Therapeutic and Forensic Roles
An article by Greenberg and Shuman (1997) indicated that combining both therapeutic and forensic role is conflicting and problematical. They mentioned that the only solution to this conflict is that these roles cannot be ethically merge together for the same client in any legal proceeding. The opinion given that these two roles can be managed by one person at the same time if only this person is searching for therapeutic services or searching for forensic services but not to the same person. These roles can be administered by one individual through proper education and training, but not for the same individual, when that same individual is currently in a therapeutic relationship with the therapist who also is a …show more content…
Therefore, this paper will elaborate on reasons why therapeutic and forensic roles cannot indeed ethically coincided.
Observations, experience and studies determined that overlapping roles of serving in a forensic capacity in an adversarial system while also maintaining a therapeutic relationship with one client can permanently harm the trust in that therapeutic relationship (Greenberg and Shuman, 1997; Heltzel, 2007). Heltzel (2007) which he reviewed the statements made by Greeberg and Shuman (1997), defines both roles has more briefly and stated that forensic professional is more adjust with that of the entity or individual requesting the service, meaning it is not always the client that forensic professional are devoting their expertise. The role of a forensic psychologist focus their time on any manner of evaluative exercises to any given individual which is often working for a third-party. That third-party will not be able to focus on the overall mental or emotional health of the client, but they focus only to designate through tests and evaluations at