Ethical Issues In Counseling: Course Analysis

To have good ethical practice within counselling it is important that there are boundaries and contracts in place that are agreed to and understood by both the counsellor and the client.

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).

I intend to show an understanding of the ethical framework for good practice in counselling, relating it to practice and also my own beliefs and opinions, how this influences the counselling relationship, I will also show the need for protection of self and client.

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.

Counselors need to be guided by the ethical standards set forth by the American Counseling Association’s Code of Ethics. These standards define ethical conduct in the counseling profession, and provide guidance for maintaining professionalism in any situation. I have become familiar with many of the sections included in the ACA Code of Ethics from the research and assignments completed in this class. Garnering an awareness of the ACA Code of Ethics as it pertains to informed consent, confidentiality, professional responsibility, and resolving ethical issues, has given me confidence to discuss and evaluate the legal issues and ethical obligations associated with this profession. The section regarding professional responsibility of this document resonated with me the most, and elicited a feeling of confidence about counseling ethics and law, that was not present before this class. Professional responsibility sets the tone for everything else we do. As counselors, we must be guided by professionalism and high standards. Standard C.1 of the ACA Code of Ethics (2014) states that counselors have a responsibility to read, understand, and follow the ACA Code of Ethics, and abide by all applicable laws and regulations. While there are a plethora of legal and ethical issues that may arise for professional counselors throughout their careers, I feel that this class has given me a broad overview of how to be proactive and use appropriate decision-making tools to work

Introduction The code of ethics guides all helping professions in addressing and finding a solution to situations that need to remain true to the standard of conduct for counselors, and does not cause harm to any parties involved. However, each code for each helping profession looks different in terms of ethical standards. Making it important to compare the two to view the similarities and differences shared in each code. This paper will examine the American Counseling Association’s (ACA) code of ethics with the American School Counselor Association Ethical Standards for School Counselor’s (ASCA).

Some differences I noticed between ASCA, ACA, and AACC include the each have different sections throughout their code of ethics, AACC are Christian based. ACA and AACC are much more detailed than ASCA. ASCA does not have mention of fees or in depth assessments. ASCA does not discuss diagnosis for mental health issues as a school counselor would not be diagnosis a student. Some similarities I noticed included they are each considered the ethical standards that everyone must follow. If a school counselor or community counselor is not following their code

Like every profession, they are codes of conducts that we need to follow to ensure the strict principals of the profession. Counseling has several elements that are very important that will help you in a future professional career in this area of psychology.

From an ethical perspective, what should the faculty members in graduate counseling programs tell perspective students about the program? From an ethical perspective faculty members in graduate counseling programs should tell perspective students their expectations and enough information for them to be able to make an informed decision. PG. 338.

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,

Ethical issues in a counseling practice lay the foundation of a therapist in practice. Ethics are at the center of how the counseling process functions and operates in a successful manner for the clients who seek help in such a setting. In order for the counseling profession to be ethical and hold professional recognition, there are many facets that need to be examined and outlined to make sure all counselors and practitioners are functioning at the highest level and withholding their duties required by the counseling profession. The first introduction so to speak of the area of ethics also happens to be one of the first steps in counseling, which is the informed consent. The informed consent provides the basis of what happens or will be

I thought the entire content of the class was educational and went much more in depth than the ethics class that was required for my undergraduate program. Therefore, there was a plethora of information and resources to be gone through to understand the local, state, federal laws and ethics that cover the counseling profession. What was most impactful for me was the importance of boundaries, the bending or crossing of them and the complete disregard for them and violating them. It is understandable and expected that every client is different; therefore, each and every client will have different needs, so the professional needs to treat each and every client independently. Glass (2003) reports, when a professional has rigid boundaries with

The topic of this paper focuses on the battles school counselors face as the law and ethical standards collide. School counselors face a number of legal and ethical issues and recognizing a clear decision isn’t always easy. School counselors have to work with a large number of students, parents, and administrators while conforming to ethical codes, state laws, and school board guidelines. This topic is of great relevance to me as I will be going into the school counseling profession. It is also a meaningful topic to me because life-changing decisions are made every day in reference to legal and ethical issues. Researching this topic has shed some light on the difficulty for school counselors to fulfill both legal and ethical

In the case study of Gwen, there is one major problem presented. That problem is whether it is ethical for a supervisor to counsel his supervisee. I think that Gwen is going through the grieving process after learning about her mother’s condition and is in a vulnerable spot. She feels like she cannot continue her work with hospice patients because of personal feelings. Ken thinks that Gwen is a great therapist and does not want to see her give up. He also feels like he would be the most effective person to give Gwen counseling, because of their trusting relationship. I think that this would be a bad idea and could cross professional boundaries. The Ethical Guidelines for Counseling Supervisors strongly suggest against a supervisor entering

During orientation, the therapist discussed confidentiality and when she is mandated to report. Confidentiality is very important when dealing with clients/therapy. The client needs to be familiar with his or her rights and feel comfortable talking about their problems without worrying about it being spread to other individuals. By having the client being aware of when confidentiality is broken, they can be weary of what to say or not to say.