Ethics question

A mental health counselor has been assigned a patient who is a minor and the first session the MHC only meets with the patient's mother (to complete consent forms, comprehensive assessment etc). After the 1st session the patient's mother says that they would like their child to be transferred to a different clinician due to their child's preference to work with a female clinician. The patient is then transferred to a female clinician.

Being that the original clinician did not have any sessions with the patient and no therapeutic relationship was established, would it be an ethical or legal issue if the clinician and the patient's mother began seeing each other outside of the clinic? Why or why not?


Thank you

F24J wrote:Being that the original clinician did not have any sessions with the patient and no therapeutic relationship was established, would it be an ethical or legal issue if the clinician and the patient's mother began seeing each other outside of the clinic? Why or why not?

I'm not a professional, but ethically, I don't know that I see this as a big deal. It's not as if the patient was directly involved. Legally, that may be another question. But I don't see it as inherently creepy or something. Folks get attracted to each other.