Understanding Counselor Moral Distress

When a mental health professional is prevented from delivering the type or level of care he or she believes a patient needs, a seldom-recognized and untenable moral dilemma ensues. Much as for nurses and other frontline medical providers in whom Moral Distress was first identified, mental health professionals are increasingly susceptible to this occupational stressor. Over time these caregivers begin to experience the cumulative effects of an inner conflict between their sense of purpose and their ability to act on it in the best interests of the patients under their care. This books expands the awareness of Moral Distress to include counseling professionals in order to promote early detection before its effects can cause the impairment and deep discouragement that has been recognized in nursing to be a significant contributor to burnout and attrition. The affirming and relational psychology of Alfred Adler is employed to provide a framework for assessing moral distress in counselors followed by a proposed method to guide intervention based upon Viktor Frankl's meaning-centered and spiritually-informed Logotherapy.