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The Ethical Decision Making Model

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Throughout the last century, The Unites States of America has been affectionately dubbed, “the melting pot.” Although our Western culture was built on a multicultural foundation, we have nevertheless failed, “to embrace many of the needs, views, and perspectives specific to those not considered part” of the dominant White-Western culture. Only in recent decades have we truly started to address this gap and the needs associated with serving others from a culturally sensitive standpoint. The American Counseling Association (ACA) has slowly adapted to these needs by integrating culturally sensitive language in the ACA Code of Ethics; however, culture permeates every aspect and every level of the counseling process and does not stand alone. …show more content…

I found myself in a very similar situation several years ago when I scheduled my first couples session. Just like Alayah, I was interested in offering couples counseling, had attended trainings and workshops to learn how to effectively work with couples, and was trying hard to build a clientele. Based on my initial phone consultation with the wife, I felt fairly confident that I was well prepared for our first session together. This experience, however, taught me a humbling and valuable lesson. I assumed that couples counseling was similar to individual counseling with two clients instead of one, but I quickly learned that it is a whole different beast!
At the completion of Alayah’s first session, she felt seriously conflicted and doubted her ability to competently work with the couple. She questioned whether it was ethical to continue seeing the couple. I had many of these same musings. I began to question whether I had scheduled them for the right reasons. Did I really think I could help them? Was I just looking to add more clients? What do I do now? I remember thinking that I wanted to do whatever was best for the couple; that was my primary responsibility!
2. Explore the Context of Power
My clients were a male and a female, both African American in their mid-40s. They stated that they didn’t trust a lot of people but “felt” like they could trust me to help them. They wanted to “fix” their marriage which had been “broken” by the husband’s infidelity. They were

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