Counselor Ethics and Responsibilities

Directions: Read the scenarios below. For each scenario, provide a 75-150 word response to each question. Use the ACA and NAADAC Codes of Ethics and other scholarly resources to support your responses. You must provide at least one citation to support your response for each scenario. Though APA format is not required for your answers, citations and references should be presented in accordance with APA guidelines.

It goes without saying that at some point in a counselor career, he or she can expect to be faced with an ethical dilemma. Ethical decisions are rarely easy to arrive at, as the dilemmas a counselor is faced with can be very complex

On the issue of abortion with the 19-year old rape victim, I feel that she has a right to choose whether or not to go through with the abortion. As her counselor I have to put my personal feelings aside and help her to make the best decision for herself. My client is firm in her plans to have the abortion and since she is an adult her parents have no legal right to make her change her mind. I am unable to convince the parents to change their minds as they are not my clients and I have no input in how they feel. According to the ACA (2005) I must be sensitive to the family’s cultural beliefs and in the

Professional associations establish codes of ethics to ensure that clinicians uphold the standards of their association in order to protect the clients they serve and the profession they are affiliated with. This paper will compare the codes of ethics of the American Counseling Association (ACA), American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), and National Association of Social Workers (NASW).

However, it is not always that simple and there may be some instances when it is not possible to maintain total confidentiality and the counsellor my have to pass on certain information that was revealed. For example, if a crime has been committed or if there is a risk of harm to another person. In this case the counsellor must be clear with the client what information they may have to pass on and to whom.

Professional counselors and their staff are exposed to sensitive client information and records. The helpful receptionist and whose privilege videos, show how to apply both the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics (ACA Code of Ethics) and state board counseling laws to common ethical scenarios. The content explores aspects designed to call attention to favorable and unfavorable skills and techniques in handling such matters. These two videos demonstrate the limitations of confidentiality and privileged information. As a professional counselor one is expected to uphold the principles of confidentiality and privilege according to the ACA Code of Ethics and state laws. One may conclude that the helpful receptionist video shows clear violations of confidentiality. While the whose privilege video indicates the significance of insuring that counselors comprehend state laws and ethics codes pertaining to confidentiality and privilege. Furthermore, counseling professionals are held accountable for violating ethics codes and state laws as well as training staff on informed consent.

The first ethical issue that counselors have to worry about in counseling children is to be a competent counselor. It includes that the counselor must be familiar with child and adolescent development. Also, in order to be competent in counseling children, a counselor must frequently participate in trainings, specialized education, and supervised practice (Henderson & Thompson, 2011). Another ethical issue in counseling minors is privacy and confidentiality. According to the American Counseling Association (ACA) (2014) Code of Ethics, when counseling minors a counselors protect the confidentiality of information received (ACA, 2014, B.5.a). Counselors also have responsibilities with the child’s parents such as inform parents about the role of counselors and the confidential nature of the counseling relationship (ACA, 2014, B.5.b). When a counselors needs to release confidential information, he needs to seek permission from the child’s parents, legal guardians, or the appropriate third party in order to disclose the information (ACA, 2014, B.5.c). According to Henderson and Thompson (2011), children have to have their parents’ consent to see a

Professionalism is one of the most important aspects of counseling. Lacking professionalism may potentially cause harm to the client. In my opinion, professionalism begins and ends with the code of ethics. I feel that if you abide by the code of ethics you have nothing worry about regarding professionalism. The code of ethics summarizes the standards of integrity, professionalism, and confidentiality. A counselor is supposed to abide by the legal and moral standards of the community (Grold, 1996). All professionals should dress

This paper is a response to a video discussing the issues of confidentiality, privilege, reporting, and duty to warn. This paper looks at these issues and their explanations in the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics as well as the Georgia State Board of Professional Counselor’s ethical guidelines and provides a commentary on the laws. It was found that these issues are not always black and white, but there is some debate on these issues. Confidentiality is both an ethical and a legal responsibility yet there are often times when the ethical demands clash with the legal demands. This paper explores some of those crashes and explains what I have learned from the video and the professional and stage guidelines concerning confidentiality and its implications and how I will apply what I have learned into future practice.

I selected the article “Duty to Warn and Protect: Not in Texas” for review, as it applies to the state in which I reside. The article cites Texas Health and Safety Codes, based on a 1999 Texas Supreme Court ruling that states counselors do not have a duty to warn or protect. Having a duty to warn and protect is defined as protecting clients or others from perceived harm (Jackson-Cherry & Erford, 2014). An example would be that a client tells their counselor in a confidential session that he is considering stabbing his ex-girlfriend. The duty to warn would mean the counselor should notify authorities and the ex-girlfriend thus breaking confidentiality. The duty to protect would be to admit client to a facility for the client to be assessed for a propensity for violence towards the ex-girlfriend. This became important after a 1969 incident where a counselor, had a client expressed harm towards a girl and the counselor contacted the authorities, yet never contacted the girl, who was subsequently killed by the client a few months later, known as the Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California case (Jackson-Cherry & Erford, 2014).

* I believe it is unethical for the counselor to reveal anything said in individual counseling with the husband. She didn’t address a “no secrets” policy in the informed consent. Sharing this information with the wife without his permission is unethical. In marriage counseling the “no secrets” policy needs to be addressed and explained in the informed consent. Since she did not have a policy concerning this, she is bound by confidentiality which should have been in her informed consent.

As a professional counselor should remain value objective about controversial issues yes a counselor will advise indirectly, but not to the point where the client depend on your advice. Give the reading material and ask their comment of the script. Provided with several approaches of the controversial issues and insist their feed back and that you are learning sometime from them, and encourage more input. As a counselor we are indirectly guiding the client through controversial issues. Abortion gives the client documentation on a healthy baby and a bright future for the baby that they can provide. The counselor should be more objective and use lot of integrity, unconditional regard of the client personal views is a common challenge to the counselor. Counselor encourage client to contact (ANSIRH) , Advancing New Standards in Reproduction Health, a research group at University of California, San Francisco their mission is to conduct innovated and rigorous research on complex issues related to peoples sexual and reproductive lives. Contact information is 510-640-7367, email: UCSFGoogleStudy@ucsf.edu. Abortion is an area that a lot of support spiritually and family if available. As a counselor we remain objective and advise client to all supportive professional agencies. When abortion occurs the female has many emotional feelings and consciousness thinking. Her mind and body cells are of conflict a difficult decision to make either morn or grief but the concept is

Dual relationships and the ethical behavior that revolves around boundaries with clients present a multitude of very complicated situations to counselors where a clearly defined course of action is not always evident. Aside from no accord amongst mental health professionals and boundary issues being unavoidable at times, recognition and prediction of potential benefits or pitfalls correlated with dual relationships can prove to be troublesome as well (Remley & Herlihy, 2010). For most cases, it is best if an outline is used to discern when it is appropriate for a counselor to breach the client-counselor boundary.

The authors’ main purpose of this chapter is to teach the importance of examining our ethics through the lenses of critical thinking. In general, critical thinking is being able to learn new material with an open mind and having a heightened level of self-awareness of our biases and how our biases impact the analysis of information. A critical thinking approach when applied to the logical analysis of journal articles, chapters or entire textbooks--encourages us to analyze the author(s)’ goals, objectives, issues, observations, facts, conclusions, biases, inferences, assumptions,

There are many ethical issues that can arise during counseling. One issue that is fairly common is sexual attraction from patient to counselor, counselor to patient, or even in both directions. Even though an attraction may exist, this does not necessarily mean that these instincts will be followed in any inappropriate way. In fact attraction is a natural part of life and is impossible to avoid. However, any fulfillment of these desires is an unethical act that could not only be in violation of the code of ethics that a counselor is bound by, but it could also subject the counselor and their organization to litigation and legal action.