Title: How Not to Impose Your Values on Clients | Work - Chron.com
Headings: How Not to Impose Your Values on Clients
How Not to Impose Your Values on Clients
What It Means
Develop Self-Awareness
Seek Supervision
Maintain a Neutral Position

Content: How Not to Impose Your Values on Clients | Work - Chron.com
How Not to Impose Your Values on Clients
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By Ashley Miller
People who work in the helping professions, such as nursing, social work, counseling, psychology and psychiatry, have to take particular care to avoid imposing their values on clients. Value imposition is a type of boundary violation that can interfere with your clients' progress in treatment as well as their right to self-determination. In their book, "Issues and Ethics in the Helping Professions," counselors Gerald Corey, Marianne Schneider Corey and Patrick Callanan point out that if you're not careful and aware, your values can present some difficulties and significantly affect your work with clients. What It Means
Imposing your values on clients means that you attempt to exert direct influence over their beliefs, feelings, judgments, attitudes and behaviors. This can occur if you're completely unaware of your own attitudes, beliefs and feelings or if you hold strong prejudices against specific groups of people. You can impose your values on clients in an active manner, such as by making direct statements to influence your clients' course of action, or passively, through nonverbal communication, such as crossing your arms or looking away when clients make statements with which you disagree. Develop Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is perhaps one of the best tools you can use to avoid imposing your values on clients. This involves taking a comprehensive inventory of your feelings, values, attitudes and behaviors and noticing your reactions to your clients' statements or actions, especially those that provoke a strong or negative feeling. In an article on values for the American School Counselor Association, professor and counselor Rhonda Williams points out that it can be difficult to avoid steering clients in your direction while at the same time maintaining a helpful attitude. Williams advises checking your values, becoming aware of your clients' beliefs and values and making an effort to be honest with yourself.