The NBARP Professional Practice Code
*Adapted for ARCS Students
ARCS Mission
Addiction-Recovery Counseling Services, LLC (herein also referred to as "ARCS") provides addiction-recovery coach certification training accredited by The National Board of Addiction-Recovery Professionals (herein also referred to as "The NBARP" or "NBARP"). It is the mission of ARCS to equip [1]ARCS practitioners (herein also referred to as "practitioner" or "practitioners") with ongoing education and resources.
The predominant mission of a Certified Addiction-Recovery Coach (herein also referred to as "CARC") is to quantitatively improve the functioning and qualitatively enhance the well-being of their respective clients. Essentially, the ARCS mission is designed to support the mission of ARCS practitioners, generally, and CARCs, specifically.
CARC and ARCS clients may be individuals, couples, families or groups. Since the ARCS Student Curriculum focuses upon specialized intervention and recovery techniques for both substance and behavioral addicts, clients are more likely to consist of addicts and their respective family members. Nonetheless, the ARCS field of study and practice considers addiction, its causality and its symptomatology within the breadth of the comprehensive human experience, yielding ARCS practitioners well-prepared to help many non-addicts who may be suffering with self-defeating and unwanted behavioral patterns.
Purpose of the NBARP Code
This NBARP Professional Practice Code (herein also referred to as "the Code" or "Code") establishes a set of values, ethics and standards to which all ARCS practitioners are expected to adhere. It is relevant to all ARCS practitioners, in all practice settings and with all client populations.
The primary purpose of this code is to enforce the ARCS Mission, and it serves to do so in the following ways:
1. The Code clarifies the ARCS Mission, detailing the unique features of ARCS practice.
2. The Code sets forth clear standards by which ARCS practitioners are held accountable for professional values, ethics and conduct.
3. The Code provides professional practice standards by which the general public can hold ARCS practitioners accountable.
4. The Code provides professional practice standards by which the professional community can hold ARCS practitioners accountable.
5. The Code establishes a benchmark of practice that the collective of ARCS practitioners, ARCS and the NBARP can utilize to assess whether such practitioners have engaged in unprofessional or unethical conduct.
6. The Code serves as a guide by which ARCS practitioners can prevent conflicts of interest.
7. The Code serves as a guide by which ARCS practitioners can resolve ethical dilemmas.
Upon a credible report of gross professional negligence, misconduct or other failure to adhere to the standards set forth in this code, the NBARP reserves the right to immediately suspend an ARCS practitioner's certification and/or continued duties, for the indefinite term of a thorough investigation. The course of such investigation may or may not include an internal peer review and/or an NBARP hearing. The conclusion of such procedures may or may not result in required remedial action, loss of position and/or permanent revocation of certification. While violations of this code are not implicitly synonymous with violations of the law or with legal liability, the NBARP and/or ARCS reserve the right to notify all relevant national, state and local authorities and to participate in court cases, when appropriate.
The NBARP and ARCS offer financial compensation for reports of gross professional negligence, misconduct or other failure to adhere to the standards set forth in this code, that lead to criminal or civil conviction.
Report concerns about gross professional negligence, misconduct or other failure to adhere to the standards set forth in this code, at one or both of the following:
legaldepartment@arcstofreedom.com
certificationreviewboard@nbarp.org
The NBARP and ARCS applaud and support ARCS practitioners who seek help if in crisis, thereby responsibly preventing professional, ethical or other violations.
Each CARC is required to attain and maintain ongoing, weekly appointments with a [2]Designated Professional Advisor (herein also referred to as "DPA"), with whom they should confer, in the event that they face an ethical or other dilemma that they feel unable to clarify through this code, until an adequate resolution that concurrently satisfies this code can be identified and applied.
CARCs must choose a Designated Professional Advisor that holds one of the following professional credentials:
1. NBARP-Certified ARCS Professor
2. Masters-Level Counselor
NBARP Practice Principles
The NBARP has established seven principles of practice that define ARCS practitioners' roles, responsibilities and rapport with clients:
1. Respectful
2. Committed
3. Protective
4. Empowering
5. Competent
6. Responsible
7. Fiduciary
RESPECTFUL
Respectful – A Systems Approach
ARCS practitioners, much like [3]social workers, are trained to view clients through the multi-dimensional lens proffered by Systems Theory, which recognizes the macro (institutionalized), mezzo (community-based) and micro (individualized) spheres of interaction, influence and intervention. Systems Theory provides an adaptable conceptual framework through which ARCS practitioners are uniquely qualified to assess and assist clients, within the complex challenges of their addiction and the varied requirements of their sustained recovery.
Systems Theory affects the way in which ARCS practitioners approach clients and the world, at large. Fundamentally, it ensures that all tenets espoused within this code are practiced on multiple coexisting levels and in myriad diverse formats, including the professional principle of Respectfulness.
Respectful – Macro Level
Implicit within the CARC field is special recognition of both behavioral and substance addicts, whether active, abstinent, recovering or otherwise, as a vulnerable and oppressed group; thus, ARCS practitioners should be sensitive to cultural, ethnic and other forms of diversity and promote social justice, in all areas, against a global system of discrimination, of which discrimination against addicts is a mere parcel. They should consistently seek multi-cultural awareness and appreciation, as well as acknowledge the strengths inherent in distinct cultures. They should deliver services that are culturally appropriate and sensitive.
ARCS Non-Discrimination Policy:
ARCS practitioners should not practice, condone, facilitate or collaborate with any form of discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, political belief, religion, lack of religion, immigration status, or mental or physical disability.
Respectful – Mezzo Level
ARCS practitioners should cultivate a replete understanding of each client's family dynamics and community networks. Furthermore, they should seek to understand both the ways in which and the degree to which a client's familial and communal environments may have impacted their beliefs, motivations and needs.
ARCS practitioners are mindful to allocate support services to clients based upon their most fundamental needs, first, as determined by a comprehensive bio-psycho-social assessment, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and additional evaluation tools. On a local and immediate level, ARCS practitioners seek to ensure clients' adequate access to vital resources.
Only The NBARP is authorized to set fee ranges for CARC clients. Furthermore, all ARCS practitioners must offer coaching session fees that are "fair, reasonable, commensurate with services performed and considerate to clients' ability to pay", based upon The NBARP's most recently published Sliding Fee Scales.
NBARP Sliding Fee Scale for CARC Clients:
$25.00 - $135.00 per 50-minute coaching session
ARCS practitioners are encouraged to grant free, initial consultations to prospective clients; however, the NBARP forbids free, ongoing sessions, as they can easily create lack of client motivation and accountability, as well as blurred practitioner-client boundaries. Extraordinary circumstances in which one might charge a nominal fee for ongoing sessions (such as homelessness coupled with an catastrophic lack of resources) must be considered carefully and on a case-per-case basis.
Respectful – Micro Level
ARCS practitioners treat each person with caring and consideration. They appreciate each client's unique personhood and, furthermore, they are mindful that individualized differences exist within cultural distinctions. More specifically, ARCS practitioners are acutely aware of the devastating role that internalized shame plays in chronic addiction and seek to reverse this destructive mechanism, at its most elemental level, with a model of respect and dignity within practitioner-client rapport and interaction.
NBARP Intrinsic Worth Policy:
All ARCS practitioners have a duty to believe in the intrinsic worth of all living organisms and,
more specifically, of all human beings; thus, respect and dignity are implicitly owed and never need be earned.
ARCS practitioners respect each clients' self-determination. They work not only on behalf of, but also in conjunction with their clients, engaging them as collaborative partners in the change process. ARCS practitioners help clients to recognize their inherent gifts and strengths as integral to both defining and achieving short and long-term goals.
ARCS practitioners may only limit a client's right to self-determination when, in the practitioner's professional estimation, a client's actions or potential actions pose a serious, foreseeable and imminent risk to themselves or others.
COMMITTED
Committed – Client Interests First
In accordance with the ARCS Mission, the needs of clients are generally given precedence. ARCS practitioners would only place client actual or perceived needs secondary to an ethical or legal obligation, such as mandatory reporting that a client or other may be in danger.
In fact, ARCS practitioners must elevate client-interest above their own self-interest. As in any vocation that navigates the subtle and precarious variables between life and death, addiction-recovery coaching demands that personal business sense and healthy profit motive, while not only permitted but even encouraged, must fall subordinate to each ARCS practitioner's foremost commitment to be of service.
Committed – Avoid Conflicts of Interest
ARCS practitioners must stay vigilant to identify and avoid conflicts of interest. A conflict of interest is defined as any professional arrangement or circumstance in which the practitioner's professional discretion, judgment or objectivity may be compromised.
ARCS practitioners must inform clients, immediately, whenever an actual or potential conflict of interest occurs and take proactive measures to resolve the conflict expeditiously and in a manner that maintains clients’ interests as primary. In such instances, prioritizing client interests might commonly require termination of the practitioner-client relationship, with proper referral of the client to comparable services.
ARCS practitioners are completely and solely responsible to avoid conflicts of interest, including but not limited to the following:
1. ARCS practitioners must not in any way exploit others, for their own personal, professional, social, political, financial or other gain.
2. ARCS practitioners should not engage in dual or multiple roles.
(a) Dual or multiple roles develop if an ARCS practitioner interacts with a client in more than one context, whether professional, social or business. Dual and multiple roles create conditions conducive to distorted boundaries, exploitation, inappropriate practitioner-client interaction, miscommunication, misunderstanding and misconduct.
For instance, an ARCS practitioner who is also a 12-step recovery member must not coach someone that they sponsor. Additionally, ARCS practitioners must not coach friends, relatives, neighbors or business associates, such as their accountant or their hair stylist.
(b) Dual or multiple roles can occur simultaneously or consecutively.
For example, an ARCS practitioner must not coach a friend, whether they are currently close or have not seen one another since childhood.
(c) Most of the time, dual and multiple roles are avoidable. In the limited circumstances in
which they are unavoidable, ARCS practitioners are responsible to both set and abide by
clear, professional and appropriate boundaries.
For instance, if an ARCS practitioner were to see one of their clients at a 12-step or other function, they should not engage with such client in any interpersonal manner and should, furthermore, help the client to understand and accept this boundary. Also, if a former client were to begin working in a facility at which an ARCS practitioner conducts groups, the practitioner would be responsible to notify the program's administrator and to establish new and professional boundaries with their former client.
ARCS practitioners who are also 12-step recovery members are strongly encouraged to practice in a geographical area separate and distinct from that in which they attend meetings in order to minimize the propensity for dual and multiple roles.
3. ARCS practitioners must not barter for their services.
(a) Bartering is defined as, “accepting goods or services, in exchange for addiction-recovery coaching services”. Bartering arrangements create conditions conducive to distorted boundaries, exploitation, inappropriate practitioner-client interaction, miscommunication, misunderstanding and misconduct.
For example, if an ARCS practitioner's client is a professional massage therapist, they must not exchange coaching services for massage services. Accordingly, if an ARCS practitioner's client is a professional hair stylist, they must not exchange coaching services for beauty services.
(b) While ARCS practitioners can offer a series of small or large unrelated groups (such as community workshops) as well as initial consultations, for no charge, ongoing individual or related-group sessions offered "free" are considered a form of abstract bartering and are prohibited.
4. When coaching a couples or families, if an ARCS practitioner anticipates or discovers a conflict of interest amongst or with the parties, the practitioner should immediately clarify their role with all parties and act to proactively eradicate any conflicts of interest.
(a) ARCS practitioners must, with all parties, clearly identify which participants will be considered “clients”, thus beneficiaries of such practitioner's professional obligations, and which participants will not be considered “clients”.
For example, if a couple is starting coaching sessions together, they would each and both be considered “clients”. Conversely, if a woman begins coaching sessions and, at some future point, invites her husband to attend a session, the woman is the practitioner's client, but the husband is not; rather, he is a visitor, a “non-client” participant.
(b) ARCS practitioners should exert professional acumen to identify group members' attempts to manipulate the practitioner and/or to triangulate with the practitioner. Triangulation is a phenomenon in which related parties “recruit” a third-party (such as a coach) through which to divert relationship tension and stress.
For instance, if an ARCS practitioner begins coaching a newcomer in recovery, and that client's mother attempts to call the practitioner for “regular updates” on her child's progress, it is vital that the ARCS practitioner explain her professional obligations to the client (child) and his/her consequential incapability to provide session information to the non-client (mother). In this scenario, the ARCS practitioner may also opt to provide the non-client (mother) with relevant support resource information, such as Al-Anon literature and meeting schedules.
PROTECTIVE
Protective – Informed Consent
ARCS practitioners should provide all clients with informed consent, fully apprising clients of the purpose, benefits, risks, limitations and costs of addiction-recovery coaching services. Additionally, ARCS practitioners should always inform clients of their respective rights to refuse or, at any time, to withdraw their consent for services.
ARCS practitioners are solely and fully responsible for ensuring that their clients comprehend and consent to all terms and conditions of addiction-recovery coaching services; therefore, practitioners should encourage client to ask clarifying questions throughout the process of informed consent. Also, practitioners should use clear and easily understandable language, when explaining the terms and conditions of such services. Finally, if a client is illiterate or does not share the same primary language with the practitioner, the practitioner must take measures to assure the client's understanding, such as acquiring and integrating a qualified interpreter or translator.
ARCS practitioners are not authorized to work in the context of private or independent practice with clients who are legally or otherwise deemed incapable of providing informed consent or clients who are receiving services involuntarily. Therefore, ARCS practitioners are expressly and strictly prohibited from working with clients who suffer any form or degree of diminished or limited capacity to provide informed consent, unless under the direct supervision, licensure and employ of an agency or organization specializing in the treatment of such population.
Additionally, CARC's are not authorized to work with clients who are under the guardianship or conservatorship of any third-party. CARC's and other ARCS practitioners who wish to work with adolescents should consult the individual consent laws governing their respective practice jurisdiction.
Due to the nature of the specialized population that ARCS practitioners serve and their respective need not only for professional confidentiality but also for general, societal anonymity, ARCS practitioners are expressly and strictly prohibited from video or audio taping any client sessions, except for training sessions that receive written approval from and direct supervision by ARCS.
ARCS practitioners are strongly encouraged to develop and utilize forms for client intake, assessment, orientation, referral and termination.
Each ARCS practitioner is fully and solely responsible for ensuring that any and all forms that they provide to clients are up-to-date and complete, including but not limited to all information that may be required to satisfy both the conditions of this code and the laws of their practice jurisdiction.
Protective – Privacy & Confidentiality
ARCS practitioners must respect their clients’ right to privacy. Furthermore, they should not solicit private information from their clients, unless it is necessary for providing services. Finally, once private information has been shared, all standards of privacy and confidentiality apply.
ARCS practitioners must protect the confidentiality of all information garnered throughout the course of addiction-recovery coaching services and other related activities. The professional expectation is that ARCS practitioners will keep all information regarding clients confidential.
ARCS practitioners should discuss the nature and limitations of clients' rights to confidentiality, with both clients and all other relevant parties. Through the process of informed consent and well prior to formally engaging in addiction-recovery coaching services, clients should be made aware of the exceptional conditions in which private, confidential or otherwise privileged information may be requested or legally required and, thus, possibly disclosed.
There are very few circumstances in which an ARCS practitioner would be appropriate in disclosing confidential or privileged information and, even in such exceptional instances, the practitioner is fully and solely responsible for taking the following actions:
1. whenever possible, make every effort to preemptively inform the client about the content, scheduled time and potential ramifications of such disclosure.
2. always divulge the least amount of information needed to achieve the disclosure's purpose.
ARCS practitioners must protect clients' confidentiality, except in the following instances:
1. when disclosure of confidential or privileged information is essential to prevent foreseeable and imminent harm, to a client or to others.
2. when legally required.
(a) Even if and/or when an ARCS practitioner is compelled to disclose confidential or privileged information by a court of law, the practitioner should protect their client's confidentiality to the greatest extent permitted by law.
(b) If a court orders an ARCS practitioner to disclose confidential or privileged information without clients' consent and the practitioner believes that such disclosure my cause harm to the client, the practitioner should request that the court withdraw the order, limit its scope and/or maintain the information under seal and, thus, as inaccessible by the public.
3. by client consent.
(a) ARCS practitioners may disclose confidential and privileged information with direct and valid written consent from clients.
(b) In the event that such disclosure is requested by the client but not recommended by the ARCS practitioner, such practitioner may also stipulate that the written request for disclosure be witnessed and/or notarized.
4. with consultants.
(a) ARCS practitioners may discuss client cases as needed with professional colleagues, trainers and mentors, provided that such consultants are bound to uphold the confidentiality of the practitioner's disclosures to equal professional and legal extent as the practitioner is required to defend the confidentiality of their clients.
For example, an ARCS practitioner may consult with their ARCS trainer, professor or a Masters-level counselor; however, ARCS practitioners may not consult with halfway house staff members or treatment center technicians, unless they have a Masters Degree in the counseling field.
(b) ARCS practitioners may discuss client cases as needed with professional consultants, provided that the practitioner does not disclose any identifiable information about the client, including but not limited to the client's name, email address, telephone number and any circumstantial information that may readily identify the client.
For example, if discussing a client case with a professional colleague, trainer or mentor, an ARCS practitioner should not only withhold the client's readily identifiable information, such as their name, but they should also withhold sharing of details such as that the client might be dating a particular person, or that they used to be married to a particular person, or that they work at a specific place, or any other such circumstantially identifiable information.
(c) ARCS practitioners should not disclose identifying information when discussing clients with consultants unless the client has consented to disclosure of confidential information or there is a compelling need for such disclosure.
(d) When consulting with colleagues about clients, ARCS practitioners should disclose the least amount of information necessary to achieve the purposes of the consultation.
5. as consultants
(a) ARCS practitioners operating as professional colleagues, trainers, mentors and in any other consultation role should not disclose identifying information when discussing clients, including for teaching or training purposes, unless a client has consented to disclosure of confidential information in writing.
(b) ARCS practitioners should respect confidential information shared by colleagues in the course of their professional relationships and transactions.
(c) ARCS practitioners should ensure that such colleagues understand ARCS practitioners’ obligation to respect confidentiality and any exceptions related to it.
(d) ARCS practitioners operating as professional colleagues, trainers, mentors and in any other consultation role should discourage colleagues from disclosing identifying information, when discussing clients, unless the client has consented to disclosure of confidential information or there is a compelling need for such disclosure.
(e) ARCS practitioners operating as professional colleagues, trainers, mentors and in any other consultation role should encourage colleagues to disclose the least amount of information necessary, when discussing clients, to achieve the purposes of the consultation.
Circumstances which the are NOT exceptions to the standards of confidentiality include, but are not limited to the following:
1. ARCS practitioners should not disclose private, confidential or otherwise privileged information to third-party payers (such as insurance companies), unless the client has authorized such disclosure.
2. ARCS practitioners should not disclose private, confidential or otherwise privileged information to members of the media.
3. ARCS practitioners should protect the confidentiality of deceased or otherwise indisposed clients.
4. ARCS practitioners must arrange to protect clients' confidentiality even subject to their own sabbatical from practice, termination of practice, death or other incapacity.
When coaching couples, families or any other type of groups ARCS practitioners should:
1. seek comprehension by and consensus amongst all parties involved, concerning each individual's right to privacy and confidentiality.
2. seek comprehension by and commitment from all parties involved, regarding each individual's moral obligation to preserve the confidentiality of all information shared in group sessions.
3. seek comprehension by and consent of all parties involved, that the practitioner can in no way guarantee that all individuals will honor agreements established to respect and preserve group session participants' privacy and confidentiality.
In addition to the more stringent and obvious parameters of confidentiality, ARCS practitioners should exercise discretion and take reasonable precautions in their everyday activities, to secure clients' rights to privacy and confidentiality. For example, practitioners should not discuss confidential information (either about clients or with them) in public or semi-public areas, be they online or offline, including but not limited to waiting rooms, hallways, elevators, restaurants, sidewalks, cafés, blogs, forums or social media platforms. ARCS practitioners who see clients in any residential environment (whether the client's home or a residential institution) are responsible for ensuring that a private session space has been secured and can be maintained. ARCS practitioners are expressly and strictly prohibited from holding addiction-recovery coaching sessions in any setting that does not protect client privacy and confidentiality.
Protective – Documentation & Record-Keeping
ARCS practitioners should exercise discretion and take reasonable precautions to protect the confidentiality of clients’ written and electronic records, as well as any other sensitive material. Nonetheless, ARCS practitioners are not responsible for the data security of online and offline third-party service providers.
ARCS practitioners should exercise discretion and take reasonable precautions to confirm that clients' records are stored in a secure location and kept inaccessible to unauthorized parties. ARCS practitioners should always protect client confidentiality and follow the laws of their respective practice jurisdiction, regarding the number of years that client records must be stored, following termination of services, and the manner in which client records should ultimately be either transferred or destroyed.
ARCS practitioners should provide clients with ample access to their respective records, so long as the client has requested such access in writing and the practitioner has redacted any non-client confidential information, therein. If an ARCS practitioner feels concerned that access to such records might cause distress to the client, the practitioner should take time to review and interpret the records, with the client. Only in exceptional circumstances, in which the practitioner believes that access to such records may cause serious harm the client, would an ARCS provider limit a client's access to their records, or to a portion of their records.
ARCS Practitioners who take session notes are encouraged to employ a standardized and widely-accepted documentation style, such as the Data-Assessment-Plan (D.A.P), the Data-Assessment-Response-Plan (D.A.R.P.) and the Subjective-Objective-Assessment-Plan (S.O.A.P.) note-taking styles. Many ARCS practitioners opt not to record session notes, or to transcribe very minimal and/or coded documentation, to maximize client security.
EMPOWERING
In alignment with their core mission, ARCS practitioners seek not merely to support clients, but more importantly to impart the vital skills with which they can meet and sustain their own needs and aspirations. ARCS recognizes that human relationships can be powerful models for rehabilitation; thus, ARCS practice methods and materials are specifically designed to promote clients' incremental cultivation of personal responsibility, accountability and empowerment. In fact, it is the specialization in the addiction-recovery field, coupled with several distinct and empowering practice features that collectively render the ARCS practitioner-client interaction as unique, within the interdisciplinary helping landscape.
Empowering – versus Enabling
Undoubtably, due to acute awareness of toxic enabling as a prevalent and debilitating force in addictive relationships, the ARCS practice setting and rapport involve conscientious and proactive focus on empowerment, versus enabling. Following the old parable, ARCS practitioners do not “fish” for their clients; rather, they teach clients how to bait their own hooks and cast their own lines, working with them, as they practice and hone their new skills.
ARCS practitioners diligently seek what is often subtle discernment between each clients' capabilities, strengths and gifts, set against their requirements for external resources. Furthermore, ARCS practitioners do not foster a monopoly amongst either of these forces but, rather, a prosperous equilibrium in which self-reliance and external reliance fortify one another. Through customized intervention strategies, ARCS practitioners train both addicts and their family members to differentiate between toxic enabling and healthy enabling or, rather, a measure of helpfulness that is naturally conducive to the comprehensive empowerment of its beneficiary.
Empowering – as Modeling
ARCS practitioners are cognizant that the coaching setting provides ample opportunity for clients to model new perspectives and behaviors. Modeling, or “mimicking” is a very natural way to learn. It is, in fact, the way that we incorporate and integrate new information, as children.
Since modeling is, essentially, the most innate way that we learn, it is fully expected to be a central activity in any fundamental change process. Nonetheless, ARCS practitioners must remain vigilantly aware that the instinctive drive to learn through modeling can also become confusing for clients, as it can so remarkably resemble a surrogate relationship.
Whilst counselors from myriad professional domains should and most often do receive dedicated education in the more precarious facets of practice, ARCS practitioners' specialized acuity about the addictive trait of over-dependence yields them extraordinarily adept in helping clients to experience unprecedented breakthroughs in session, while still recognizing their unrivaled position of sovereignty, in their own lives. ARCS practitioners empower clients to understand that, although the coaching environment may be productively utilized as a template for growth, the client should not mistakenly relegate the practitioner (or anyone else) to a parental or other role that would, by definition, seem or seek to excuse the the client from preeminent responsibility in their respective decisions and actions.
Empowering – ARCS Curricula
ARCS practitioners are encouraged to integrate ARCS methods and materials into coaching sessions. The ARCS Client Curriculum provides ongoing skills and education coupled with a strong focus on tangible, daily action which can collectively promote personal recovery and healing. ARCS materials can empower CARCs and their clients by enhancing continuity of information, continuity of care, efficient and effective session planning, quantifiable progress and increased participation in coaching sessions:
Module 01 - The Toolkit
Module 02 - Knowledge versus Acceptance
Module 03 - Looking at the Literature
Module 04 - The Cycle of Addiction (abridged version)
Module 05 - The Cycle of Addiction (part 1)
Module 06 - The Cycle of Addiction (part 2)
Module 07 - The Disease Concept (part 1)
Module 08 - The Disease Concept (part 2)
Module 09 - The Disease Concept (part 3)
Module 10 - Anatomy of a Relapse (part 1)
Module 11 - Anatomy of a Relapse (part 2)
Module 12 - Details of Diagnosis (part 1)
Module 13 - Details of Diagnosis (part 2)
Module 14 - Details of Diagnosis (part 3)
Module 15 - History Lesson (part 1)
Module 16 - History Lesson (part 2)
Module 17 - Addiction as a "Handicap"
Module 18 - Case Study (part 1)
Module 19 - Case Study (part 2)
Module 20 - Case Study (part 3)
Module 21 - Case Study (part 4)
Module 22 - Case Study (part 5)
Module 23 - Case Study (part 6)
Module 24 - Case Study (part 7)
Module 25 - Case Study (part 8)
Module 26 - Case Study (part 9)
Module 27 - Personal Faith in the Healing Process (part 1)
Module 28 - Personal Faith in the Healing Process (part 2)
Module 29 - Personal Faith in the Healing Process (part 3)
Module 30 - Personal Faith in the Healing Process (part 4)
Module 31 - Spiritual Warfare
Module 32 - Behavioral Addiction (part 1)
Module 33 - Behavioral Addiction (part 2)
Module 34 - Behavioral Addiction (part 3)
Module 35 - Introduction to Counseling
Module 36 - Developmental Stages
Module 37 - PTSD (part 1)
Module 38 - PTSD (part 2)
Module 39 - PTSD (part 3)
Module 40 - Internal Mechanics (part 1)
Module 41 - Internal Mechanics (part 2)
Module 42 -Internal Mechanics (part 3)
Module 43 - Internal Mechanics (part 4)
Module 44 - Boundaries (part 1)
Module 45 - Boundaries (part 2)
Module 46 - Q&A (part 1)
Module 47 - Q&A (part 2)
Module 48 - Q&A (part 3)
Module 49 - Inner Child Practicum (part 1)
Module 50 - Inner Child Practicum (part 2)
Module 51 - Inner Child Practicum (part 3)
Module 52 - Inner Child Practicum (part 4)
Module 53 - Accountability (part 1)
Module 54 - Accountability (part 2)
Module 55 - Accountability (part 3)
Module 56 - Accountability (part 3.1)
Module 57 - Accountability (part 3.2)
Module 58 - Accountability (part 3.3)
Module 59 - Accountability (part 3.4)
Module 60 - Accountability (part 3.5)
Module 61 - Accountability (part 3.6)
Module 62 - Accountability (part 3.7)
Module 63 - Accountability (part 3.8)
Module 64 - Accountability (part 4.1)
Module 65 - Accountability (part 4.2)
Module 66 - Accountability (part 4.3)
Module 67 - Accountability (part 4.4)
Module 68 - Accountability (part 5)
Module 69 - Rules of Disclosure
Module 70 - The Power of Action
Module 71 - How to Change (part 1)
Module 72 - How to Change (part 2)
Module 73 - How to Change (part 3)
Module 74 - Maintenance (part 1)
Module 75 - Maintenance (part 2)
Authorized CARCs may offer their private clients (i.e. individual, couples and related group private session clients, only) access to The ARCS Client Video-Workbook Curriculum, through independent portal registration with ARCS.
Authorized CARCs may offer their private clients (i.e. individual, couples and related group private session clients, only) access to The ARCS Student Video-Workbook Curriculum, on a case-by-case basis, as approved by the NBARP.
Authorized CARCs may offer their unrelated group clients the following 14 video-workbook lessons from the Client Curriculum:
Module 01 - The Toolkit
Module 02 - Knowledge versus Acceptance
Module 03 - Looking at the Literature
Module 04 - The Cycle of Addiction (abridged version)
Module 18 - Case Study (part 1)
Module 19 - Case Study (part 1)
Module 20 - Case Study (part 2)
Module 21 - Case Study (part 3)
Module 22 - Case Study (part 4)
Module 23 - Case Study (part 5)
Module 24 - Case Study (part 6)
Module 25 - Case Study (part 7)
Module 26 - Case Study (part 8)
Module 27 - Case Study (part 9)
Module 40 - PTSD (part 3)
ARCS practitioners are EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED from acquiring or providing independent access to the ARCS Client and Student Curricula. In short, the only way in which both CARCs the general public can access the ARCS Client and Student Video-Workbook Curricula is by individually registering with ARCS through their online portal and, furthermore, by adhering to stipulations including but not limited to the following:
1. Participating clients must attend consistent weekly coaching sessions, with a participating CARC.
2. Participating CARCs must attend weekly ARCS Alumni Groups, with an NBARP-certified ARCS Professor.
3. Participating CARCs and clients must each be formally registered through the online ARCS Portal.
4. Participating Student-Curriculum clients must be pre-approved for certification eligibility, by the NBARP.
This restriction serves the mutual benefit of all parties:
1.Participating clients are only able to access ARCS video-workbook lessons, if attending consistent weekly coaching sessions with their designated CARC.
2. CARCs secure their collective exclusivity, as the only coaching-field professionals with access to ARCS video-workbook lessons.
3. The NBARP and ARCS ensure that CARCs get the professional support that they need.
4. The NBARP and ARCS ensures that CARCs are overseeing client access to ARCS copyrighted video-workbook content.
COMPETENT
ARCS practitioners should be measurably proficient in the performance of their professional duties. Furthermore, they should provide coaching services and represent themselves as qualified only within the parameters of their education, training and certification, professional consultation received, or other relevant experience. ARCS practitioners should operate only within their areas of expertise and are required to both attain and maintain valid NBARP-certification status, in order to perform addiction-recovery coaching sessions and any other related activities.
Competent – through Professional Development
ARCS practitioners should bolster their expertise through a viable protocol of ongoing professional development. They should regularly review all available literature, resources and correspondence regarding practice methods and professional ethics.
ARCS practitioners should strive to steadily increase their practical insight and skills, staying updated with new information and innovation within the professional helping realm, generally, and the addiction-recovery specialization, specifically. When reviewing new techniques, practitioners should apply professional diligence and discernment, critically examining them and integrating only modalities that demonstrate empirical efficacy. Ultimately, ARCS practitioners should advertise and offer only services for which they have received appropriate, professional training.
Competent – as Interdisciplinary
ARCS practitioners should consider themselves part of an interdisciplinary collective of both professional and layperson colleagues who oft times specialize in the rehabilitation of addicts and their family members, including but not limited to psychiatrists and other physicians, treatment center staff, transitional housing owners and managers, and 12-step recovery sponsors and members. ARCS practitioners should cooperate with internal ARCS colleagues and with colleagues from other disciplines when such alliances serve the well-being of clients.
ARCS practitioners should treat colleagues respectfully, encouraging productive collaboration on behalf of clients. When working in conjunction with colleagues, professional and ethical obligations of the collective effort and of each involved individual should be clearly delineated.
ARCS practitioners should increase the value of interdisciplinary interaction, by drawing upon their specialized ARCS training and field expertise. Furthermore, practitioners should stay apprised of colleagues' inherent strengths and areas of aptitude, that they may be able to aptly and accurately attest to colleagues' qualifications.
Competent – as Conscientious
ARCS practitioners should constantly seek and act to discourage, prevent and rectify the unauthorized and unqualified practice of addiction-recovery coaching, as well as of all other related, similar and corresponding interdisciplinary services. Practitioners are charged with the duty of scrutinizing not only the conduct of colleagues, but also their very own conduct, to preclude any such unauthorized and unqualified activity.
ARCS practitioners should not operate in any professional function for which they have not received all applicable instruction and endorsement. Furthermore, ARCS practitioners are not authorized to identify or function as a CARC unless they have acquired and maintained all relevant training, certification and sanctions. Finally, ARCS practitioners should not allow personal issues, including but not limited to psychosocial distress, legal issues, substance abuse, or mental health difficulties to in any way disrupt their professional performance or compromise their professional obligations.
The NBARP and ARCS applaud and support ARCS practitioners who seek help if in crisis, thereby responsibly preventing professional, ethical or other violations.
In the event that an ARCS practitioner concretely determines or even merely suspects that they may be in jeopardy of or involved in any form of unauthorized, unqualified, disrupted, compromised or otherwise incompetent practice, they must promptly take the following measures:
1. contact their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor, immediately.
2. work intensively with their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor and any other qualified professionals, to identify and take urgent preventative and/or remedial actions, including but not limited to the following:
(a) adjustments in workload
(b) partial, full, temporary or permanent transfer of clients, with proper referral and transfer
(c) termination of coaching-client relationship, with proper referral and transfer of client
(d) termination of or sabbatical from practice
(e) forthright disclosure of credentials, certifications and qualifications
(f) additional training
(g) any additional actions required to protect clients and others
3. If the ARCS practitioner fails to comply with all prescribed measures, they risk stringent remedial action being enforced upon them by all appropriate professional organizations and regulatory bodies, including but not limited to The NBARP, ARCS and all relevant national, state, local, public and private entities.
In the event that an ARCS practitioner concretely determines or even merely suspects that a colleague may be in jeopardy of or involved in any form of unauthorized, unqualified, disrupted, compromised or otherwise incompetent practice, they must promptly take the following measures:
1. contact their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor, immediately.
2. work intensively with their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor, to assess accurately and intervene effectively.
3. Work in conjunction with their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor and any other qualified professionals to encourage and assist the colleague to take urgent preventative and/or remedial actions, including but not limited to the following:
(a) adjustments in workload
(b) partial, full, temporary or permanent transfer of clients, with proper referral
(c) termination of coaching-client relationship, with proper referral and transfer of client
(d) termination of or sabbatical from practice
(e) forthright disclosure of credentials, certifications and qualifications
(f) additional training
(g) any additional actions required to protect clients and others
5. If the colleague fails to comply with all prescribed measures, the ARCS practitioner and their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor and any other qualified professionals should immediately notify all appropriate professional organizations and regulatory bodies, including but not limited to The NBARP, ARCS and all relevant national, state, local, public and private entities.
The NBARP and ARCS offer financial compensation for any reports unauthorized, unqualified, disrupted, compromised or otherwise incompetent practice that lead to criminal or civil conviction.
Report concerns about unauthorized, unqualified, disrupted, compromised or otherwise incompetent practice, at one or both of the following:
legaldepartment@arcstofreedom.com
certificationreviewboard@nbarp.org
RESPONSIBLE
ARCS practitioners' choices and conduct should be consistent not only with the letter of this code, but also with its spirit. Although client relationships hold superior import under this code, practitioners should nonetheless espouse the basic principles, herein, in all of their interactions.
ARCS practitioners' professional standards should result from their personal commitment to be of sound character; thus, they should behave responsibly, in all roles and to all parties, both on and off of official duty. Essentially, their practice ethic should both fulfill and transcend the realm of client interest, extending also to personal, familial, social, societal and addendum professional relationships.
Responsible – to the Greater Society
ARCS practitioners should promote the development of multi-cultural diversity and appreciation, fair resource allocation, respect, protection and provision for all people, with particular focus upon the needs of oppressed and exploited groups, generally, and substance and behavioral addicts, specifically.
Responsible – to the NBARP, ARCS and the Coaching Field
ARCS practitioners should aspire to contribute to the cumulative knowledge and enduring advancement of addiction-recovery coaching, as a field. Practitioners should, in their words, deeds and character, reinforce the highest practice standards and ethics. They should protect the integrity of the ARCS tenets and mission, through participation in activities that promote appreciation of the field, through adroit demonstration of their professional duties, through qualified consultation with their colleagues, and through membership in and collaboration with The NBARP.
ARCS practitioners should clearly distinguish between their role as a private individual and as a representative of the addiction-recovery coaching field, as a whole, or of a professional addiction-recovery coaching organization, such as ARCS or The NBARP. Furthermore, practitioners who claim to speak on behalf of ARCS or The NBARP can do so only with each organization's official, written authorization.
ARCS practitioners should fairly acknowledge the original works and contributions of colleagues who are advancing the addiction-recovery coaching field, through research, study and publishing. All ARCS practitioners are encouraged to publish field-related literature; however, such authors will be required to authenticate their material, asserting credit only for original works that they have performed or created, or for portions of original works to which they have contributed.
All ARCS Student Curriculum Content, ARCS Client Curriculum Content, ARCS Websites, ARCS Content, and ARCS Services (as defined in ARCS Policies) are protected by the United States and international copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret and other intellectual property and proprietary laws. Any misuse or misappropriation of any portion of such Websites, Content or Services (as defined in ARCS Policies), including but not limited to failure to diligently protect the integrity, security and exclusivity of such Websites, Content and Services as a commissioned and/or NBARP-certified ARCS practitioner will be considered both a civil breach of contract and a criminally negligent act and will be prosecuted in both courts, at the expense of the defendant, vigorously and to the fullest extent of reparations and satisfaction entitled by the law. For more information on ARCS copyrights read ARCS Policies.
The NBARP and ARCS offer financial compensation for any reports of copyright or intellectual property infringement, misconduct, misuse or misappropriation that lead to criminal or civil conviction.
Report concerns about copyright or intellectual property infringement, misconduct, misuse or misappropriation, at or both of the following:
legaldepartment@arcstofreedom.com
certificationreviewboard@nbarp.org
Responsible – to Employers & Affiliates
Although NBARP-certification applies specifically to the function of addiction-recovery coaching, many third-party agencies and organizations have determined that the extensive ARCS Student Curriculum prepares graduates for employment in a vast range of positions. An ARCS practitioner should accept employment based solely on their existing competence or their ability to professionally acquire the requisite competence.
An ARCS practitioner should clarify their professional and ethical obligations with all third-party agencies and organizations with which they are affiliated or by which they may be employed. Furthermore, ARCS practitioners should always act to promote responsible and ethical practices on the part of third-party agencies and organizations with which they are affiliated an by which they may be employed. Finally, An ARCS practitioner should follow the stipulations of their employer and fulfill the duties of their position, so long as such does not in any way conflict with the tenets of this code.
Responsible – to Colleagues
An ARCS practitioner should clarify their professional and ethical obligations with all colleagues with whom they are affiliated. Furthermore, ARCS practitioners should always act to promote responsible and ethical practices on the part of colleagues with whom they are affiliated.
Responsible – to Clients
In concert with the ARCS tenets and mission, ARCS practitioners are responsible to provide efficacy, responsiveness, continuity and security of services, on behalf of their clients.
Efficacy
ARCS practitioners have a responsibility to establish and maintain a protocol of self-care that extends beyond the mere personal realm and well into the professional domain, serving as both an example of healthful living and an assurance of practitioner efficacy. Congruent with this endeavor, ARCS practitioners should be inclined toward participating in ongoing self-examination, self-interrogation and the general pursuit of self-awareness.
While ARCS practitioners might sometimes seek sporadic or specified professional consultation whenever it is in the best interest of their clients, it is only each practitioner's commitment to ongoing weekly consultation with a qualified Designated Professional Advisor that can, to the greatest degree possible, consistently affirm and reaffirm their sustained maintenance of self-care rituals, their capacity to engage objectively, their ongoing growth in interdisciplinary skill, their successful evasion of the more precarious pitfalls of practice, and their steadfast adherence to this code.
Similar to many of their recommendations to clients and, thereby, aligned with the axiom of teaching by example, ARCS practitioners are expected to cultivate and maintain a relationship with a Designated Professional Advisor, with whom they confer on a weekly basis.
CARCs must choose a Designated Professional Advisor that is designated by one of the following professional credentials:
1. ARCS Professors
2. Masters-Level Counselor
Responsiveness
Particularly due to the multi-faceted nature of any successful addiction intervention, ARCS practitioners should continuously curate an ongoing listing of providers in their area, the services of which may be of value to their clients and may or may not work in direct conjunction with addiction-recovery coaching services.
CARCs must develop a Resource Notebook for their respective practice. ARCS practitioners should maintain this comprehensive, diverse, relevant and detailed record of service providers in their region. This ensures, to the greatest degree possible, that CARCs retain the ongoing capability to effectively refer and transfer clients to comparable and other service providers, as needed.
Continuity
ARCS practitioners must refer, transfer and/or terminate services to and professional relationships with clients, whether to supplemental or alternate and comparable services providers, whenever doing so favors clients' needs and interests, including but not limited to the following circumstances:
1. when the practitioner assesses that such services and relationships are no longer required, by a client.
2. when the practitioner assesses that their respective services are not demonstrating adequate effectiveness or producing sufficient progress with a client and, thus, that alternate or supplemental services are required.
3. when other professionals’ specialized expertise is required to better or fully meet a client's needs.
4. when a practitioner has been coaching a client through their employment with a third-party agency or organization, and the practitioner will be leaving the employment setting.
5. when clients are not paying an overdue balance, only if ALL of the following terms have been satisfied:
(a) all financial and contractual agreements have been reviewed and clarified with the client,
(b) all consequences of continued non-payment have been reviewed and clarified with the client,
(c) the client does not in any way pose an imminent threat to self or others.
6. upon client request.
When an individual who is already receiving addiction-recovery coaching services or any similar services from another agency or colleague contacts an ARCS practitioner for services, the practitioner should proceed with cautious concern for the potential client and professional respect for the agency or colleague, thoroughly exploring with the potential client their reasons for wanting to transfer, all possible challenges and risks involved in transfer and whether or not consultation with their current service provider would be in their best interests.
7. In the event of possible relocation, illness, disability, death or other unavailability.
In preparation for any possible unforeseen events and circumstances, ARCS practitioners are responsible to arrange uninterrupted continuity of service for their clients, with a trusted colleague.
ARCS practitioners are prohibited from giving or receiving payment for any referral.
ARCS practitioners must adhere to the following guidelines, to implement responsible referral, transfer and/or termination of services to and professional relationships with clients:
1. do so timely and orderly fashion
2. notify clients promptly
3. assist in arranging for continuation of services:
(a) apprise clients of the benefits and risks involved in service continuation and cessation,
(b) inform clients of appropriate options for service continuation,
(c) encourage client collaboration, consider client needs and respect client preferences when planning for continuation of services.
4. request/attain client consent to disclose all pertinent client and session information to the new service provider
5. take precautionary measures to avoid any protocol that may cause an adverse reaction in clients who still need services, including but not limited to the abandonment or perceived abandonment of a client.
Practitioners will bear the full burden of defending any abrupt withdrawal of services.
Security
For the security of both clients and practitioners, The NBARP and ARCS require that all actively practicing CARCs acquire and maintain professional liability insurance.
FIDUCIARY
[4]Fiduciary
(adjective)
1. aboveboard; authentic; ethical; honest; reliable; trustworthy; unquestionable.
2. involving trust, especially regarding the relationship between a trustee and a beneficiary.
3. of, relating to, or involving a confidence or trust, between a customer and a professional.
4. holding in trust.
5. depending on public confidence for value or currency.
(noun)
a trustee; an advocate; a guardian.
The word “fiduciary” is derived from the Latin word “fiducia”, meaning “trust”. A fiduciary relationship is one in which one person places complete confidence in another, in regard to a particular transaction, set of transactions, or general affairs. For example, the ARCS practitioner-client relationship is a fiduciary relationship in which one person, the client (also legally termed the "beneficiary") places complete confidence in another, the ARCS practitioner (also legally termed the "fiduciary"), regarding addiction-recovery coaching services and sessions.
The ARCS practitioner-client relationship is a fiduciary relationship in which the practitioner possesses a disproportionately large amount of power, due to not only to their training and expertise but, even more so to their role of objectivity within the coaching context and setting; thus, they bear commensurate professional and ethical obligation to act in the best interest of their clients. ARCS practitioners are required to match their clients' complete trust and vulnerability with corresponding trustworthiness, good faith and irreproachable honesty.
The ARCS practitioner-client relationship is a non-reciprocal relationship in which the practitioner holds substantially more power and responsibility than does the client and through which the practitioner seeks to meet the needs of the client at the absolute exclusion of any “reciprocity”, or comparable return, outside of fair, reasonable and mutually-agreed upon fees for services rendered. This can often be confusing, due to multiple factors including but not limited to the collaborative and dynamic aspects of session, the role and power distortions inherent in addictive mentality, and the potential for both shared demographic traits and life experiences amongst practitioners and clients. Nevertheless and unequivocally, ARCS practitioners are solely, fully and legally accountable to abide by all professional and ethical standards required in the non-reciprocal, fiduciary ARCS practitioner-client relationship, as set forth in this code.
ARCS practitioners should consider it their professional, ethical and moral imperative to confer weekly with their Designated Professional Advisor, if for no other reason than for the express purpose of continuously clarifying their professional, ethical and moral obligations in the non-reciprocal, fiduciary ARCS practitioner-client relationship.
The ARCS Professional Practice Code, in its entirety, delineates the minimal professional standards, ethics, principles and conduct required to protect clients within the non-reciprocal, fiduciary ARCS practitioner-client relationship and, thus, to achieve the ARCS mission. Such protective measures include but are not limited to the following:
ARCS practitioners do NOT exploit or take unfair advantage.
1. ARCS practitioners do NOT in any way exploit clients, potential clients, colleagues or others.
2. ARCS practitioners do NOT in any way prey upon the respective vulnerabilities of clients.
3. ARCS practitioners do NOT in any way misuse their authority to manipulate or coerce clients.
4. ARCS practitioners do NOT unduly solicit or in any way pursue clients or potential clients.
5. An ARCS practitioner do NOT in any way take advantage of their relationships with clients, potential clients, colleagues or others to advance their personal, political, religious, social, financial, business or other interests.
ARCS practitioners do NOT perpetrate written or verbal misconduct.
ARCS practitioners do NOT employ derogatory language to or about clients, potential clients, colleagues or others, including but not limited to gratuitous negative criticism or discriminatory remarks.
ARCS practitioners do NOT perpetrate physical misconduct.
1. ARCS practitioners are solely and fully responsible for establishing and maintaining appropriate physical boundaries in the practitioner-client relationship.
2. ARCS practitioners are solely and fully responsible for helping clients and potential clients to understand and comply with appropriate physical boundaries in the practitioner-client relationship.
3.ARCS practitioners do NOT engage in inappropriately or excessively aggressive physical contact with clients or potential clients, such as shaking or pushing.
4. ARCS practitioners do NOT engage in inappropriately or excessively intimate physical contact with clients or potential clients, such as cradling or caressing.
ARCS practitioners who engage in appropriate physical contact with clients or potential clients (such as a handshake, an encouraging pat or a reassuring hug) are responsible to ensure that such contact is governed by clearly communicated, mutually acceptable and culturally sensitive boundaries.
ARCS practitioners do NOT perpetrate sexual misconduct.
1. ARCS practitioners do NOT sexually harass clients, potential clients, colleagues or others, in any way, including but not limited to sexual overtures, sexual solicitation, sexual advances, sexual innuendo, requests for sexual favors or any other inappropriate verbal, physical or other conduct of a a sexual nature.
2. ARCS practitioners do NOT engage in sexual activities or conduct of any kind, with current clients or former clients, whether seemingly “consensual” or coerced.
Due to the non-reciprocal and fiduciary nature of the practitioner-client relationship, as well as the practitioner's disproportionate authority within such relationship, neither current nor former clients have the ability to consent to intimate contact as would peers in a relationship with an equitable distribution of power.
3. ARCS practitioners do NOT engage in any sexual activities or conduct of any kind, with current or former trainees, students, pupils, mentees or with any other recipients of their consultation.
4. ARCS practitioners do NOT engage in sexual activities or conduct of any kind, with a colleague, when to do so would create a real or potential conflict of interest.
ARCS practitioners engaged in or anticipating engagement in sexual activities or conduct of any kind, with a colleague, should terminate and transfer professional duties to avoid a conflict of interest, as necessary.
5. ARCS practitioners do NOT engage in sexual activities or conduct of any kind, with relatives or close friends of a client, if such interaction in any way risks the exploitation, traumatization or endangerment of the client.
(a) In the event that an ARCS practitioner does engage in sexual activities or conduct of any kind, with relatives or close friends of a client, they should do so with client consent.
(b) In the event that an ARCS practitioner does engage in sexual activities or conduct of any kind, with relatives or close friends of a client, they should immediately terminate the practitioner-client relationship, with proper referral of the client to comparable services.
6. ARCS practitioners do NOT provide addiction-recovery coaching services to persons with whom they are or have formerly engaged in a romantic, sexual or other close relationship.
In the event that an ARCS practitioner concretely determines or even merely suspects that they may be in jeopardy of or involved in any form of unethical conduct, they must IMMEDIATELY take the following measures:
1. contact their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor, immediately.
2. take IMMEDIATE preventative and/or remedial actions, including but not limited to the following:
(a) adjustments in workload
(b) partial, full, temporary or permanent transfer of clients, with proper referral and transfer
(c) termination of coaching-client relationship, with proper referral and transfer of client
(d) termination of or sabbatical from practice
(e) forthright disclosure of credentials, certifications and qualifications
(f) additional training
(g) any additional actions required to protect clients and others
3. If the ARCS practitioner fails to comply with all prescribed measures, they risk stringent remedial action being enforced upon them by all appropriate professional organizations and regulatory bodies, including but not limited to The NBARP, ARCS and all relevant national, state, local, public and private entities.
In the event that an ARCS practitioner concretely determines or even merely suspects that a colleague may be in jeopardy of or involved in any form of unethical conduct, they must IMMEDIATELY take the following measures:
1. contact their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor, immediately.
2. work intensively with their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor, to assess accurately and intervene effectively.
3. Work in conjunction with their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor and any other qualified professionals to encourage and assist the colleague to take urgent preventative and/or remedial actions, including but not limited to the following:
(a) adjustments in workload
(b) partial, full, temporary or permanent transfer of clients, with proper referral
(c) termination of coaching-client relationship, with proper referral and transfer of client
(d) termination of or sabbatical from practice
(e) forthright disclosure of credentials, certifications and qualifications
(f) additional training
(g) any additional actions required to protect clients and others
5. If the colleague fails to comply with all prescribed measures, the ARCS practitioner and their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor and any other qualified professionals should immediately notify all appropriate professional organizations and regulatory bodies, including but not limited to The NBARP, ARCS and all relevant national, state, local, public and private entities.
ARCS practitioners are solely, fully and legally responsible to immediately terminate the practitioner-client relationship and to promptly facilitate the referral and transfer of such client to a comparable service provider, if at any time or for any reason, the practitioner concretely determines or even merely suspects that they may be in any way incapable of fully adhering to the professional and ethical standards set forth in this code.
This Professional Practice Code cannot guarantee ethical behavior. ARCS practitioners' ethical conduct should naturally extend from their personal values and their desire to be of maximum service to their clients.
ARCS practitioners should maintain constant awareness of and allegiance to the ARCS mission, always acting to discourage, prevent and correct unethical behavior. They should be well versed in the guidelines, requirements and protocols for both assessing and addressing ethical complaints and violations in their respective practice jurisdictions, including but not limited to those also established by professional organizations, regulatory bodies and, herein, by The NBARP and ARCS.
ARCS practitioners and, more specifically, CARCs are independently operating entities and are solely, fully and legally responsible to follow the ethical and other practice guidelines, requirements and protocols in their respective practice jurisdictions, including but not limited to those also established by professional organizations, regulatory bodies and, herein, by The NBARP and ARCS.
The NBARP and ARCS applaud and support ARCS practitioners who seek help if in crisis, thereby responsibly preventing professional, ethical or other violations.
The NBARP and ARCS offer financial compensation for any reports of unethical, unauthorized, unqualified, disrupted, compromised or otherwise incompetent practice that lead to criminal or civil conviction.
Report concerns about unethical, unauthorized, unqualified, disrupted, compromised or otherwise incompetent practice, at one or both of the following:
legaldepartment@arcstofreedom.com
certificationreviewboard@nbarp.org
Footnotes
[1] "ARCS practitioner" and/or "ARCS practitioners" is a term utilized within this code to refer to any and all CARCs, ARCS coaches, ARCS administrators, ARCS professors, ARCS trainers and ARCS students, in their collective entirety.
[2] NBARP Certification Board Publication 14.1: A Designated Professional Advisor is defined as an NBARP-Certified Professor or a Masters-Level Counselor.
NBARP Certification Board Publication 14.2: All CARCs are required to choose and confer weekly with a Designated Professional Advisor.
[3] The NBARP utilizes the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics as a "frame of reference" for this Professional Practice Code (NASW Code of Ethics, Purpose of the NASW Code of Ethics, page 3).
[4] http://Merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fiduciary
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fiduciary
http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=745
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/fiduciary
This version of the NBARP Professional Practice Code has been specifically adapted for use by ARCS Students and Clients.
LAST REVISED: December 03, 2018
*Adapted for ARCS Students
ARCS Mission
Addiction-Recovery Counseling Services, LLC (herein also referred to as "ARCS") provides addiction-recovery coach certification training accredited by The National Board of Addiction-Recovery Professionals (herein also referred to as "The NBARP" or "NBARP"). It is the mission of ARCS to equip [1]ARCS practitioners (herein also referred to as "practitioner" or "practitioners") with ongoing education and resources.
The predominant mission of a Certified Addiction-Recovery Coach (herein also referred to as "CARC") is to quantitatively improve the functioning and qualitatively enhance the well-being of their respective clients. Essentially, the ARCS mission is designed to support the mission of ARCS practitioners, generally, and CARCs, specifically.
CARC and ARCS clients may be individuals, couples, families or groups. Since the ARCS Student Curriculum focuses upon specialized intervention and recovery techniques for both substance and behavioral addicts, clients are more likely to consist of addicts and their respective family members. Nonetheless, the ARCS field of study and practice considers addiction, its causality and its symptomatology within the breadth of the comprehensive human experience, yielding ARCS practitioners well-prepared to help many non-addicts who may be suffering with self-defeating and unwanted behavioral patterns.
Purpose of the NBARP Code
This NBARP Professional Practice Code (herein also referred to as "the Code" or "Code") establishes a set of values, ethics and standards to which all ARCS practitioners are expected to adhere. It is relevant to all ARCS practitioners, in all practice settings and with all client populations.
The primary purpose of this code is to enforce the ARCS Mission, and it serves to do so in the following ways:
1. The Code clarifies the ARCS Mission, detailing the unique features of ARCS practice.
2. The Code sets forth clear standards by which ARCS practitioners are held accountable for professional values, ethics and conduct.
3. The Code provides professional practice standards by which the general public can hold ARCS practitioners accountable.
4. The Code provides professional practice standards by which the professional community can hold ARCS practitioners accountable.
5. The Code establishes a benchmark of practice that the collective of ARCS practitioners, ARCS and the NBARP can utilize to assess whether such practitioners have engaged in unprofessional or unethical conduct.
6. The Code serves as a guide by which ARCS practitioners can prevent conflicts of interest.
7. The Code serves as a guide by which ARCS practitioners can resolve ethical dilemmas.
Upon a credible report of gross professional negligence, misconduct or other failure to adhere to the standards set forth in this code, the NBARP reserves the right to immediately suspend an ARCS practitioner's certification and/or continued duties, for the indefinite term of a thorough investigation. The course of such investigation may or may not include an internal peer review and/or an NBARP hearing. The conclusion of such procedures may or may not result in required remedial action, loss of position and/or permanent revocation of certification. While violations of this code are not implicitly synonymous with violations of the law or with legal liability, the NBARP and/or ARCS reserve the right to notify all relevant national, state and local authorities and to participate in court cases, when appropriate.
The NBARP and ARCS offer financial compensation for reports of gross professional negligence, misconduct or other failure to adhere to the standards set forth in this code, that lead to criminal or civil conviction.
Report concerns about gross professional negligence, misconduct or other failure to adhere to the standards set forth in this code, at one or both of the following:
legaldepartment@arcstofreedom.com
certificationreviewboard@nbarp.org
The NBARP and ARCS applaud and support ARCS practitioners who seek help if in crisis, thereby responsibly preventing professional, ethical or other violations.
Each CARC is required to attain and maintain ongoing, weekly appointments with a [2]Designated Professional Advisor (herein also referred to as "DPA"), with whom they should confer, in the event that they face an ethical or other dilemma that they feel unable to clarify through this code, until an adequate resolution that concurrently satisfies this code can be identified and applied.
CARCs must choose a Designated Professional Advisor that holds one of the following professional credentials:
1. NBARP-Certified ARCS Professor
2. Masters-Level Counselor
NBARP Practice Principles
The NBARP has established seven principles of practice that define ARCS practitioners' roles, responsibilities and rapport with clients:
1. Respectful
2. Committed
3. Protective
4. Empowering
5. Competent
6. Responsible
7. Fiduciary
RESPECTFUL
Respectful – A Systems Approach
ARCS practitioners, much like [3]social workers, are trained to view clients through the multi-dimensional lens proffered by Systems Theory, which recognizes the macro (institutionalized), mezzo (community-based) and micro (individualized) spheres of interaction, influence and intervention. Systems Theory provides an adaptable conceptual framework through which ARCS practitioners are uniquely qualified to assess and assist clients, within the complex challenges of their addiction and the varied requirements of their sustained recovery.
Systems Theory affects the way in which ARCS practitioners approach clients and the world, at large. Fundamentally, it ensures that all tenets espoused within this code are practiced on multiple coexisting levels and in myriad diverse formats, including the professional principle of Respectfulness.
Respectful – Macro Level
Implicit within the CARC field is special recognition of both behavioral and substance addicts, whether active, abstinent, recovering or otherwise, as a vulnerable and oppressed group; thus, ARCS practitioners should be sensitive to cultural, ethnic and other forms of diversity and promote social justice, in all areas, against a global system of discrimination, of which discrimination against addicts is a mere parcel. They should consistently seek multi-cultural awareness and appreciation, as well as acknowledge the strengths inherent in distinct cultures. They should deliver services that are culturally appropriate and sensitive.
ARCS Non-Discrimination Policy:
ARCS practitioners should not practice, condone, facilitate or collaborate with any form of discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, marital status, political belief, religion, lack of religion, immigration status, or mental or physical disability.
Respectful – Mezzo Level
ARCS practitioners should cultivate a replete understanding of each client's family dynamics and community networks. Furthermore, they should seek to understand both the ways in which and the degree to which a client's familial and communal environments may have impacted their beliefs, motivations and needs.
ARCS practitioners are mindful to allocate support services to clients based upon their most fundamental needs, first, as determined by a comprehensive bio-psycho-social assessment, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and additional evaluation tools. On a local and immediate level, ARCS practitioners seek to ensure clients' adequate access to vital resources.
Only The NBARP is authorized to set fee ranges for CARC clients. Furthermore, all ARCS practitioners must offer coaching session fees that are "fair, reasonable, commensurate with services performed and considerate to clients' ability to pay", based upon The NBARP's most recently published Sliding Fee Scales.
NBARP Sliding Fee Scale for CARC Clients:
$25.00 - $135.00 per 50-minute coaching session
ARCS practitioners are encouraged to grant free, initial consultations to prospective clients; however, the NBARP forbids free, ongoing sessions, as they can easily create lack of client motivation and accountability, as well as blurred practitioner-client boundaries. Extraordinary circumstances in which one might charge a nominal fee for ongoing sessions (such as homelessness coupled with an catastrophic lack of resources) must be considered carefully and on a case-per-case basis.
Respectful – Micro Level
ARCS practitioners treat each person with caring and consideration. They appreciate each client's unique personhood and, furthermore, they are mindful that individualized differences exist within cultural distinctions. More specifically, ARCS practitioners are acutely aware of the devastating role that internalized shame plays in chronic addiction and seek to reverse this destructive mechanism, at its most elemental level, with a model of respect and dignity within practitioner-client rapport and interaction.
NBARP Intrinsic Worth Policy:
All ARCS practitioners have a duty to believe in the intrinsic worth of all living organisms and,
more specifically, of all human beings; thus, respect and dignity are implicitly owed and never need be earned.
ARCS practitioners respect each clients' self-determination. They work not only on behalf of, but also in conjunction with their clients, engaging them as collaborative partners in the change process. ARCS practitioners help clients to recognize their inherent gifts and strengths as integral to both defining and achieving short and long-term goals.
ARCS practitioners may only limit a client's right to self-determination when, in the practitioner's professional estimation, a client's actions or potential actions pose a serious, foreseeable and imminent risk to themselves or others.
COMMITTED
Committed – Client Interests First
In accordance with the ARCS Mission, the needs of clients are generally given precedence. ARCS practitioners would only place client actual or perceived needs secondary to an ethical or legal obligation, such as mandatory reporting that a client or other may be in danger.
In fact, ARCS practitioners must elevate client-interest above their own self-interest. As in any vocation that navigates the subtle and precarious variables between life and death, addiction-recovery coaching demands that personal business sense and healthy profit motive, while not only permitted but even encouraged, must fall subordinate to each ARCS practitioner's foremost commitment to be of service.
Committed – Avoid Conflicts of Interest
ARCS practitioners must stay vigilant to identify and avoid conflicts of interest. A conflict of interest is defined as any professional arrangement or circumstance in which the practitioner's professional discretion, judgment or objectivity may be compromised.
ARCS practitioners must inform clients, immediately, whenever an actual or potential conflict of interest occurs and take proactive measures to resolve the conflict expeditiously and in a manner that maintains clients’ interests as primary. In such instances, prioritizing client interests might commonly require termination of the practitioner-client relationship, with proper referral of the client to comparable services.
ARCS practitioners are completely and solely responsible to avoid conflicts of interest, including but not limited to the following:
1. ARCS practitioners must not in any way exploit others, for their own personal, professional, social, political, financial or other gain.
2. ARCS practitioners should not engage in dual or multiple roles.
(a) Dual or multiple roles develop if an ARCS practitioner interacts with a client in more than one context, whether professional, social or business. Dual and multiple roles create conditions conducive to distorted boundaries, exploitation, inappropriate practitioner-client interaction, miscommunication, misunderstanding and misconduct.
For instance, an ARCS practitioner who is also a 12-step recovery member must not coach someone that they sponsor. Additionally, ARCS practitioners must not coach friends, relatives, neighbors or business associates, such as their accountant or their hair stylist.
(b) Dual or multiple roles can occur simultaneously or consecutively.
For example, an ARCS practitioner must not coach a friend, whether they are currently close or have not seen one another since childhood.
(c) Most of the time, dual and multiple roles are avoidable. In the limited circumstances in
which they are unavoidable, ARCS practitioners are responsible to both set and abide by
clear, professional and appropriate boundaries.
For instance, if an ARCS practitioner were to see one of their clients at a 12-step or other function, they should not engage with such client in any interpersonal manner and should, furthermore, help the client to understand and accept this boundary. Also, if a former client were to begin working in a facility at which an ARCS practitioner conducts groups, the practitioner would be responsible to notify the program's administrator and to establish new and professional boundaries with their former client.
ARCS practitioners who are also 12-step recovery members are strongly encouraged to practice in a geographical area separate and distinct from that in which they attend meetings in order to minimize the propensity for dual and multiple roles.
3. ARCS practitioners must not barter for their services.
(a) Bartering is defined as, “accepting goods or services, in exchange for addiction-recovery coaching services”. Bartering arrangements create conditions conducive to distorted boundaries, exploitation, inappropriate practitioner-client interaction, miscommunication, misunderstanding and misconduct.
For example, if an ARCS practitioner's client is a professional massage therapist, they must not exchange coaching services for massage services. Accordingly, if an ARCS practitioner's client is a professional hair stylist, they must not exchange coaching services for beauty services.
(b) While ARCS practitioners can offer a series of small or large unrelated groups (such as community workshops) as well as initial consultations, for no charge, ongoing individual or related-group sessions offered "free" are considered a form of abstract bartering and are prohibited.
4. When coaching a couples or families, if an ARCS practitioner anticipates or discovers a conflict of interest amongst or with the parties, the practitioner should immediately clarify their role with all parties and act to proactively eradicate any conflicts of interest.
(a) ARCS practitioners must, with all parties, clearly identify which participants will be considered “clients”, thus beneficiaries of such practitioner's professional obligations, and which participants will not be considered “clients”.
For example, if a couple is starting coaching sessions together, they would each and both be considered “clients”. Conversely, if a woman begins coaching sessions and, at some future point, invites her husband to attend a session, the woman is the practitioner's client, but the husband is not; rather, he is a visitor, a “non-client” participant.
(b) ARCS practitioners should exert professional acumen to identify group members' attempts to manipulate the practitioner and/or to triangulate with the practitioner. Triangulation is a phenomenon in which related parties “recruit” a third-party (such as a coach) through which to divert relationship tension and stress.
For instance, if an ARCS practitioner begins coaching a newcomer in recovery, and that client's mother attempts to call the practitioner for “regular updates” on her child's progress, it is vital that the ARCS practitioner explain her professional obligations to the client (child) and his/her consequential incapability to provide session information to the non-client (mother). In this scenario, the ARCS practitioner may also opt to provide the non-client (mother) with relevant support resource information, such as Al-Anon literature and meeting schedules.
PROTECTIVE
Protective – Informed Consent
ARCS practitioners should provide all clients with informed consent, fully apprising clients of the purpose, benefits, risks, limitations and costs of addiction-recovery coaching services. Additionally, ARCS practitioners should always inform clients of their respective rights to refuse or, at any time, to withdraw their consent for services.
ARCS practitioners are solely and fully responsible for ensuring that their clients comprehend and consent to all terms and conditions of addiction-recovery coaching services; therefore, practitioners should encourage client to ask clarifying questions throughout the process of informed consent. Also, practitioners should use clear and easily understandable language, when explaining the terms and conditions of such services. Finally, if a client is illiterate or does not share the same primary language with the practitioner, the practitioner must take measures to assure the client's understanding, such as acquiring and integrating a qualified interpreter or translator.
ARCS practitioners are not authorized to work in the context of private or independent practice with clients who are legally or otherwise deemed incapable of providing informed consent or clients who are receiving services involuntarily. Therefore, ARCS practitioners are expressly and strictly prohibited from working with clients who suffer any form or degree of diminished or limited capacity to provide informed consent, unless under the direct supervision, licensure and employ of an agency or organization specializing in the treatment of such population.
Additionally, CARC's are not authorized to work with clients who are under the guardianship or conservatorship of any third-party. CARC's and other ARCS practitioners who wish to work with adolescents should consult the individual consent laws governing their respective practice jurisdiction.
Due to the nature of the specialized population that ARCS practitioners serve and their respective need not only for professional confidentiality but also for general, societal anonymity, ARCS practitioners are expressly and strictly prohibited from video or audio taping any client sessions, except for training sessions that receive written approval from and direct supervision by ARCS.
ARCS practitioners are strongly encouraged to develop and utilize forms for client intake, assessment, orientation, referral and termination.
Each ARCS practitioner is fully and solely responsible for ensuring that any and all forms that they provide to clients are up-to-date and complete, including but not limited to all information that may be required to satisfy both the conditions of this code and the laws of their practice jurisdiction.
Protective – Privacy & Confidentiality
ARCS practitioners must respect their clients’ right to privacy. Furthermore, they should not solicit private information from their clients, unless it is necessary for providing services. Finally, once private information has been shared, all standards of privacy and confidentiality apply.
ARCS practitioners must protect the confidentiality of all information garnered throughout the course of addiction-recovery coaching services and other related activities. The professional expectation is that ARCS practitioners will keep all information regarding clients confidential.
ARCS practitioners should discuss the nature and limitations of clients' rights to confidentiality, with both clients and all other relevant parties. Through the process of informed consent and well prior to formally engaging in addiction-recovery coaching services, clients should be made aware of the exceptional conditions in which private, confidential or otherwise privileged information may be requested or legally required and, thus, possibly disclosed.
There are very few circumstances in which an ARCS practitioner would be appropriate in disclosing confidential or privileged information and, even in such exceptional instances, the practitioner is fully and solely responsible for taking the following actions:
1. whenever possible, make every effort to preemptively inform the client about the content, scheduled time and potential ramifications of such disclosure.
2. always divulge the least amount of information needed to achieve the disclosure's purpose.
ARCS practitioners must protect clients' confidentiality, except in the following instances:
1. when disclosure of confidential or privileged information is essential to prevent foreseeable and imminent harm, to a client or to others.
2. when legally required.
(a) Even if and/or when an ARCS practitioner is compelled to disclose confidential or privileged information by a court of law, the practitioner should protect their client's confidentiality to the greatest extent permitted by law.
(b) If a court orders an ARCS practitioner to disclose confidential or privileged information without clients' consent and the practitioner believes that such disclosure my cause harm to the client, the practitioner should request that the court withdraw the order, limit its scope and/or maintain the information under seal and, thus, as inaccessible by the public.
3. by client consent.
(a) ARCS practitioners may disclose confidential and privileged information with direct and valid written consent from clients.
(b) In the event that such disclosure is requested by the client but not recommended by the ARCS practitioner, such practitioner may also stipulate that the written request for disclosure be witnessed and/or notarized.
4. with consultants.
(a) ARCS practitioners may discuss client cases as needed with professional colleagues, trainers and mentors, provided that such consultants are bound to uphold the confidentiality of the practitioner's disclosures to equal professional and legal extent as the practitioner is required to defend the confidentiality of their clients.
For example, an ARCS practitioner may consult with their ARCS trainer, professor or a Masters-level counselor; however, ARCS practitioners may not consult with halfway house staff members or treatment center technicians, unless they have a Masters Degree in the counseling field.
(b) ARCS practitioners may discuss client cases as needed with professional consultants, provided that the practitioner does not disclose any identifiable information about the client, including but not limited to the client's name, email address, telephone number and any circumstantial information that may readily identify the client.
For example, if discussing a client case with a professional colleague, trainer or mentor, an ARCS practitioner should not only withhold the client's readily identifiable information, such as their name, but they should also withhold sharing of details such as that the client might be dating a particular person, or that they used to be married to a particular person, or that they work at a specific place, or any other such circumstantially identifiable information.
(c) ARCS practitioners should not disclose identifying information when discussing clients with consultants unless the client has consented to disclosure of confidential information or there is a compelling need for such disclosure.
(d) When consulting with colleagues about clients, ARCS practitioners should disclose the least amount of information necessary to achieve the purposes of the consultation.
5. as consultants
(a) ARCS practitioners operating as professional colleagues, trainers, mentors and in any other consultation role should not disclose identifying information when discussing clients, including for teaching or training purposes, unless a client has consented to disclosure of confidential information in writing.
(b) ARCS practitioners should respect confidential information shared by colleagues in the course of their professional relationships and transactions.
(c) ARCS practitioners should ensure that such colleagues understand ARCS practitioners’ obligation to respect confidentiality and any exceptions related to it.
(d) ARCS practitioners operating as professional colleagues, trainers, mentors and in any other consultation role should discourage colleagues from disclosing identifying information, when discussing clients, unless the client has consented to disclosure of confidential information or there is a compelling need for such disclosure.
(e) ARCS practitioners operating as professional colleagues, trainers, mentors and in any other consultation role should encourage colleagues to disclose the least amount of information necessary, when discussing clients, to achieve the purposes of the consultation.
Circumstances which the are NOT exceptions to the standards of confidentiality include, but are not limited to the following:
1. ARCS practitioners should not disclose private, confidential or otherwise privileged information to third-party payers (such as insurance companies), unless the client has authorized such disclosure.
2. ARCS practitioners should not disclose private, confidential or otherwise privileged information to members of the media.
3. ARCS practitioners should protect the confidentiality of deceased or otherwise indisposed clients.
4. ARCS practitioners must arrange to protect clients' confidentiality even subject to their own sabbatical from practice, termination of practice, death or other incapacity.
When coaching couples, families or any other type of groups ARCS practitioners should:
1. seek comprehension by and consensus amongst all parties involved, concerning each individual's right to privacy and confidentiality.
2. seek comprehension by and commitment from all parties involved, regarding each individual's moral obligation to preserve the confidentiality of all information shared in group sessions.
3. seek comprehension by and consent of all parties involved, that the practitioner can in no way guarantee that all individuals will honor agreements established to respect and preserve group session participants' privacy and confidentiality.
In addition to the more stringent and obvious parameters of confidentiality, ARCS practitioners should exercise discretion and take reasonable precautions in their everyday activities, to secure clients' rights to privacy and confidentiality. For example, practitioners should not discuss confidential information (either about clients or with them) in public or semi-public areas, be they online or offline, including but not limited to waiting rooms, hallways, elevators, restaurants, sidewalks, cafés, blogs, forums or social media platforms. ARCS practitioners who see clients in any residential environment (whether the client's home or a residential institution) are responsible for ensuring that a private session space has been secured and can be maintained. ARCS practitioners are expressly and strictly prohibited from holding addiction-recovery coaching sessions in any setting that does not protect client privacy and confidentiality.
Protective – Documentation & Record-Keeping
ARCS practitioners should exercise discretion and take reasonable precautions to protect the confidentiality of clients’ written and electronic records, as well as any other sensitive material. Nonetheless, ARCS practitioners are not responsible for the data security of online and offline third-party service providers.
ARCS practitioners should exercise discretion and take reasonable precautions to confirm that clients' records are stored in a secure location and kept inaccessible to unauthorized parties. ARCS practitioners should always protect client confidentiality and follow the laws of their respective practice jurisdiction, regarding the number of years that client records must be stored, following termination of services, and the manner in which client records should ultimately be either transferred or destroyed.
ARCS practitioners should provide clients with ample access to their respective records, so long as the client has requested such access in writing and the practitioner has redacted any non-client confidential information, therein. If an ARCS practitioner feels concerned that access to such records might cause distress to the client, the practitioner should take time to review and interpret the records, with the client. Only in exceptional circumstances, in which the practitioner believes that access to such records may cause serious harm the client, would an ARCS provider limit a client's access to their records, or to a portion of their records.
ARCS Practitioners who take session notes are encouraged to employ a standardized and widely-accepted documentation style, such as the Data-Assessment-Plan (D.A.P), the Data-Assessment-Response-Plan (D.A.R.P.) and the Subjective-Objective-Assessment-Plan (S.O.A.P.) note-taking styles. Many ARCS practitioners opt not to record session notes, or to transcribe very minimal and/or coded documentation, to maximize client security.
EMPOWERING
In alignment with their core mission, ARCS practitioners seek not merely to support clients, but more importantly to impart the vital skills with which they can meet and sustain their own needs and aspirations. ARCS recognizes that human relationships can be powerful models for rehabilitation; thus, ARCS practice methods and materials are specifically designed to promote clients' incremental cultivation of personal responsibility, accountability and empowerment. In fact, it is the specialization in the addiction-recovery field, coupled with several distinct and empowering practice features that collectively render the ARCS practitioner-client interaction as unique, within the interdisciplinary helping landscape.
Empowering – versus Enabling
Undoubtably, due to acute awareness of toxic enabling as a prevalent and debilitating force in addictive relationships, the ARCS practice setting and rapport involve conscientious and proactive focus on empowerment, versus enabling. Following the old parable, ARCS practitioners do not “fish” for their clients; rather, they teach clients how to bait their own hooks and cast their own lines, working with them, as they practice and hone their new skills.
ARCS practitioners diligently seek what is often subtle discernment between each clients' capabilities, strengths and gifts, set against their requirements for external resources. Furthermore, ARCS practitioners do not foster a monopoly amongst either of these forces but, rather, a prosperous equilibrium in which self-reliance and external reliance fortify one another. Through customized intervention strategies, ARCS practitioners train both addicts and their family members to differentiate between toxic enabling and healthy enabling or, rather, a measure of helpfulness that is naturally conducive to the comprehensive empowerment of its beneficiary.
Empowering – as Modeling
ARCS practitioners are cognizant that the coaching setting provides ample opportunity for clients to model new perspectives and behaviors. Modeling, or “mimicking” is a very natural way to learn. It is, in fact, the way that we incorporate and integrate new information, as children.
Since modeling is, essentially, the most innate way that we learn, it is fully expected to be a central activity in any fundamental change process. Nonetheless, ARCS practitioners must remain vigilantly aware that the instinctive drive to learn through modeling can also become confusing for clients, as it can so remarkably resemble a surrogate relationship.
Whilst counselors from myriad professional domains should and most often do receive dedicated education in the more precarious facets of practice, ARCS practitioners' specialized acuity about the addictive trait of over-dependence yields them extraordinarily adept in helping clients to experience unprecedented breakthroughs in session, while still recognizing their unrivaled position of sovereignty, in their own lives. ARCS practitioners empower clients to understand that, although the coaching environment may be productively utilized as a template for growth, the client should not mistakenly relegate the practitioner (or anyone else) to a parental or other role that would, by definition, seem or seek to excuse the the client from preeminent responsibility in their respective decisions and actions.
Empowering – ARCS Curricula
ARCS practitioners are encouraged to integrate ARCS methods and materials into coaching sessions. The ARCS Client Curriculum provides ongoing skills and education coupled with a strong focus on tangible, daily action which can collectively promote personal recovery and healing. ARCS materials can empower CARCs and their clients by enhancing continuity of information, continuity of care, efficient and effective session planning, quantifiable progress and increased participation in coaching sessions:
Module 01 - The Toolkit
Module 02 - Knowledge versus Acceptance
Module 03 - Looking at the Literature
Module 04 - The Cycle of Addiction (abridged version)
Module 05 - The Cycle of Addiction (part 1)
Module 06 - The Cycle of Addiction (part 2)
Module 07 - The Disease Concept (part 1)
Module 08 - The Disease Concept (part 2)
Module 09 - The Disease Concept (part 3)
Module 10 - Anatomy of a Relapse (part 1)
Module 11 - Anatomy of a Relapse (part 2)
Module 12 - Details of Diagnosis (part 1)
Module 13 - Details of Diagnosis (part 2)
Module 14 - Details of Diagnosis (part 3)
Module 15 - History Lesson (part 1)
Module 16 - History Lesson (part 2)
Module 17 - Addiction as a "Handicap"
Module 18 - Case Study (part 1)
Module 19 - Case Study (part 2)
Module 20 - Case Study (part 3)
Module 21 - Case Study (part 4)
Module 22 - Case Study (part 5)
Module 23 - Case Study (part 6)
Module 24 - Case Study (part 7)
Module 25 - Case Study (part 8)
Module 26 - Case Study (part 9)
Module 27 - Personal Faith in the Healing Process (part 1)
Module 28 - Personal Faith in the Healing Process (part 2)
Module 29 - Personal Faith in the Healing Process (part 3)
Module 30 - Personal Faith in the Healing Process (part 4)
Module 31 - Spiritual Warfare
Module 32 - Behavioral Addiction (part 1)
Module 33 - Behavioral Addiction (part 2)
Module 34 - Behavioral Addiction (part 3)
Module 35 - Introduction to Counseling
Module 36 - Developmental Stages
Module 37 - PTSD (part 1)
Module 38 - PTSD (part 2)
Module 39 - PTSD (part 3)
Module 40 - Internal Mechanics (part 1)
Module 41 - Internal Mechanics (part 2)
Module 42 -Internal Mechanics (part 3)
Module 43 - Internal Mechanics (part 4)
Module 44 - Boundaries (part 1)
Module 45 - Boundaries (part 2)
Module 46 - Q&A (part 1)
Module 47 - Q&A (part 2)
Module 48 - Q&A (part 3)
Module 49 - Inner Child Practicum (part 1)
Module 50 - Inner Child Practicum (part 2)
Module 51 - Inner Child Practicum (part 3)
Module 52 - Inner Child Practicum (part 4)
Module 53 - Accountability (part 1)
Module 54 - Accountability (part 2)
Module 55 - Accountability (part 3)
Module 56 - Accountability (part 3.1)
Module 57 - Accountability (part 3.2)
Module 58 - Accountability (part 3.3)
Module 59 - Accountability (part 3.4)
Module 60 - Accountability (part 3.5)
Module 61 - Accountability (part 3.6)
Module 62 - Accountability (part 3.7)
Module 63 - Accountability (part 3.8)
Module 64 - Accountability (part 4.1)
Module 65 - Accountability (part 4.2)
Module 66 - Accountability (part 4.3)
Module 67 - Accountability (part 4.4)
Module 68 - Accountability (part 5)
Module 69 - Rules of Disclosure
Module 70 - The Power of Action
Module 71 - How to Change (part 1)
Module 72 - How to Change (part 2)
Module 73 - How to Change (part 3)
Module 74 - Maintenance (part 1)
Module 75 - Maintenance (part 2)
Authorized CARCs may offer their private clients (i.e. individual, couples and related group private session clients, only) access to The ARCS Client Video-Workbook Curriculum, through independent portal registration with ARCS.
Authorized CARCs may offer their private clients (i.e. individual, couples and related group private session clients, only) access to The ARCS Student Video-Workbook Curriculum, on a case-by-case basis, as approved by the NBARP.
Authorized CARCs may offer their unrelated group clients the following 14 video-workbook lessons from the Client Curriculum:
Module 01 - The Toolkit
Module 02 - Knowledge versus Acceptance
Module 03 - Looking at the Literature
Module 04 - The Cycle of Addiction (abridged version)
Module 18 - Case Study (part 1)
Module 19 - Case Study (part 1)
Module 20 - Case Study (part 2)
Module 21 - Case Study (part 3)
Module 22 - Case Study (part 4)
Module 23 - Case Study (part 5)
Module 24 - Case Study (part 6)
Module 25 - Case Study (part 7)
Module 26 - Case Study (part 8)
Module 27 - Case Study (part 9)
Module 40 - PTSD (part 3)
ARCS practitioners are EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED from acquiring or providing independent access to the ARCS Client and Student Curricula. In short, the only way in which both CARCs the general public can access the ARCS Client and Student Video-Workbook Curricula is by individually registering with ARCS through their online portal and, furthermore, by adhering to stipulations including but not limited to the following:
1. Participating clients must attend consistent weekly coaching sessions, with a participating CARC.
2. Participating CARCs must attend weekly ARCS Alumni Groups, with an NBARP-certified ARCS Professor.
3. Participating CARCs and clients must each be formally registered through the online ARCS Portal.
4. Participating Student-Curriculum clients must be pre-approved for certification eligibility, by the NBARP.
This restriction serves the mutual benefit of all parties:
1.Participating clients are only able to access ARCS video-workbook lessons, if attending consistent weekly coaching sessions with their designated CARC.
2. CARCs secure their collective exclusivity, as the only coaching-field professionals with access to ARCS video-workbook lessons.
3. The NBARP and ARCS ensure that CARCs get the professional support that they need.
4. The NBARP and ARCS ensures that CARCs are overseeing client access to ARCS copyrighted video-workbook content.
COMPETENT
ARCS practitioners should be measurably proficient in the performance of their professional duties. Furthermore, they should provide coaching services and represent themselves as qualified only within the parameters of their education, training and certification, professional consultation received, or other relevant experience. ARCS practitioners should operate only within their areas of expertise and are required to both attain and maintain valid NBARP-certification status, in order to perform addiction-recovery coaching sessions and any other related activities.
Competent – through Professional Development
ARCS practitioners should bolster their expertise through a viable protocol of ongoing professional development. They should regularly review all available literature, resources and correspondence regarding practice methods and professional ethics.
ARCS practitioners should strive to steadily increase their practical insight and skills, staying updated with new information and innovation within the professional helping realm, generally, and the addiction-recovery specialization, specifically. When reviewing new techniques, practitioners should apply professional diligence and discernment, critically examining them and integrating only modalities that demonstrate empirical efficacy. Ultimately, ARCS practitioners should advertise and offer only services for which they have received appropriate, professional training.
Competent – as Interdisciplinary
ARCS practitioners should consider themselves part of an interdisciplinary collective of both professional and layperson colleagues who oft times specialize in the rehabilitation of addicts and their family members, including but not limited to psychiatrists and other physicians, treatment center staff, transitional housing owners and managers, and 12-step recovery sponsors and members. ARCS practitioners should cooperate with internal ARCS colleagues and with colleagues from other disciplines when such alliances serve the well-being of clients.
ARCS practitioners should treat colleagues respectfully, encouraging productive collaboration on behalf of clients. When working in conjunction with colleagues, professional and ethical obligations of the collective effort and of each involved individual should be clearly delineated.
ARCS practitioners should increase the value of interdisciplinary interaction, by drawing upon their specialized ARCS training and field expertise. Furthermore, practitioners should stay apprised of colleagues' inherent strengths and areas of aptitude, that they may be able to aptly and accurately attest to colleagues' qualifications.
Competent – as Conscientious
ARCS practitioners should constantly seek and act to discourage, prevent and rectify the unauthorized and unqualified practice of addiction-recovery coaching, as well as of all other related, similar and corresponding interdisciplinary services. Practitioners are charged with the duty of scrutinizing not only the conduct of colleagues, but also their very own conduct, to preclude any such unauthorized and unqualified activity.
ARCS practitioners should not operate in any professional function for which they have not received all applicable instruction and endorsement. Furthermore, ARCS practitioners are not authorized to identify or function as a CARC unless they have acquired and maintained all relevant training, certification and sanctions. Finally, ARCS practitioners should not allow personal issues, including but not limited to psychosocial distress, legal issues, substance abuse, or mental health difficulties to in any way disrupt their professional performance or compromise their professional obligations.
The NBARP and ARCS applaud and support ARCS practitioners who seek help if in crisis, thereby responsibly preventing professional, ethical or other violations.
In the event that an ARCS practitioner concretely determines or even merely suspects that they may be in jeopardy of or involved in any form of unauthorized, unqualified, disrupted, compromised or otherwise incompetent practice, they must promptly take the following measures:
1. contact their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor, immediately.
2. work intensively with their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor and any other qualified professionals, to identify and take urgent preventative and/or remedial actions, including but not limited to the following:
(a) adjustments in workload
(b) partial, full, temporary or permanent transfer of clients, with proper referral and transfer
(c) termination of coaching-client relationship, with proper referral and transfer of client
(d) termination of or sabbatical from practice
(e) forthright disclosure of credentials, certifications and qualifications
(f) additional training
(g) any additional actions required to protect clients and others
3. If the ARCS practitioner fails to comply with all prescribed measures, they risk stringent remedial action being enforced upon them by all appropriate professional organizations and regulatory bodies, including but not limited to The NBARP, ARCS and all relevant national, state, local, public and private entities.
In the event that an ARCS practitioner concretely determines or even merely suspects that a colleague may be in jeopardy of or involved in any form of unauthorized, unqualified, disrupted, compromised or otherwise incompetent practice, they must promptly take the following measures:
1. contact their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor, immediately.
2. work intensively with their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor, to assess accurately and intervene effectively.
3. Work in conjunction with their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor and any other qualified professionals to encourage and assist the colleague to take urgent preventative and/or remedial actions, including but not limited to the following:
(a) adjustments in workload
(b) partial, full, temporary or permanent transfer of clients, with proper referral
(c) termination of coaching-client relationship, with proper referral and transfer of client
(d) termination of or sabbatical from practice
(e) forthright disclosure of credentials, certifications and qualifications
(f) additional training
(g) any additional actions required to protect clients and others
5. If the colleague fails to comply with all prescribed measures, the ARCS practitioner and their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor and any other qualified professionals should immediately notify all appropriate professional organizations and regulatory bodies, including but not limited to The NBARP, ARCS and all relevant national, state, local, public and private entities.
The NBARP and ARCS offer financial compensation for any reports unauthorized, unqualified, disrupted, compromised or otherwise incompetent practice that lead to criminal or civil conviction.
Report concerns about unauthorized, unqualified, disrupted, compromised or otherwise incompetent practice, at one or both of the following:
legaldepartment@arcstofreedom.com
certificationreviewboard@nbarp.org
RESPONSIBLE
ARCS practitioners' choices and conduct should be consistent not only with the letter of this code, but also with its spirit. Although client relationships hold superior import under this code, practitioners should nonetheless espouse the basic principles, herein, in all of their interactions.
ARCS practitioners' professional standards should result from their personal commitment to be of sound character; thus, they should behave responsibly, in all roles and to all parties, both on and off of official duty. Essentially, their practice ethic should both fulfill and transcend the realm of client interest, extending also to personal, familial, social, societal and addendum professional relationships.
Responsible – to the Greater Society
ARCS practitioners should promote the development of multi-cultural diversity and appreciation, fair resource allocation, respect, protection and provision for all people, with particular focus upon the needs of oppressed and exploited groups, generally, and substance and behavioral addicts, specifically.
Responsible – to the NBARP, ARCS and the Coaching Field
ARCS practitioners should aspire to contribute to the cumulative knowledge and enduring advancement of addiction-recovery coaching, as a field. Practitioners should, in their words, deeds and character, reinforce the highest practice standards and ethics. They should protect the integrity of the ARCS tenets and mission, through participation in activities that promote appreciation of the field, through adroit demonstration of their professional duties, through qualified consultation with their colleagues, and through membership in and collaboration with The NBARP.
ARCS practitioners should clearly distinguish between their role as a private individual and as a representative of the addiction-recovery coaching field, as a whole, or of a professional addiction-recovery coaching organization, such as ARCS or The NBARP. Furthermore, practitioners who claim to speak on behalf of ARCS or The NBARP can do so only with each organization's official, written authorization.
ARCS practitioners should fairly acknowledge the original works and contributions of colleagues who are advancing the addiction-recovery coaching field, through research, study and publishing. All ARCS practitioners are encouraged to publish field-related literature; however, such authors will be required to authenticate their material, asserting credit only for original works that they have performed or created, or for portions of original works to which they have contributed.
All ARCS Student Curriculum Content, ARCS Client Curriculum Content, ARCS Websites, ARCS Content, and ARCS Services (as defined in ARCS Policies) are protected by the United States and international copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret and other intellectual property and proprietary laws. Any misuse or misappropriation of any portion of such Websites, Content or Services (as defined in ARCS Policies), including but not limited to failure to diligently protect the integrity, security and exclusivity of such Websites, Content and Services as a commissioned and/or NBARP-certified ARCS practitioner will be considered both a civil breach of contract and a criminally negligent act and will be prosecuted in both courts, at the expense of the defendant, vigorously and to the fullest extent of reparations and satisfaction entitled by the law. For more information on ARCS copyrights read ARCS Policies.
The NBARP and ARCS offer financial compensation for any reports of copyright or intellectual property infringement, misconduct, misuse or misappropriation that lead to criminal or civil conviction.
Report concerns about copyright or intellectual property infringement, misconduct, misuse or misappropriation, at or both of the following:
legaldepartment@arcstofreedom.com
certificationreviewboard@nbarp.org
Responsible – to Employers & Affiliates
Although NBARP-certification applies specifically to the function of addiction-recovery coaching, many third-party agencies and organizations have determined that the extensive ARCS Student Curriculum prepares graduates for employment in a vast range of positions. An ARCS practitioner should accept employment based solely on their existing competence or their ability to professionally acquire the requisite competence.
An ARCS practitioner should clarify their professional and ethical obligations with all third-party agencies and organizations with which they are affiliated or by which they may be employed. Furthermore, ARCS practitioners should always act to promote responsible and ethical practices on the part of third-party agencies and organizations with which they are affiliated an by which they may be employed. Finally, An ARCS practitioner should follow the stipulations of their employer and fulfill the duties of their position, so long as such does not in any way conflict with the tenets of this code.
Responsible – to Colleagues
An ARCS practitioner should clarify their professional and ethical obligations with all colleagues with whom they are affiliated. Furthermore, ARCS practitioners should always act to promote responsible and ethical practices on the part of colleagues with whom they are affiliated.
Responsible – to Clients
In concert with the ARCS tenets and mission, ARCS practitioners are responsible to provide efficacy, responsiveness, continuity and security of services, on behalf of their clients.
Efficacy
ARCS practitioners have a responsibility to establish and maintain a protocol of self-care that extends beyond the mere personal realm and well into the professional domain, serving as both an example of healthful living and an assurance of practitioner efficacy. Congruent with this endeavor, ARCS practitioners should be inclined toward participating in ongoing self-examination, self-interrogation and the general pursuit of self-awareness.
While ARCS practitioners might sometimes seek sporadic or specified professional consultation whenever it is in the best interest of their clients, it is only each practitioner's commitment to ongoing weekly consultation with a qualified Designated Professional Advisor that can, to the greatest degree possible, consistently affirm and reaffirm their sustained maintenance of self-care rituals, their capacity to engage objectively, their ongoing growth in interdisciplinary skill, their successful evasion of the more precarious pitfalls of practice, and their steadfast adherence to this code.
Similar to many of their recommendations to clients and, thereby, aligned with the axiom of teaching by example, ARCS practitioners are expected to cultivate and maintain a relationship with a Designated Professional Advisor, with whom they confer on a weekly basis.
CARCs must choose a Designated Professional Advisor that is designated by one of the following professional credentials:
1. ARCS Professors
2. Masters-Level Counselor
Responsiveness
Particularly due to the multi-faceted nature of any successful addiction intervention, ARCS practitioners should continuously curate an ongoing listing of providers in their area, the services of which may be of value to their clients and may or may not work in direct conjunction with addiction-recovery coaching services.
CARCs must develop a Resource Notebook for their respective practice. ARCS practitioners should maintain this comprehensive, diverse, relevant and detailed record of service providers in their region. This ensures, to the greatest degree possible, that CARCs retain the ongoing capability to effectively refer and transfer clients to comparable and other service providers, as needed.
Continuity
ARCS practitioners must refer, transfer and/or terminate services to and professional relationships with clients, whether to supplemental or alternate and comparable services providers, whenever doing so favors clients' needs and interests, including but not limited to the following circumstances:
1. when the practitioner assesses that such services and relationships are no longer required, by a client.
2. when the practitioner assesses that their respective services are not demonstrating adequate effectiveness or producing sufficient progress with a client and, thus, that alternate or supplemental services are required.
3. when other professionals’ specialized expertise is required to better or fully meet a client's needs.
4. when a practitioner has been coaching a client through their employment with a third-party agency or organization, and the practitioner will be leaving the employment setting.
5. when clients are not paying an overdue balance, only if ALL of the following terms have been satisfied:
(a) all financial and contractual agreements have been reviewed and clarified with the client,
(b) all consequences of continued non-payment have been reviewed and clarified with the client,
(c) the client does not in any way pose an imminent threat to self or others.
6. upon client request.
When an individual who is already receiving addiction-recovery coaching services or any similar services from another agency or colleague contacts an ARCS practitioner for services, the practitioner should proceed with cautious concern for the potential client and professional respect for the agency or colleague, thoroughly exploring with the potential client their reasons for wanting to transfer, all possible challenges and risks involved in transfer and whether or not consultation with their current service provider would be in their best interests.
7. In the event of possible relocation, illness, disability, death or other unavailability.
In preparation for any possible unforeseen events and circumstances, ARCS practitioners are responsible to arrange uninterrupted continuity of service for their clients, with a trusted colleague.
ARCS practitioners are prohibited from giving or receiving payment for any referral.
ARCS practitioners must adhere to the following guidelines, to implement responsible referral, transfer and/or termination of services to and professional relationships with clients:
1. do so timely and orderly fashion
2. notify clients promptly
3. assist in arranging for continuation of services:
(a) apprise clients of the benefits and risks involved in service continuation and cessation,
(b) inform clients of appropriate options for service continuation,
(c) encourage client collaboration, consider client needs and respect client preferences when planning for continuation of services.
4. request/attain client consent to disclose all pertinent client and session information to the new service provider
5. take precautionary measures to avoid any protocol that may cause an adverse reaction in clients who still need services, including but not limited to the abandonment or perceived abandonment of a client.
Practitioners will bear the full burden of defending any abrupt withdrawal of services.
Security
For the security of both clients and practitioners, The NBARP and ARCS require that all actively practicing CARCs acquire and maintain professional liability insurance.
FIDUCIARY
[4]Fiduciary
(adjective)
1. aboveboard; authentic; ethical; honest; reliable; trustworthy; unquestionable.
2. involving trust, especially regarding the relationship between a trustee and a beneficiary.
3. of, relating to, or involving a confidence or trust, between a customer and a professional.
4. holding in trust.
5. depending on public confidence for value or currency.
(noun)
a trustee; an advocate; a guardian.
The word “fiduciary” is derived from the Latin word “fiducia”, meaning “trust”. A fiduciary relationship is one in which one person places complete confidence in another, in regard to a particular transaction, set of transactions, or general affairs. For example, the ARCS practitioner-client relationship is a fiduciary relationship in which one person, the client (also legally termed the "beneficiary") places complete confidence in another, the ARCS practitioner (also legally termed the "fiduciary"), regarding addiction-recovery coaching services and sessions.
The ARCS practitioner-client relationship is a fiduciary relationship in which the practitioner possesses a disproportionately large amount of power, due to not only to their training and expertise but, even more so to their role of objectivity within the coaching context and setting; thus, they bear commensurate professional and ethical obligation to act in the best interest of their clients. ARCS practitioners are required to match their clients' complete trust and vulnerability with corresponding trustworthiness, good faith and irreproachable honesty.
The ARCS practitioner-client relationship is a non-reciprocal relationship in which the practitioner holds substantially more power and responsibility than does the client and through which the practitioner seeks to meet the needs of the client at the absolute exclusion of any “reciprocity”, or comparable return, outside of fair, reasonable and mutually-agreed upon fees for services rendered. This can often be confusing, due to multiple factors including but not limited to the collaborative and dynamic aspects of session, the role and power distortions inherent in addictive mentality, and the potential for both shared demographic traits and life experiences amongst practitioners and clients. Nevertheless and unequivocally, ARCS practitioners are solely, fully and legally accountable to abide by all professional and ethical standards required in the non-reciprocal, fiduciary ARCS practitioner-client relationship, as set forth in this code.
ARCS practitioners should consider it their professional, ethical and moral imperative to confer weekly with their Designated Professional Advisor, if for no other reason than for the express purpose of continuously clarifying their professional, ethical and moral obligations in the non-reciprocal, fiduciary ARCS practitioner-client relationship.
The ARCS Professional Practice Code, in its entirety, delineates the minimal professional standards, ethics, principles and conduct required to protect clients within the non-reciprocal, fiduciary ARCS practitioner-client relationship and, thus, to achieve the ARCS mission. Such protective measures include but are not limited to the following:
ARCS practitioners do NOT exploit or take unfair advantage.
1. ARCS practitioners do NOT in any way exploit clients, potential clients, colleagues or others.
2. ARCS practitioners do NOT in any way prey upon the respective vulnerabilities of clients.
3. ARCS practitioners do NOT in any way misuse their authority to manipulate or coerce clients.
4. ARCS practitioners do NOT unduly solicit or in any way pursue clients or potential clients.
5. An ARCS practitioner do NOT in any way take advantage of their relationships with clients, potential clients, colleagues or others to advance their personal, political, religious, social, financial, business or other interests.
ARCS practitioners do NOT perpetrate written or verbal misconduct.
ARCS practitioners do NOT employ derogatory language to or about clients, potential clients, colleagues or others, including but not limited to gratuitous negative criticism or discriminatory remarks.
ARCS practitioners do NOT perpetrate physical misconduct.
1. ARCS practitioners are solely and fully responsible for establishing and maintaining appropriate physical boundaries in the practitioner-client relationship.
2. ARCS practitioners are solely and fully responsible for helping clients and potential clients to understand and comply with appropriate physical boundaries in the practitioner-client relationship.
3.ARCS practitioners do NOT engage in inappropriately or excessively aggressive physical contact with clients or potential clients, such as shaking or pushing.
4. ARCS practitioners do NOT engage in inappropriately or excessively intimate physical contact with clients or potential clients, such as cradling or caressing.
ARCS practitioners who engage in appropriate physical contact with clients or potential clients (such as a handshake, an encouraging pat or a reassuring hug) are responsible to ensure that such contact is governed by clearly communicated, mutually acceptable and culturally sensitive boundaries.
ARCS practitioners do NOT perpetrate sexual misconduct.
1. ARCS practitioners do NOT sexually harass clients, potential clients, colleagues or others, in any way, including but not limited to sexual overtures, sexual solicitation, sexual advances, sexual innuendo, requests for sexual favors or any other inappropriate verbal, physical or other conduct of a a sexual nature.
2. ARCS practitioners do NOT engage in sexual activities or conduct of any kind, with current clients or former clients, whether seemingly “consensual” or coerced.
Due to the non-reciprocal and fiduciary nature of the practitioner-client relationship, as well as the practitioner's disproportionate authority within such relationship, neither current nor former clients have the ability to consent to intimate contact as would peers in a relationship with an equitable distribution of power.
3. ARCS practitioners do NOT engage in any sexual activities or conduct of any kind, with current or former trainees, students, pupils, mentees or with any other recipients of their consultation.
4. ARCS practitioners do NOT engage in sexual activities or conduct of any kind, with a colleague, when to do so would create a real or potential conflict of interest.
ARCS practitioners engaged in or anticipating engagement in sexual activities or conduct of any kind, with a colleague, should terminate and transfer professional duties to avoid a conflict of interest, as necessary.
5. ARCS practitioners do NOT engage in sexual activities or conduct of any kind, with relatives or close friends of a client, if such interaction in any way risks the exploitation, traumatization or endangerment of the client.
(a) In the event that an ARCS practitioner does engage in sexual activities or conduct of any kind, with relatives or close friends of a client, they should do so with client consent.
(b) In the event that an ARCS practitioner does engage in sexual activities or conduct of any kind, with relatives or close friends of a client, they should immediately terminate the practitioner-client relationship, with proper referral of the client to comparable services.
6. ARCS practitioners do NOT provide addiction-recovery coaching services to persons with whom they are or have formerly engaged in a romantic, sexual or other close relationship.
In the event that an ARCS practitioner concretely determines or even merely suspects that they may be in jeopardy of or involved in any form of unethical conduct, they must IMMEDIATELY take the following measures:
1. contact their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor, immediately.
2. take IMMEDIATE preventative and/or remedial actions, including but not limited to the following:
(a) adjustments in workload
(b) partial, full, temporary or permanent transfer of clients, with proper referral and transfer
(c) termination of coaching-client relationship, with proper referral and transfer of client
(d) termination of or sabbatical from practice
(e) forthright disclosure of credentials, certifications and qualifications
(f) additional training
(g) any additional actions required to protect clients and others
3. If the ARCS practitioner fails to comply with all prescribed measures, they risk stringent remedial action being enforced upon them by all appropriate professional organizations and regulatory bodies, including but not limited to The NBARP, ARCS and all relevant national, state, local, public and private entities.
In the event that an ARCS practitioner concretely determines or even merely suspects that a colleague may be in jeopardy of or involved in any form of unethical conduct, they must IMMEDIATELY take the following measures:
1. contact their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor, immediately.
2. work intensively with their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor, to assess accurately and intervene effectively.
3. Work in conjunction with their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor and any other qualified professionals to encourage and assist the colleague to take urgent preventative and/or remedial actions, including but not limited to the following:
(a) adjustments in workload
(b) partial, full, temporary or permanent transfer of clients, with proper referral
(c) termination of coaching-client relationship, with proper referral and transfer of client
(d) termination of or sabbatical from practice
(e) forthright disclosure of credentials, certifications and qualifications
(f) additional training
(g) any additional actions required to protect clients and others
5. If the colleague fails to comply with all prescribed measures, the ARCS practitioner and their Designated Professional Advisor and/or any other practitioner who is qualified to be a Designated Professional Advisor and any other qualified professionals should immediately notify all appropriate professional organizations and regulatory bodies, including but not limited to The NBARP, ARCS and all relevant national, state, local, public and private entities.
ARCS practitioners are solely, fully and legally responsible to immediately terminate the practitioner-client relationship and to promptly facilitate the referral and transfer of such client to a comparable service provider, if at any time or for any reason, the practitioner concretely determines or even merely suspects that they may be in any way incapable of fully adhering to the professional and ethical standards set forth in this code.
This Professional Practice Code cannot guarantee ethical behavior. ARCS practitioners' ethical conduct should naturally extend from their personal values and their desire to be of maximum service to their clients.
ARCS practitioners should maintain constant awareness of and allegiance to the ARCS mission, always acting to discourage, prevent and correct unethical behavior. They should be well versed in the guidelines, requirements and protocols for both assessing and addressing ethical complaints and violations in their respective practice jurisdictions, including but not limited to those also established by professional organizations, regulatory bodies and, herein, by The NBARP and ARCS.
ARCS practitioners and, more specifically, CARCs are independently operating entities and are solely, fully and legally responsible to follow the ethical and other practice guidelines, requirements and protocols in their respective practice jurisdictions, including but not limited to those also established by professional organizations, regulatory bodies and, herein, by The NBARP and ARCS.
The NBARP and ARCS applaud and support ARCS practitioners who seek help if in crisis, thereby responsibly preventing professional, ethical or other violations.
The NBARP and ARCS offer financial compensation for any reports of unethical, unauthorized, unqualified, disrupted, compromised or otherwise incompetent practice that lead to criminal or civil conviction.
Report concerns about unethical, unauthorized, unqualified, disrupted, compromised or otherwise incompetent practice, at one or both of the following:
legaldepartment@arcstofreedom.com
certificationreviewboard@nbarp.org
Footnotes
[1] "ARCS practitioner" and/or "ARCS practitioners" is a term utilized within this code to refer to any and all CARCs, ARCS coaches, ARCS administrators, ARCS professors, ARCS trainers and ARCS students, in their collective entirety.
[2] NBARP Certification Board Publication 14.1: A Designated Professional Advisor is defined as an NBARP-Certified Professor or a Masters-Level Counselor.
NBARP Certification Board Publication 14.2: All CARCs are required to choose and confer weekly with a Designated Professional Advisor.
[3] The NBARP utilizes the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics as a "frame of reference" for this Professional Practice Code (NASW Code of Ethics, Purpose of the NASW Code of Ethics, page 3).
[4] http://Merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fiduciary
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/fiduciary
http://dictionary.law.com/Default.aspx?selected=745
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/fiduciary
This version of the NBARP Professional Practice Code has been specifically adapted for use by ARCS Students and Clients.
LAST REVISED: December 03, 2018