CIP Ethical Standards & Professional Boundaries 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A CIP practitioner working with a grieving client begins to feel secondary traumatic stress. The ethical obligation is to:
- Continue sessions and address symptoms after the client finishes
- Seek personal support, supervision, or reduce caseload to preserve capacity to serve clients (Correct answer)
- Disclose burnout to the client and ask for patience
- Take a brief vacation and return without seeking professional support
Correct answer: Seek personal support, supervision, or reduce caseload to preserve capacity to serve clients
Practitioners have an ethical duty to monitor their own wellbeing and take corrective action before impairment affects client care.
Question 2: A practitioner overhears a colleague making claims to clients that their intuitive work can cure cancer. The practitioner should first:
- Post about it anonymously on social media
- Address the concern directly with the colleague or report to the relevant professional body (Correct answer)
- Assume it is a misunderstanding and ignore it
- Warn the colleague's clients directly
Correct answer: Address the concern directly with the colleague or report to the relevant professional body
Reporting or directly addressing unethical conduct by colleagues is a professional obligation to protect the public and uphold standards.
Question 3: Which of the following best describes 'beneficence' in CIP ethical standards?
- Keeping client information private
- Actively promoting the client's wellbeing and best interests (Correct answer)
- Charging fees that reflect market value
- Treating all clients with equal respect
Correct answer: Actively promoting the client's wellbeing and best interests
Beneficence requires practitioners to take positive actions that advance client welfare, not merely avoiding harm.
Question 4: A CIP practitioner is approached to provide testimonials claiming their work cures medical conditions. Participating in this marketing would violate ethics because:
- Testimonials are never permitted in any profession
- It constitutes false advertising and exceeds the scope of intuitive practice (Correct answer)
- Marketing is outside a practitioner's role
- Only licensed physicians may use testimonials
Correct answer: It constitutes false advertising and exceeds the scope of intuitive practice
Making medical cure claims misrepresents the scope of intuitive services and could cause clients to forgo necessary medical treatment.
Question 5: After a client terminates services, how long should a CIP practitioner typically wait before considering any personal relationship with a former client?
- No waiting period is necessary once services end
- At least two years, with careful assessment of the prior power dynamic (Correct answer)
- Six months
- One month
Correct answer: At least two years, with careful assessment of the prior power dynamic
Most ethical codes require a minimum two-year waiting period and careful evaluation of lingering power dynamics before any personal relationship.
Question 6: A client shares information that a third party is being abused. The practitioner's ethical duty is to:
- Keep the information entirely confidential
- Assess the situation and follow applicable mandatory reporting laws while informing the client (Correct answer)
- Confront the alleged abuser directly
- Dismiss the information as outside their scope
Correct answer: Assess the situation and follow applicable mandatory reporting laws while informing the client
Mandatory reporting laws may require disclosure to protect a vulnerable third party, and the client should be informed of this obligation.
Question 7: Which practice would UNDERMINE client autonomy in an intuitive session?
- Presenting information as one possibility for the client to consider
- Insisting the client must follow specific life decisions based on intuitive guidance (Correct answer)
- Encouraging the client to integrate session insights in their own way
- Reminding the client they are free to disregard session content
Correct answer: Insisting the client must follow specific life decisions based on intuitive guidance
Directing clients to take specific life actions based on intuitive readings shifts decision-making authority away from the client and violates their autonomy.
CIP Ethical Standards & Professional Boundaries 4
A CIP practitioner working with a grieving client begins to feel secondary traumatic stress.
The ethical obligation is to: