Values of a therapist: disclosure and clarification
Four questions, and the third is explicitly conditional on your answer to the second. That dependency is the structure of the assignment, and answering them as four independent items loses it.
Editorial process
Last reviewed · August 15, 2026
Four questions that build on each other in order
This prompt is built as a chain and should be answered as one. The first question asks whether therapists should deliberately reveal their values; the second asks how much weight a therapist should place on helping the client identify and verbalise their own; the third says explicitly, based upon your response to question two, explain why a client's value system is vital or inconsequential; and the fourth asks for a practical strategy. Answer them as four separate items and the argument has no spine. The opening framing matters too — the prompt states that denying or minimising values causes problems in the therapeutic relationship, which rules out the easy answer that a therapist should simply remain neutral. Value neutrality is not available as a position here, and posts that reach for it are contradicting the premise they were given, which a marker will read as not having engaged with the prompt.
The distinction that organises a strong answer is between disclosure, clarification and imposition. Disclosure is telling a client what you believe; clarification is helping the client articulate what they believe; imposition is steering them toward yours, whether or not you announce it. Selective, purposeful disclosure can serve the work — it can model openness or pre-empt a conflict a client deserves to know about — while routine disclosure shifts the session's centre of gravity toward the therapist. Clarification is almost always warranted, because a client whose choices conflict with their own stated values is usually the reason they came. For the final question, offer something you could actually do in a room: values card sorts, a discrepancy question drawn from motivational interviewing, or asking a client to describe a person they admire and what that admiration reveals about the standards they hold themselves to. Name the technique, then say what it surfaces.
Likely learning objectives
Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.
- 01Distinguish value disclosure, value clarification and value imposition.
- 02Construct an argument in which a later claim genuinely follows from an earlier one.
- 03Identify a concrete clinical technique for eliciting client values.
Read the full question
Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes. Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages. Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor. The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument. Discussion Question: Values of a Therapist ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS Discussion Questions (DQ) Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words. Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source. One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses. Weekly Participation Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. APA Format and Writing Quality Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required). Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation. I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition. Use of Direct Quotes I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly. As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content. It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. LopesWrite Policy For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me. Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes. Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own? Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Late Policy The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies. Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading. Communication Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.
Turn the brief into deliverables
- 01Thorough responses to all four questions.
- 02An answer to question three that visibly depends on your answer to question two.
- 03One practical, nameable strategy for the final question.
- 04APA-formatted citations to an ethics code or clinical source.
From disclosure to a strategy you could actually use
Deliberate disclosure: when and why
Argue a position on therapist self-disclosure of values, distinguishing purposeful from routine.
The weight of client value clarification
Argue how much emphasis belongs on helping clients articulate their own values.
Therefore: vital or inconsequential
Draw the consequence of the previous section explicitly, using the word therefore or its equivalent.
A practical strategy
Name a specific technique and describe how it elicits values without steering them.
Name the boundary
Say how you would recognise your own values beginning to steer the work, and what you would do.
Where the counselling codes address values
Recommended databases
- APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct
- American Counseling Association Code of Ethics
- PsycINFO
- Motivational interviewing literature
- Your course readings for this unit
Search sequence
- 1.Read the code sections on imposing personal values directly; the ACA code addresses it in explicit terms.
- 2.Search the self-disclosure literature for the distinction between purposeful and routine disclosure.
- 3.Look up values clarification techniques by name so your final answer is a real method rather than an idea.
- 4.Cite your unit's assigned readings alongside outside sources.
Reference shortlist
These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.
Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.
- 01
Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct
American Psychological Association · 2017
The standards on competence and human relations that bound what a therapist may bring into the room.
- 02
Counseling Ethics & ACA Code of Ethics Resources
American Counseling Association · 2025
The ACA code addresses imposing personal values on clients explicitly, which is the exact question this prompt asks.
- 03
Code of Ethics
National Association of Social Workers · 2021
Section 6.04 is the standard the prompt cites by number, and reading it directly is what lets the post argue from the duty rather than paraphrase it.
- 04
About Adverse Childhood Experiences
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · 2024
The public-health framing of cumulative adversity, useful wherever a case asks you to connect an individual's history to a population-level pattern.
Review before submission
Common mistakes
- Answering the four questions as independent items, losing the dependency the prompt states.
- Claiming value neutrality, which the prompt's own framing rules out.
- Conflating disclosure with imposition, or treating all disclosure as harmful.
- Offering a vague final strategy such as 'ask open questions' instead of a named technique.
Submission checklist
- Does your answer to question three explicitly build on question two?
- Have you distinguished disclosure, clarification and imposition?
- Is the final strategy specific enough to use in a session?
- Is at least one ethics code or clinical source cited?
Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.
Written by
Aaron Bishop
MA, Education
assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines
Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.
Reviewed by
Dr. Nathan Cole
PhD, Rhetoric & Composition
Argumentation and thesis development
Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.