree that counselors need to have
an informed consent but the mandatory informed consent of the counselors
is something that is quite startling first of all the consent needs to say that
any professional that's engaging in such treatment needs to have the training there
however is no training the counseling requirements that counselors need to
have as far as this an informed consent. Is that let me get to this Power Point. That first of all the therapy or the
treatment the counseling that I am about to provide or that some other counselor
will provide upon my referral assumes that same sex attractions and
behavior are mentally disordered that's part of the are informed
consent under the A C. code of ethics so that you don't
violate one of those ethical codes. The next thing however that the counselor
must provide is that this belief the very fact that I will counsel
you that change is possible or that someone else may counsel you to
whom I refer that change is possible counter addicts the position held by
the American Council in association and other health and by a medical professional
organizations the third point and that is required of informed consent so
as not to violate the ethical code is that conversion therapy as
a practice is a religious and not a psychologically based practice. The next criteria is that there
is no training offered or condoned in this area and
the next point is that research does not support conversion therapy as
an effective treatment modality and then another is that there is potential
harm when clients participate in conversion therapy so
to kind of recap this and there's one more I'll get to that the
therapy that I'm going to offer or that I'm going to refer you to assumes that
you're disordered but that believe count. Dix the very licensing code if
you're licensed under the A.C.L.U. and one of half of the states in
the country that contradicts the licensing of which I'm practicing under or the
licensing and the positions of every other mental health association by the way this
particular counseling is religious and it's not psychologically based and
there's no training offered Forte there's no research that shows that
it's effective and by the way you might actually be harmed by this in fact
treatment or this counseling and finally the last part of this is that there are
treatments indorsed by the Association for gay **** and bisexual issues in counseling
these treatments are gay affirmative and help a client reconcile his or her same
sex attractions with religious beliefs so after all of what I just said that there's
no training that it's against my licensing that in fact it could actually harm you
there's another organisation I can refer you to that actually will affirm and
better help your situation if you do not follow that particular informed consent
and if you're licensed in the state under the AC a code of ethics and
you either engage in that counseling or you're first someone who will engage in
that counseling for someone who comes to you who is having same sex attractions but
they don't want to act on and have not acted on the same sex attractions
and they do not believe that they're gay or **** then if you don't follow
that informed consent you will be found in violation of the CA code of
ethics Now that is startling but it's even more startling as to how many
states actually have adopted the A C. code of ethics Alaska Arkansas Arizona. The District of Columbia Idaho Illinois
Louisiana Massachusetts Mississippi Nebraska North Carolina North Dakota
South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Utah West Virginia and
Wyoming beyond those there are additional states that have adopted
parts of the code of ethics Colorado. No the board refers licensees to the A C. A for advice and ethical guidelines and
Ohio the board there subscribes to the code of ethics and practice standards
for counselors promulgated by the CIA. Which shall be used as AIDS in
resolving ambiguous situations which may arise in the interpretation
of the rules of professional ethics and conduct so there are a guideline but
they're not mandatory. In other words half of the states
including the District of Columbia have adopted the A C. a code of ethics. If you're in one of those states and
licensed under the A C. code of ethics that's the informed
consent you need to comply with. The National Association of Social Workers
position on change therapy says that such treatment potentially can
lead to severe emotional damage and transformational ministries ministries
that ultimately try to assist those with same sex attraction are fueled by
stigmatization of Lesbians and Gays. The American Psychological Association
the A.P.A. which as you know declassified
homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in one thousand
nine hundred seventy three the position that it has on change their
plea is like these other organizations the American Psychological Association
opposes any psychological treatment such as quote repaired or close quote or
quote conversion close quote therapy. The American Association of for
Marriage and Family Therapist it has a position on
change or repaired of therapy as well. And its position is that such treatment
potentially can lead to severe emotional disorder or severe damage that same sex
attraction first of all is not a mental disorder and that we do not believe
according to the American Association for marriage and family therapy
that sexual orientation in and of itself requires treatment so
there's a written over. Isn't a council someone who comes to you
having same sex attractions even though they don't want to act on it have not
act on it there's no reason to counsel them because there's no problem
according to this organization. Same sex orientation is a normal variant
of human sexuality that takes a variety of forms and expression. There's a number of other efforts besides
what's happening in the counseling organizations and we've touched on the
major organizations but there's others but across the board the major organizations
have very similar opinions with regards to what oftentimes is referred
to as repaired of therapy or the broader term of change therapy. Legislative efforts have been underway in
addition to these organizations that we talked about because each one of these
organizations are actually involved in legislative policymaking that's the reason
why the American Council in association has had its ethical code adopted in
half of the states in the country one such legislative effort is one
that is exceptionally concerning and it is an area in which Liberty Council
where I service chair are we are having a team of attorneys look at right now
with regards to this particular piece of legislation if indeed it passes
it will be the first such kind of its nature in the country its California
Senate bill eleven seventy two and it being a Ends changed their opinion or repaired of therapy in that
terminology for minors so if you are a minor not of age eighteen
you are not able to have this kind of treatment so as a parent even if you
wanted to take your son or daughter to. Counsel or because they're having same sex
attractions and they're struggling with the issues involved in same sex
attractions this particular legislation would prohibit you as a parent from
giving that kind of treatment to a minor. And in fact if your minor son or daughter
is in counseling at this moment and if this bill were to pass it would
ultimately affect your rights as a parent to continue that counseling even though
that counseling is having a therapeutic effect for your son or daughter State
Senator Ted Lieu who is one of the people pushing this particular bill was quoted
recently as stating the following quote The attack on parental rights is exactly
the whole point of the bill because we don't want to let parents harm
their children preventative therapy hurts children so this bill allows us to
stop parents from hurting their children. That is a startling statement people have
alleged that this particular bill is an attack on parental rights it's not only
an attack on printer rights it's an attack on the minors who are receiving counseling
or who want to receive counseling and clearly it is an attack on counselors
themself because this bill would ultimately make it illegal to engage
in this kind of therapy I don't know if there's any other kind of therapy that
has ever faced this kind of scrutiny or certainly this kind of attempt to
literally literally criminalize but that's in fact what's happening in California it
is startling however that a state senator would come out and admit that the purpose
of this bill is to take away the rights of parents to have counseling or
therapy for their own minor children we are talking to counselors in California
who actually among many other other counseling practices do engage in change
their opinion client directed counseling when a client comes into their office
the counselor is asked by that client for certain kinds of therapy certain
kinds of therapeutic intervention and shouldn't the client be able to ask for
that shouldn't a client be able to have the freedom to be able
to ask that particular counselor for some kind of assistance. Yet in California if this bill
passes that would be illegal. And this would also mostly criminalize
the very act of counseling startling indeed the constitutional implications
of this are significant because for example you could have gay
affirming counseling you could have anything positive to say
about same sex attractions you could encourage someone that their same
sex attractions are normal variant and there's nothing to be concerned about even
though the client is struggling with that and has issues that the client
needs to be resolved but on the other hand if you referred or
if you ultimately engaged in counseling based upon the client's own interest
in being able to resolve this and not wanting to act upon these same sex
attractions then that would be illegal so only one viewpoint of this particular
very important subject matter would be criminalized clearly this
would be unconstitutional but yet in fact this is what's happening
in the state of California if it passes it will have
a ripple effect in California for other councillors and possibly even
around the country with other states wanting to come on board to do
something very similar to the A.P.A. in addition to the legislative
actions in California the A.P.A. task force came out with a report and
it said that same sex attractions or same sex sexual attractions behavior
in orientations per se are normal and positive variance of human sexuality and recommended that licensed mental health
professional support adolescents ages in that particular task force of twelve
through eighteen to explore or have exploration of identity
by accepting homosexuality and bisexuality as normal and positive
variance of human sexual orientation. In addition to the legal
threats that we see happen. In California and all of these
counseling organizations focusing on moving to the legislative policy arena
totally restrict this area of counseling there's legal threats as well and later
in this program tonight and the rest of the day you will also hear more specific
information about these legal threats so I won't dwell too much on that but
I want to focus on two brief cases involving counseling students
these are students who wanted to pursue graduate counseling courses one in Augusta
State University Jennifer Keaton and the other in Eastern Michigan
University Julie award both of these individuals which you'll learn about later
in this presentation were individuals who were pursuing their graduate
programs in counseling and they were alternately individuals who for
their religious beliefs did not accept homosexuality as a normal
part of human behavior and they were ultimately told that if
they did not accept or pursue and participate in various kinds
of gay affirming programs or even assignments that they would not be
able to complete their graduate training lawsuits have ensued and you'll hear about
the results of those but these individuals alternately have been precluded
by some of these institutions and they're not going to be the last students
that ultimately will be precluded by these institutions because of these kinds
of attempts to stop this area of counseling clearly this particular area of
counseling is a significant area of threat to Christian counselors let me talk just
briefly as I conclude about the roadmap. I think we're at a situation in
history with regards to Christian counselors were Christian counselors
are literally the tip of the iceberg with respect to same sex attractions and
counseling and certainly there is a there is a necessity that
counselors address the religious and spiritual components of those
clients that counsel when. Counsel with them what about a client who
has a significant religious conviction with respect to homosexuality that
it is not a positive variant that they're experiencing same sex attractions
but they don't want to act on them and they haven't and they want them all
to only resolve those issues and a Christian counselor wants to be able to
engage in therapy to that client who's actually asking for this intervention
Christian counselors are literally facing the very tip of the spear where by virtue
of merely counseling that individual or referring that individual to someone else
for counseling that that will be punished either by an ethical code depending upon
what state and what licensing code you are licensed under or if California has
its way in the legislative arena and that passes through legislation
I think is councillors and certainly as the American Association of
Christian counselors being the largest Christian counseling organization
in the world I think it's time for counselors to band together to
understand that that threat is real and to band together to do something
about it the roadmap ahead counselors I believe must be able to
address the client's spiritual needs there is a relationship in the medical
arena between spirituality and morbidity and mortality rates the greater
the spirituality the better you have on these other mobility and mortality rates
and that in fact doctors from a medical person perspective outside of counseling
often times realize and there are studies that show that this relationship
clearly exist if someone has a strong spiritual foundation the more likely
that they will have a better recovery as opposed to somebody who has no spiritual
or a lower spiritual foundation it clearly is documented within the medical
literature within counseling I think it's the same way in Christian counselors
have the right have the duty I believe to recognize that in the client that he or she is counseling to either address it
specifically or to refer to someone who. Who is better capable
to address that issue this area is not one of those
areas that we need to X. out this is an area for
client counselors and it's an area for clients to be able to have the counseling
that he or she needs we need to also educate the public about the necessity
of working with the whole person and not just part of the person meaning the
spiritual components of these individuals that come into your office we also need
to educate about the importance of client directed counseling that clients clearly
have the right to have this counseling end of this would be unprecedented for
a client and for a counselor to have only this one area of counseling
off limits and I think finally and this is I think the beauty of the American
Association of Christian counselors. And the organization that it
has amassed over the years is that we need to organize and
we need to oppose legislative efforts to restrict Christian counselors we
need to do that on the state level and when to do that if necessary in the
nation's capital we also need to be doing that with the various ethical codes
that are out there that are already in existence with the various psychological
organisations clearly A.C.C. is in the best position to be able to
organize Christian counsellors across a wide variety of experience and expertise
to band together because this is such a time if we don't speak up now then we'll
have to forever hold our peace I encourage you to get involved I encourage you
to learn more about this issue and I encourage you to join with other
counselors in your area and with A.C.C. because this is a critical and impending
and real threat to Christian counsellors.
Considering Ethics and the Faith Factor – Dr. Tim Clinton
So George let me start with you just
a quick synopsis of your presentation. Well I'd like to say that I agree with
maps point that we are at a historic crossroads really a crossroads
in the right to practice and bring our faith into our work as
counselors as caregivers as pastors even. And I think from now on we need to
embrace the idea that it would be just as important to defend our
right to practice as it will be to practice well to practice in
the best way we can it's Christians. That's where the. Well I talked about Christian counseling
and the evidence that shows that if you. Practice a Christian oriented counseling
and you match it well to the client then the evidence supports that it will
be at least as effective as a similar secular therapy and it will probably
have better spiritual effects. To Jeremy to disco. In than the most important
point I think to take away from my discussion is that Christians are under
attack within the profession whether they are trying to enter it or retain lace I'm sure that they are already
have and it's incumbent upon them at this time this critical time to understand what
their rights are in ultimately be willing to stand up to defend them because
of this generation doesn't do that the next generation of Christian
councils will have less or no rights. TO TALK TO SCHOOL East's. Talk about was how important it was to
understand that we must be spiritually competent to provide great care
to the clients that come into our practices wrestling with
a variety of mental health issues and disorders and that the language
that actually already exist. Out there in a number of secular
professional entities like A.P.A. CA am F T even regulatory boards already give us a platform on which
we can stand in advocate for our clients faith based values and
advocate for this whole issue and it's not so much about just choosing
one value over another whether it's religion or ethnicity or culture
a variety of things what it is is about supporting it advocating a client's right
to self-determination and honoring and respecting their value system as well
as making sure that we and that we as. Professionals hold the profession
accountable to addressing and being competent to deliver care
when it comes to spirituality. And state for I talked about the imminent
threats to Christian councilors in one specific area and there are many
threats in other areas as well my focus was with regards to counseling someone
with same sex attractions in the threats come from several different fronts that
come from the professional Council in associations that come from the ethical
codes of those states that have adopted the American Council in association
a code of ethics they are coming from the legislative arena for example most
frequently in recently in California and they're coming from the legal
arena as well and consequently counselors need to understand those
threats not to cower to those threats but ultimately rise up and challenge and
ultimately move forward because I think what's at stake is the right
of Christian counselors to counsel and ultimately have clients in self directed
counseling that need that spiritual component to be addressed and so I think
those issues are at stake and I think it's time that we educate ourselves about that
and we mobilize and do something to make sure that we continue to have the right to
counsel and I don't know if any of you at some general questions you want to ask
each other for a moment right before. Matt jumps into the stack
of questions of come in but tonight really isn't about taking on
an issue the issue of homosexuality tonight our focus was the whole issue of
spirituality and faith for a moment and talking about how significant is
faith to therapeutic outcomes and then obviously when there is a conflict
therapeutically what do we do. Reverse the situation either way but
how do we go about that what is the preferred professional
ethic and how can we be responsible in conducting ourselves as professionals
one question I had I want to direct over to Dr Worthington was as you've
looked through the research on outcomes related to let's say religion spirituality
faith issues and mental health are you encouraged I mean specifically in
Christian counseling Are you encouraged or is there is such a you
know just such scant work that it's not really substantive and
something that we can't stand on. I'm encouraged then again I
kind of positive psychology. I mean easily encouraged. But you know I think that there is
a firm foundation of research and there's research basically showing
that faith matters to people's physical mental health relationships and
spirituality and also there's a body of research that
says that Christian counseling works and it produces happy clients too
you know it doesn't just work so I am I'm encouraged I think I mean
courage because of the evidence base not just because I happen to
be a real positive got a. Great anyone else I would just add
to would Dr Worthington saying. It is as Christian professionals
whether we're Akam additions or clinicians we have to understand
the rules of engagement and we can't just say well I believe the Bible
and therefore I know faith works and it's important which we all believe and
it's true but we have to be willing and able to effectively engage the profession
at the level that they can relate to and if that's research that's competent
well designed I'm confident and encourage that the results will support
what we already know to be truth but we have to go out and demonstrate
it to maybe a somewhat disbelieving professional world out there so some may
be a little bit confused on the issue of where they practice or how as how
they practice as a professional or maybe a lake counselor a pastor or
a chaplain and the context is a lot to do with what we're
talking about tonight too as professionals meaning you're licensed by the state in a
various One of the mill health disciplines you are regulated by the state
you are governed by the code of ethics that's out there and
so you've got some challenges now as we look at all that what we're
trying to do is move so move our way through this maze if you will where
there's a lot of controversy going on and we're just trying to give language and
conversation to this sort of back to you Matt Well Dr Klein We
have a lot of questions already we've got more coming they're going to direct
them all to Dr we're going to direct. Everyone does have
a positive time together. But you can e-mail your questions
the staff here in A.C.C. will bring them up here and
we'll try to get through as many of those as possible let me start off with
this general question I'll throw it out to the panel and I want to come
back with a specific question on the religious aspect of counseling but
we are seen some questions c
