Alabama Administrative Code
Title 536 - ALABAMA BOARD OF EXAMINERS IN MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY
Chapter 536-X-8 - STANDARDS OF CONDUCT OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPISTS
Section 536-X-8-.01 - Responsibility To Clients

(1) Marriage and family therapists provide professional assistance to persons without discrimination on the basis of race, age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, gender, health status, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or relationship status.

(2) Marriage and family therapists obtain appropriate informed consent for therapy or related procedures and use language that is reasonably understandable to clients. When persons, due to age or mental status, are legally incapable of giving informed consent, marriage and family therapists obtain informed permission from a legally authorized person, if such substitute consent is legally permissible. The content of informed consent may vary depending upon the client and treatment plan; however, informed consent generally necessitates that the client:

(3) Marriage and family therapists are aware of their influential positions with respect to clients, and they avoid exploiting the trust and dependency of such persons. Therapists recognize within communities there is potential for multiple relationships to exist with a client. Marriage and family therapists accept that multiple relationships add to the complexity of the professional relationship and work to ensure clarity of professional judgment and avoid exploitation of the client.

(4) Sexual intimacy with current clients is prohibited.

(5) Sexual intimacy with current clients or with known members of the client's family system is prohibited.

(6) Sexual intimacy with former clients is prohibited for five years following the termination of therapy or the last professional contact. Sexual intimacy with known members of a former client's family system is prohibited for five years following the termination of therapy or the last professional contact.

(7) Marriage and family therapists shall not provide clinical services to an individual with whom the marriage and family therapist has had a prior sexual relationship.

(8) Marriage and family therapists shall not sexually harass clients. Sexual harassment includes sexual solicitation, requests for sexual favors, unwanted sexual advances or physical harassment of a sexual nature.

(9) Marriage and family therapists comply with applicable laws regarding the reporting of alleged unethical conduct.

(10) Marriage and family therapists do not use their professional relationships with clients to further their own interests.

(11) Marriage and family therapists respect the rights of clients to make decisions and help them to understand the consequences of these decisions. Therapists clearly advise the clients that they have the responsibility to make decisions regarding relationships such as cohabitation, marriage, divorce, separation, reconciliation, custody, and visitation.

(12) Marriage and family therapists continue therapeutic relationships only so long as it is reasonably clear that clients are benefiting from the relationship.

(13) Marriage and family therapists assist persons in obtaining other therapeutic services if the therapist is unable or unwilling, for appropriate reasons, to provide professional help.

(14) Marriage and family therapists do not abandon or neglect clients in treatment without making reasonable arrangements for the continuation of such treatment.

(15) Marriage and family therapists obtain written informed consent from clients before videotaping, audio recording, or permitting third-party observation.

(16) Marriage and family therapists, upon agreeing to provide services to a person or entity at the request of a third party, clarify, to the extent feasible and at the outset of the service, the nature of the relationship with each party and the limits of confidentiality.