Friend Requests and Ethical Wrecks
Today’s Best Practices for Navigating Social Media Boundaries and Dual Relationships
- Speaker:
- Michael Jones, PhD, NCC, BC-TMH
- Duration:
- 3 Hours
- Copyright:
-
Jan 21, 2027
- Product Code:
- POS151123
- Media Type:
- Digital Seminar - Also available: Live Webinar
Tags: APA
Description
Don’t let a single click, tag, or reply put your license and your clients at risk
- A plug-and-play social media policy ready for informed consent
- A simple framework for the boundary calls that hit between sessions
- Strategies for friend requests, patient googling, and public reviews
- How to create a defensible online presence that won’t erode the therapeutic bond
A client sends a friend request. Another posts a public review naming their diagnosis. A clinician’s vacation photos sit one tagged post away from the people they treat.
Social media has collapsed the wall between personal and professional life.
And the codes of ethics have been catching up ever since.
So if you worry that offline ethics don’t transfer cleanly to online spaces (spoiler alert: they don’t), don’t know about having a written social media policy, or are unsure how to respond to client-initiated contact or public online reviews this training is for you.
Join Dr. Mike Jones as he shares up to date guidance and best practices to navigate the gray zones of today’s clinical reality …
… PLUS gives you a simple to use framework for the boundary decisions that show up between sessions.
Drawing on the ACA Code of Ethics and the parallel standards of the NASW, APA, and AAMFT, this training will help counselors, social workers, psychologists, marriage and family therapists and other mental health professionals locate their obligations and protect both their clients and their professional practice in an increasingly connected world.
Don’t let a single click put your license and your clients at risk.
Register now!
Credit
Speaker
Michael Jones, PhD, NCC, BC-TMH Related seminars and products
Michael Jones, PhD, NCC, BC-TMH is a licensed professional counselor, researcher, professor and national voice on the ethical integration of technology, telehealth and artificial intelligence into mental health systems. A former ACA Ethics Committee Member (2020–2023) Dr. Jones is the founder of the Counselor Education Collective and former president of both the Arkansas Counseling Association and the Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. In addition to his clinical work and teaching, he provides strategic consulting to universities, government agencies, and corporations on technology integration, AI implementation, and leadership development. Dr. Jones has been published in a number of journals, written chapters for books and is the co-editor of the book Mental Health and the Black Man: A Mixtape Experience of Hardship and Harmony. (Cognella, 2026).
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Michael Jones has employment relationships with the University of the Cumberlands and Renewed Vision Counseling. He receives royalties as a published author. Michael Jones receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Michael Jones serves on the NBCC Minority Fellowship Advisory Council Committee. He is a member of the American Counseling Association, the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision, the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development, and the Arkansas Counseling Association.
Additional Info
Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)Access never expires for this product.
For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com.
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Objectives
- Analyze common social media boundary dilemmas using the relevant provisions of the ACA Code of Ethics Section H and the parallel standards of the NASW, APA, and AAMFT.
- Examine a written social media policy that clarifies professional boundaries for clients at informed consent.
- Evaluate clinical and ethical responses to client-initiated online contact, including friend requests, patient-targeted searches, and public reviews.
Outline
- The collapse of the wall between personal and professional life online
- The cross-disciplinary ethical landscape: ACA Code of Ethics Section H and the parallel NASW, APA, and AAMFT standards
- The social media boundary dilemmas clinicians actually face between sessions
- Write and apply a social media policy at informed consent
- Respond to client-initiated contact: friend requests, follows, and direct messages
- Patient-targeted googling and public reviews that disclose client information
- Build a defensible, ethical online presence without eroding the therapeutic relationship
- Risks, research and limitations
Target Audience
- Counselors
- Social Workers
- Psychologists
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Addiction Counselors
- Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners
- Case Managers
- Other Mental Health Professionals
Reviews
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