Family court–involved professionals work regularly with individuals immersed in personal and family crisis stemming from litigation and the high-conflict divorce experience. Regardless of the professional role, lawyers, judges, mediators, and mental health providers encounter clients who present with trauma-based symptoms and who, in turn, likely put the professionals who work with them at an increased risk of vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout. This article explores the impact of working with high-conflict divorce clients on experts and strategies for self-care, boundaries, and insulation.
A good deal of attention is paid in counselor education programs to the significance of confidentiality and the rare categories of exception that would compel the counselor to break that sacred vow. The exceptions identified are danger to self, danger to others, and child abuse. In some states, additional mention is made of situations involving elder abuse. Rarely, however, do counselor educators discuss the impact of litigation on the sanctity of the counselor–client relationship and the ability of a subpoena to pierce the cloak of confidentiality that otherwise protects a client’s innermost thoughts and raw vulnerability. This article is an examination of the long arm of the court system and, by extension, the role of a subpoena as the often overlooked, other, exception to confidentiality. The effect of court involvement initiated either by the counselor’s client or by an opposing party on the counselor–client relationship should be clearly addressed in informed consent discussions and written documents to avoid unforeseen complications when a counselor receives and responds to a subpoena.
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