I wish it had only happened once, but unfortunately that would not be the truth. Over the course of my career, I've been asked several dozen times to review a case for a company, school, or litigation where someone in psychiatry wrote a letter on behalf of a client. This letter has all too often turned out to be a catastrophe.
A letter I read in a legal dispute for a company came from a psychologist. The clinician wrote a two-page letter full of her feelings for the client, but it did not address in one simple sentence what the employer asked for. The letter couldn't have been worse.
(Author's note: In each of these cases, some information was changed to protect the identity of those involved.)
In another case, also in a lawsuit, the plaintiff's clinician stated that she had "never" suffered from depression, which was disputed in the lawsuit. Under no circumstances could this clinician support this statement unless she had been the person's clinician from birth.
One of my colleagues wanted to hand over a letter to the court on behalf of his adult client. The man had been his client for some time when my friend helped him through the early stages of the divorce. The man's lawyer asked for a letter stating that the man was a good father.
As in the previous example, my friend couldn't really know if the man was a good father. He had never worked with the man's children or observed him as a parent. In addition, my friend had no experience with custody. A statement here would have been a big mistake.
And here's another example: A clinician agreed to testify for her adult client. The clinician had worked with the woman for a long time and knew her well. She wanted to help the woman who had sued her employer for harassment and disability. The clinician showed no doubt that returning to work would harm the woman's trauma recovery.
At the testimony, however, the employer's lawyer cornered her and the clinician had to admit that she had no real training in trauma, no experience of incapacity for work, and only had the woman's word for what had happened – Facts that became even clearer in the deposit.
As a result, the client lost her lawsuit against the employer and, even worse, felt betrayed by her doctor and withdrew from therapy.
Because of situations like this, many clinicians choose not to do this type of advocacy for clients. Although we are bound by the ethics of consultants to be our clients' advocates “when appropriate” (see Standard A.7.a. of the ACA Code of Ethics 2014), our ethics do not dictate how we should do so. If you choose not to get involved in court, school or at work, this should be stated on your informed consent.
As my vignettes above illustrate, there are many dangers associated with advocacy, but these risks alone should not stop you. If you decide to represent your client, three simple rules apply here.
Rule 1: As Jean Peterson pointed out in a 2017 article for Counseling Today, you need to be aware of whether you are "testifying" as an expert witness (either in court or in a business environment). or as a factual witness. As an expert, you can provide an opinion, but this must be based on your specialist knowledge (see rule 2). As a factual witness, you are only witnessing what happened. For example: "The customer has kept all the appointments requested by the employer."
Rule 2: Never leave your specialist field and your training. If you have expertise and are appointed as an expert, state your case. But when asked about something that requires you to move outside of this range, do not comment on it.
Rule 3: When presenting a letter or testimony to a client as a lawyer, always seek the opinion / supervision of someone with experience. Legal counsel would also be useful.
Abstract: Most of the mistakes made in the anecdotes in this article relate to two problems. First, we want to help our customers so much that we don't think about the implications of what we might get ourselves into. Second, most clinicians are not trained in client advocacy, and CE opportunities in this area are rare. As a result, most clinicians just don't know what they are doing. So be careful.
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Gregory K. Moffatt is a senior counselor with over 30 years of experience and the Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Point University. In his monthly Voice of Experience column for CT Online, he aims to share the theory, ethics and practice lessons from his diverse career as well as inspiration for today's consultants, whether they are just starting out or have been practicing for many years. His experience spans three decades of working with children, trauma, and abuse, as well as a host of other experiences including working with schools, businesses, and law enforcement agencies. Contact him at [email protected].
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Opinions and statements in articles appearing on CT Online should not be construed as the opinions of the editors or guidelines of the American Counseling Association.
