, 2011). Finally, DSM diagnoses have positive effects on a client's sense of self, facilitating self-understanding and insight into mental health experiences, giving clarification to their self-concept (Tekin, 2011).
On the other hand, a symptom-based and biomedical disease model presumes mental illness is explainable and predictable (Tekin, 2011). Treatment in line with biological methods of somatic illness may therefore prevent the assessment of mental distress in the context of the complex interplay between environmental, social, cultural and historical factors surrounding the client. For example, assuming substance abuse has biological underpinnings that can be treated with medication, ignores the core issues that led to the substance abuse at the outset (Moncrieff, 2007). For clients that want a 'quick fix', this may be a viable option, however, long term treatment require etiology of disorders to be considered. Furthermore, biological assumptions may impede on the nature of therapy being spontaneous, dynamic and ever-evolving (Yalom, 2001). Though psychological practice is based on a scientific paradigm, there is still a need for practitioners to be creative. Therapy requires a continuous sequence of examining the uniqueness of each client; a uniqueness that requires a therapist to invent a new therapy each session, rather than following a prescribed sequence and schedule of topics and exercises (Yalom, 2001). .
It is a requirement under the Australian Psychological Society's (APS) Code of Ethics that clients are informed of services intended to be provided to them, including method and purpose of treatment, as well as risks involved. Failing to gain informed consent is a breach of this ethical standard, unless exceptions can be validated, or where informed consent is not reasonable or realistic (APS, 2007). By conforming (or not conforming) to informed consent protocols, some ethical questions are presented.
