LGBTQ Rights and Therapists Rights: Tennesee Law

In 2016 Tennessee passed a law (Senate Bill 1556/House Bill 1840) that allows a counselor who feels their patient's values conflict with their own religious values to refer the patient to another counselor - commonly interpreted as being an attack on the LGBTQ community.

The American Counseling Association (ACA) CEO was outraged, condemned the law, and then pulled the ACA conference from Tennessee and moved it to San Francisco.

As counselors, we have to set ourselves and our values aside however to serve the people we serve.  That's why we do what we do - counseling isn't about us or our beliefs but about our clients.  Any counselor who doesn't know this and doesn't follow it isn't going to be in business very long, nor are they going to be very effective. 

But I think this is bigger than just the LGBTQ community or the ACA's views.

To me, as a counselor, I found it very contradictory that the ACA's CEO discussed how wrong it was that a therapist would drop a client because they don't agree with their views and then in a similar act, pulled out of Tennessee for their conference because they didn't agree with Tennessee's views. That would have been the perfect time and place to hold the conference and discuss the issues and share the professional concerns and enlighten people - but no - it was a thrown away opportunity.

There was nothing in the law that compels a counselor to drop a client, and I wonder if some religions would actually prohibit someone from treating someone with an alternative lifestyle. 

But this is deeper still.   Whenever we're dealing with client issues and doing a diagnosis we need to look into cultural concerns and family values as a part of the diagnosis.   That's a diagnostic game-changer very often, depending on the cultural and family and religious values.  Cultural issues and geographical issues need to be taken into account as well with both legislation and counseling techniques - whether you're on a Native American Reservation, serving in a non-western country providing services, or dealing with a very foreign culture that has moved to the United States.

Right now within the US there have been a number of high-profile lawsuits financially ruining bakeries for refusal to bake wedding cakes for gay couples weddings on religious grounds.  The Southern culture is under attack as being backwater and outdated, their flags are being labeled as racist, their historical memorials are being forced to be taken down,  and there are religious lawsuits where children are being forced to learn about religions that run counter to the generally christian religions that are dominant in the south.  Right now, clearly, Tennesseans don't feel a whole lot of religious freedom and feel their way of life is being assaulted and felt the need to protect it legislatively, and apparently the counseling field was the place they felt the needed to start.

This still leaves it up to the individual counselor as to whether they feel they can treat someone if they feel their religion conflicts and let's ask honestly - would a client want to be treated by someone who can't do this on such a sensitive topic?  Or any topic?   I know I wouldn't.  It's all about "fit" and even competency.

In summary, I don't know many of us who are anxious to drop clients because their values don't line up with ours - very few of my clients' values line up with mine considering I work with sex offenders and domestic batterers - but I came into the field to help others not just hang around with people whose lives are the same as mine.  I do know that forcing people to treat people they aren't a good fit for isn't a good idea either for both the therapist or the client.

In the end I'm not really certain that the law changed a whole lot for us as counselors or for our clients because I believe most of us (I hope) wouldn't drop a client on this basis.  There are aspects of counseling I would require some time, reflection and personal consideration before I undertook the job so I could make sure I was in harmony with my own values and was able to provide the best service to my clients - I try not to recklessly take positions or put myself in situations that won't serve either of us.  But the ACA's reaction and outrage demonstrated a lack of insight into the issues that states are feeling confronted by, current events, as well as was contradicted their own message, and massively missed an opportunity to teach and educate.

Hopefully the counseling field and those who represent our professions can take a better approach and view to future controversies,  and not miss opportunities to teach and reach out in the future.