Oklahoma Administrative Code › Title 86 - State Board of Behavioral Health Licensure › Chapter 16 - Licensed Marital and Family Therapists › Subchapter 5 - Rules of Professional Conduct › Section 86:16-5-1 - 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
				discriminate against or refuse professional service to anyone on the basis of
				race, gender, religion, or national origin.
(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. Sexual
				intimacy with clients is prohibited. Sexual intimacy with former clients for
				two years following the termination of therapy is prohibited.
(d) LMFTs shall not use their professional
				relationship with clients to further their own interests.
(e) 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.
(f)
				LMFTs shall continue therapeutic relationships only so long as it is reasonably
				clear that clients are benefiting from the relationship.
(g) 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.
(h) 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.
(i) 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 5
				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 (g) and (h) herein.
(j) LMFTs shall obtain informed consent of
				clients before taping, recording, or permitting third party observation of
				their activities.
Transferred from
					 310:400-5-1
					 by Laws 2013, c. 229, § 3(F), eff 11-1-13 (see Editor's Note at beginning
					 of this Chapter)