Oklahoma Administrative Code › Title 86 - State Board of Behavioral Health Licensure › Chapter 15 - Licensed Marital and Family Therapists › Subchapter 3 - Rules of Professional Conduct › Section 86:15-3-1 - Responsibility to clients

Current through Vol. 41, No. 20, July 1, 2024
(a) LMFTs are
				dedicated to advancing the welfare of families and individuals, including
				respecting the rights of those persons seeking their assistance, and making
				reasonable efforts to ensure that their services are used
				appropriately.
(b) LMFTs shall not,
				in the rendering of their professional services, participate in, condone, or
				promote discrimination based on age, culture, disability, ethnicity, race,
				religion/spirituality, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital
				status/partnership, language preference, socioeconomic status, or any basis
				proscribed by law. LMFTs do not discriminate against clients, students,
				employees, supervisees, or research participants in a manner that has a
				negative impact on these persons.
(c) LMFTs are cognizant of their potentially
				influential position with respect to clients, and they shall not exploit the
				trust and dependency of such persons. LMFTs therefore shall avoid extra
				therapeutic relationships with clients that could impair their professional
				judgment or increase the risk of exploitation. When extra-therapeutic
				relationships cannot be avoided, LMFTs shall take appropriate professional
				precautions to insure that judgment is not impaired and that no exploitation
				occurs. Examples of such extra therapeutic relationships include, but are not
				limited to, business or close personal relationships with clients.
(d) LMFTs shall not undertake to provide
				therapy to any person with whom the LMFT has had any prior sexual conduct, as
				defined by the Board. LMFTs shall not undertake to provide therapy to any
				person with whom the LMFT has had familial, any prior social, financial,
				business, professional, close personal, or other non-therapeutic relationship
				with a client, or engage in any activity with another person that interferes or
				conflicts with the LMFTs professional obligation to a client within the
				previous five (5) years. Sexual intimacy with clients is prohibited.
(e) Sexual conduct with current or former
				clients is prohibited.
(f) LMFTs
				shall not use their professional relationship with clients to further their own
				interests.
(g) LMFTs respect the
				right of clients to make decisions and help them to understand the consequences
				of those decisions. LMFTs shall clearly advise a client that a decision on
				marital status is the responsibility of the client.
(h) LMFTs shall continue therapeutic
				relationships only so long as it is reasonably clear that clients are
				benefiting from the relationship.
(i) LMFTs shall assist persons in obtaining
				other therapeutic services if a marital and family therapist is unable or
				unwilling, for appropriate reasons, to see a person who has requested
				professional help.
(j) LMFTs shall
				not abandon or neglect clients in treatment without making reasonable
				arrangements for the continuation of such treatment by other appropriate
				professionals as necessary and indicated.
(k) When an LMFT becomes cognizant of a
				disability or other condition that may impede, undermine or otherwise interfere
				with the LMFTs duty of responsibility to the client, including a suspension of
				the LMFTs license or any other situation or condition described in subchapter 3
				of these rules, the LMFT shall promptly notify the client in writing of the
				presence or existence of the disability or condition and take reasonable steps
				to timely terminate the therapeutic relationship consistent with the provisions
				of paragraphs (i) and (j) herein.
(l) LMFTs shall obtain informed consent of
				clients before taping, recording, or permitting third party observation of
				their activities.