LPC Fundamentals of Counseling 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: The term 'dual relationship' in counseling ethics refers to:
- Providing both individual and group therapy to the same client
- Having a professional role and a secondary relationship with a client simultaneously (Correct answer)
- Seeing clients from two different cultural backgrounds
- Co-therapy conducted by two counselors with one client
Correct answer: Having a professional role and a secondary relationship with a client simultaneously
A dual relationship occurs when a counselor holds a professional role alongside another type of relationship (social, business, romantic) with the same client.
Question 2: According to Albert Ellis's REBT, psychological disturbance is primarily caused by:
- Unresolved conflicts in the unconscious mind
- Irrational beliefs about events and circumstances (Correct answer)
- Lack of unconditional positive regard in childhood
- Deficits in social learning and modeling
Correct answer: Irrational beliefs about events and circumstances
REBT holds that it is not external events (A) but irrational beliefs (B) about those events that cause emotional and behavioral consequences (C).
Question 3: A counselor notices a pattern of feeling personally responsible when clients do not improve. This is most likely an example of:
- Vicarious traumatization
- Countertransference (Correct answer)
- Compassion satisfaction
- Positive transference
Correct answer: Countertransference
Over-responsibility for client outcomes reflects countertransference—the counselor's own unresolved issues affecting their response to the therapeutic relationship.
Question 4: In systems theory, the concept of 'homeostasis' refers to a family's tendency to:
- Promote individual differentiation among members
- Maintain stable, familiar patterns of interaction even when dysfunctional (Correct answer)
- Seek change through external therapeutic intervention
- Align with the dominant cultural narrative
Correct answer: Maintain stable, familiar patterns of interaction even when dysfunctional
Homeostasis describes a family system's drive to maintain its equilibrium and familiar interactional patterns, even when those patterns are unhealthy.
Question 5: The Tarasoff decision established that counselors have a duty to:
- Maintain absolute confidentiality under all circumstances
- Warn identifiable third parties of credible threats made by clients (Correct answer)
- Hospitalize any client who expresses anger
- Obtain written consent before sharing records with courts
Correct answer: Warn identifiable third parties of credible threats made by clients
The 1976 Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California ruling created the duty-to-warn/protect doctrine for identifiable potential victims.
Question 6: Which theoretical approach would most likely use a 'miracle question' as a clinical technique?
- Psychodynamic therapy
- Solution-focused brief therapy (Correct answer)
- Dialectical behavior therapy
- Behavioral activation therapy
Correct answer: Solution-focused brief therapy
The miracle question is a hallmark technique of solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), developed by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg.
Question 7: When a counselor is working with a client who has a different cultural background, cultural humility requires the counselor to:
- Become an expert in the client's culture before beginning treatment
- Continuously reflect on their own biases and remain open to learning from the client (Correct answer)
- Apply culturally adapted manualized treatments at all times
- Refer the client to a counselor who shares their cultural background
Correct answer: Continuously reflect on their own biases and remain open to learning from the client
Cultural humility involves ongoing self-reflection, acknowledging the limits of one's cultural knowledge, and centering the client as the expert on their own cultural experience.
LPC Fundamentals of Counseling 4
The term 'dual relationship' in counseling ethics refers to: