Tenn. counseling law is an ethics nightmare: Column

The American Counseling Association’s annual conference was supposed to be in Nashville next year, but the group announced recently that it won’t be. This conference usually attracts up to 4,000 professional counselors and is considered the premiere annual event for the ACA’s 56,000 members. Now the association is looking for other cities to host the big March gathering.

The decision to spend money elsewhere came as a result of the new Tennessee law that allows professional counselors to refuse to treat clients based on the counselor’s “sincerely held principles." The law does stipulate that counselors may not refer clients if they are in a life-threatening situation (i.e. suicidal) and that counselors must also provide the potential client with a referral to another appropriate therapist.

ACA, noting Tennessee was the only state to pass such a law, called it an “unprecedented attack” on the counseling profession. That's in large part because our latest ACA Code of Ethics (2014) mandates that counselors cannot transfer clients strictly based on a values conflict.

Being able to work with a diverse clientele is part of the counseling identity. If we refer because of a values conflict, then aren’t we giving our personal beliefs a higher priority than the needs of the client?  Can you imagine your physician informing you that she cannot treat you because you hold a conflicting personal belief? Absurd. It should not be the case with your counselor, either.

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What makes this Tennessee law so harmful is the language. Any counselor can refer a potential client due to a conflict with personal principles. We’ve always had the right to refer out because we’re not the best professional fit (for instance, I’m not trained in treating depression). But it’s another thing entirely to say, “I don’t want to help you because of who you are or what you believe.” It’s now legal to make it a personal problem with any client, not just a professional one. That’s dangerous to the one whose welfare should be protected most — the client.

Some counselors could be using the professional loophole to avoid treating certain clients, but this law takes it to another level, permitting them to easily and openly turn away whole categories of people seeking help. Many critics, for example, are worried that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people will be excluded from counseling and therefore harmed by the law. And of course, that will happen. Not only is this a concern, but it’s also about other situations.

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For instance, imagine that Joe, a veteran who served our country faithfully, comes to counseling at a rural Tennessee practice. He talks about his strong opinions concerning the Islamic State terrorist group and ways the military should be intervening. His male counselor happens to be a pacifist. This counselor has strong feelings against any kind of war or any type of military intervention against ISIL. Before the new law, he would have felt obligated the help Joe. Now, he refers Joe to another counselor 25 miles away from where Joe resides. Joe becomes angry and ultimately avoids getting help. The harm has been done.

I’m not sure about ACA’s decision to move out of Nashville. I know it was a difficult choice, and many counselors were torn about what to do. Maybe it’s the right move because money talks. Or maybe we should have stayed in Tennessee to support the counselors there, by holding a statewide advocacy campaign on the Tennessee courthouse steps next spring. I am not sure what the best course was, but I support ACA’s final decision.

What I am sure of is that this bill is wrong on many levels. I’m a professional counselor, and I do not let my personal beliefs interfere with doing what I do best — serving others and meeting them where they are. That’s my ethical code. And the government shouldn’t have a say about that, especially when it harms the client.

Keith J. Myers, a licensed professional counselor and co-chair of the American Counseling Association's Ethics Committee, is a trauma therapist and veterans advocate in the Atlanta area. 

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