Christian Counseling Student Sues School for Forcing Gay Sensitivity Training

Graduate counseling student Jennifer Keeton is suing Augusta State University (ASU) for requiring her to either take diversity sensitivity training or face expulsion. Keeton is a conservative Christian who says her religious beliefs put her at odds with serving gay clients. After Keeton spoke out against homosexuality in class, writings and other unspecified settings (including talk of her interest in practicing conversion therapy), ASU called for her to take this training to include diversity workshops, increased contact with GLBTQ populations.

Keeton and Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the Christian legal group representing her, say ASU wants to force her to change her religious beliefs, violating her first amendment rights. Is this, in fact, a free speech infringement?

Therapist-client relationships play by a different set of rules than do most professional relationships. Mental health professionals are bound to uphold specific professional ethical standards to maintain licensure. You're choosing to limit certain personal freedoms by entering some professions.

For example, health professionals are also bound by doctor-client or therapist-client, etc., confidentiality rules and are not to divulge private client information. Is that a first amendment violation? Of course not.

The Counselor Code of Ethics states that counselors must (1) respect their clients' welfare by being "aware of their own values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors and how these apply in a diverse society, and avoid imposing their values on clients" (A.1.b) and (2) neither condone nor engage in "discrimination based on...sexual orientation" (A.2.a.). According to the American Mental Health Counselors Association, licensed counselors must "subscribe to and pledge to abide by the principles identified in the Code of Ethics."

Though Keeton is not yet a professional counselor, counseling students are taught the Code of Ethics and are exposed to clients through internships. Counselors may, of course, believe what they want, but the professional license and career are bound to the ethical code. If you don't like their code, you're free to go into something else.

These ethical codes are in place to serve and protect clients. They do not dictate a set of beliefs for counselors, but they do require that counselors not impose their own beliefs on clients. They are there to ensure that counselors place their clients' needs as their first priority.

Rule one in the helping professions is “you always start where the client is." That means helping clients with what they say they need help with, not with what you think they need help with. This does not mean that mental health professionals must renounce personal beliefs, but it does mean they must leave them at the door in favor of clients’ welfare.

A therapist once told me about a client he had that came to him because he wanted to figure out how to keep his soon-to-be ex-wife from getting his boat in their divorce settlement. It became clear to the therapist that the man had numerous social and mental health issues. However, those were not the reasons the client came to see him. He just wanted to talk about keeping his boat, so that's what they did.

Why? Because you always start where the client is. Over time, they formed a level of trust and began tackling other problems as the client himself brought them up. As it turned out, the two spent years working through his issues and working to improve his life. The bottom line: In a client-counselor relationship, the client is king.