The follow request: a five-second ethics item that most candidates overthink.
A client follows you on social media. Four options, one keyed, and a distractor pattern the NCE reuses across the whole ethics domain: the reasonable-sounding shortcut.
By Dr. Andrew Wichterman · September 22, 2026 · 5 min read
A client sends the counselor a follow request on a personal social media account. The item asks what the ACA Code directs, and offers accept, accept with limits, ignore, and decline and discuss the practice's social media policy. The last is keyed.
The practice item discussed here was written for this site in the style of the NCE. It is not a question from the actual exam. NBCC does not release its items, and candidates sign a nondisclosure agreement.
What the item is really testing
Section H of the 2014 Code, on distance counseling, technology and social media, asks counselors to keep personal and professional presence separate, to explain their social media policy as part of informed consent, and to avoid disclosing confidential information on any platform. A follow request from a client is the case Section H was written for. The answer is not just to decline; it is to decline and talk about it, because the request is clinical material and the policy should already be in the consent.
The item is also testing whether you know that the conversation is the point. Boundaries on the exam are rarely enforced silently. The counselor names the boundary, explains its purpose, and explores what prompted the request.
Why the distractors tempt
Accept tempts because refusing feels cold, and candidates worry about the alliance. Accept with limits tempts more, because it sounds like a thoughtful compromise: follow but never interact. The exam calls this the ethically tempting shortcut, and it appears across the domain: hand over records because a subpoena arrived, refer because of your values, accept the large gift because refusing would offend. Each one sounds reasonable and each one is wrong. Ignore tempts because it avoids the awkwardness, but ignoring a boundary test leaves the client without an explanation and the counselor without a documented response.
When two options seem defensible, ask which one the Code would choose. The Code chooses the policy, the conversation, and the minimum necessary disclosure. It does not choose convenience.
The wider rule
Technology items on the current exam follow one shape. Verify identity and location for distance counseling. Be licensed where the client sits. Use secure platforms. Keep personal and professional separate. Put the policy in the consent. Never search a client online without a clinical reason and consent. If you can recite those six, you will not miss a Section H item.
Where this lives in the course
Domain 1, Professional Practice and Ethics, lesson 7: Technology, social media, records and HIPAA.
Check the current handbook. Exam logistics, fees and policies change. Confirm specifics against the NBCC candidate handbook and your state board's current rules. Aligned to the current NCE blueprint, valid for exams through June 30, 2027.
Decline and discuss. Not accept, not accept with conditions, not ignore. The policy and the conversation are the answer.