Is There Such a Thing as Psychological Harm? How Is It Caused? And How Can You Protect Yourself from It?

Question

I am a Counsellor / Life Coach and I have been told that it is possible for me to do psychological harm to my clients and that this is why I need credentialling, registration, supervision and insurance. I think that there is no danger of me causing psychological harm because my approach is highly person centred and because client safety is always a priority for me. If I wanted to, then how would how would I go about creating a susceptibility in one of my clients and then causing him or her harm? Are some clients more susceptible than others? How can you tell the degree of susceptibility? What makes a client susceptible to psychological harm? Can anyone protect themselves from psychological harm? How should one do this? Can we tell for ourselves if we are a susceptible person? Under what circumstances can psychological harm be undone or not? How can it be undone?

Answer 1

I think the major point is that most psychological harm is NOT intentional. So, like...you're a life coach. If you go about that a certain way, it's concievable to give the message "this is how you should be, because this other way that you are is crap". And that's not exactly self-esteem friendly. that's really the only example I can think of, but then I don't have said credentials. I think it DOES make sense to learn about ways that could happen, because they aren't all going to be readily apparant.

Answer 2

Most of the psychological harm, in most cases, is already done when theses peoples get to you.

We now need insurances for everything we do, this is why you need to protect your back. With all the crazy people out there today, you never know who's gonna blame their situation on you.

This will happen when "patients" are mentally unstable or very disturbed to begin with. If their hope/request/situation are not filled/solved by your advices, they have a big chance to target you as the responsible person for the actual situation. Voluntarily or not

If they see they can get money advantages from you, they will have no regrets doing it.

Human nature is very greedy and egocentric. Stick with your insurances, you will not regret it.....

Answer 3

I suppose anyone could hang up a shingle and practice as a doctor. Especially if they had religious training, they could be very sensitive to their patients. One thing kinda bothers me in this scenario. Do they understand the practice and the risks. WHat if they misdiagnose? Is everything a doctor sees interpreted as a punishment from God by such a person?

By what training are you a counselor?