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: 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. This can help you cultivate a greater sense of self-awareness and help you avoid unconsciously imposing your values on your clients. Seek Supervision
Even the most experienced helping professionals need to engage in clinical supervision from time to time, especially in situations involving difficult or challenging clients in which strong value differences can come into play. Supervision is a useful tool that can help you develop awareness of the problem and your own feelings, especially when you're unable to put your finger on what's really going on. Sometimes, your supervisor can help you determine whether you should continue working with a specific client, such as in cases when your personal beliefs are so strong that you can't act without bias or judgment. But Williams suggests referring clients to other professionals as a last resort, since this can be construed as a values statement.