What might you do in these situations? What are the pros and cons to
the various options, and what do you see as being the best approach to take? Are there any negative
consequences to your chosen actions? What might you do to minimize and/or
counteract those? Is there any way you could
have prevented these situations from arising in the first place?
1. You have a private practice that is the sole source of your income. Many of your referrals come from the court system, due to your various specialties in working with offenders. You recently received a referral from this same court system to treat a client for substance abuse following repeated alcohol-related offenses. Your approach to such treatment is to use a controlled drinking model, rather than an abstinence model, because of the research illustrating the strength of the abstinence violation effect. However, the court insists that all mandated substance abuse clients attend both individual therapy and also Alcoholics Anonymous, a group that supports only the goal of abstinence.
1a. Same as above, but the substance being abused is marijuana,
not alcohol.
2. A client was referred to you for an evaluation of violence potential as a condition of his parole for an assault. The referral question is "Will this client assault someone again?" You explain to the parole officer that psychological assessment can never predict the future perfectly, and that all you can do is assess his potential, not give an absolute answer. He said that unless you can say absolutely that your client will not assault someone again, the client is going to prison.