ETHICAL ASPECT OF COUNSELLING:

“Ethics is generally defined as a philosophical discipline that is concerned with human

Conduct and moral decision making”. Ethics are normative in nature and focus on principles and

standards that govern relationships between individuals.

“Professional ethics are beliefs about behavior and conduct that guide professional practices,”

Such as those between counselors and clients.

Morality, however, involves judgment or evaluation of action. It is associated with such words

as good, bad, right, wrong,

Counselors have morals, and the theories counselors employ have embedded within them moral

presuppositions about human nature that explicitly and implicitly question first “what is a person

and second, what should a person be or become.

Law is the precise codification of governing standards that are established to ensure legal

and moral justice. Law is created by legislation, court decision, and tradition, as in English

common law.

ETHICS AND COUNSELING:

As a group, professional counselors are concerned with ethics and values. Indeed, many

counselors treat ethical complaints with the same seriousness that they treat lawsuits. However,

some counselors are better informed or more attuned to these issues.

Unethical behavior in counseling can take many forms. The temptations common to people

everywhere exist for counselors. They include “physical intimacy, the titillation of gossip, or

the opportunity (if the gamble pays off) to advance one’s career”. Some forms of unethical

behavior are obvious and willful, whereas others are more subtle and unintentional. Regardless,

the harmful outcome is the same.

• Violation of confidentiality

• Exceeding one’s level of professional competence

• Negligent practice

• Claiming expertise one does not possess

• Imposing one’s values on a client

• Creating dependency in a client

• Sexual activity with a client

• Certain conflicts of interest, such as dual or multiple relationships—in which the role of

the counselor is combined with another relationship (either personal or professional) and not

monitored for appropriateness of boundaries.

• Questionable financial arrangements, such as charging excessive fees

• Improper advertising

• Plagiarism

PROFESSIONAL CODES OF ETHICS AND STANDARDS:

To address ethical situations, counselors have developed professional codes of ethics and

standards of conduct based on an agreed-on set of values. Professionals in counseling voluntarily

abide by such codes for many reasons. “Among its many purposes, a code of ethical conduct is

designed to offer formal statements for ensuring protection of clients’ rights while identifying

expectations of practitioners”. Another reason for ethical codes is that “without a code of

established ethics, a group of people with similar interests cannot be considered a professional

organization”.
Three other reasons for the existence of ethical codes according to Van Hoose and Kottler (1985)

are as follows:

1. Ethical codes protect the profession from government. They allow the profession to

regulate itself and function autonomously instead of being controlled by legislation.

2. Ethical codes help control internal disagreements and bickering, thus promoting stability

Within the profession.

3. Ethical codes protect practitioners from the public, especially in regard to malpractice

suits. If counseling professionals behave according to ethical guidelines, the behavior is

judged to be in compliance with accepted standards.

In addition, ethical codes help increase public trust in the integrity of a profession and

Provide clients with some protection from charlatans and incompetent counselors.

The Development of Codes of Ethics for Counselors:

The first counseling code of ethics was developed by the American Counseling

Association (ACA) (then the American Personnel and Guidance Association, or

APGA) based on the original American Psychological Association code of ethics

(Allen, 1986). The initial ACA code was initiated by Donald Super and approved

in 1961. It has been revised periodically since that time (in 1974, 1981, 1988,

1995, 2005, and 2014). The ACA also produces an Ethical Standards

Casebook (Herlihy & Corey, 2015).

The ACA’s latest Code of Ethics is comprehensive in nature and a major sign that

counseling
has developed into a mature discipline.

Section A deals with the counseling relationship, including counselors’

professional respond sibilates to clients and their welfare (e.g., roles and

relationships with clients). The section also discusses cultural sensitivity and ways

to handle potentially troublesome subjects such as fees, bartering, boundaries,

referrals, and termination. For example, in this section the ACA clearly states that

sexual or romantic intimacies between counselors and former clients must be

examined carefully before commencing and are prohibited for a period of 5 years

following the last professional contact.

Section B covers confidentiality and privacy in counseling, including the right to

privacy, records, minor or incompetent clients, disclosure, and consultation.

Section C focuses on issues related to professional responsibility, such as

professional competence, advertising and solicitation, professional qualifications,

treatment modalities, nondiscrimination, and public responsibility.

Section D covers relationships with colleagues, employers, and employees,

including consultation. Section E deals with evaluation, assessment, and

interpretation. In addition to general information, it includes material on

competence to use and interpret tests, informed consent, release of information to

competent professionals, proper diagnosis of mental disorders, instrument

selection, conditions of assessment administration, multicultural issues in

assessment, forensic evaluation, and test scoring and interpretation. Section F

focuses on issues related to supervision, training, and teaching, including counselor

supervision competence, supervisory relationships and responsibilities, supervisee

responsibilities, responsibilities of counselor educators and counseling students, and

multicultural/diversity issues in counselor education programs. Section G deals with research

and publications and delineates research responsibilities, rights of research participants,

reporting of research results, and publications and presentations. Section H, which is new to this

edition of the code, examines ethical issues in distance counseling, technology, and social

media. It includes topics dealing with knowledge and legal considerations, informed consent and

security, client verification, distance counseling relationships, records and Web maintenance, and

social media.

A. Counseling Relationship

B. Confidentially and Privacy in Counseling

C. Professional Responsibility

D. Relationships with Colleagues, Employers, and Employees

E. Evaluation, Assessment, and Interpretation

F. Supervision, Training, and Teaching

G. Research and Publication

H. Distance Counseling, Technology, and Social Media

I. Resolving Ethical Issue

Limitations of Ethical Codes:

Furthermore, they point out that such documents do not address foreseeable professional

dilemmas. Rather, they provide guidelines, based on experiences and values, of how counselors

should behave. In many ways, ethical standards represent the collected wisdom

of a profession at a particular time.

A number of specific limitations exist in any code of ethics. Here are some of the limitations

most frequently mentioned.

• Some issues cannot be resolved by a code of ethics.

• Enforcing ethical codes is difficult.

• There may be conflicts within the standards delineated by the code.

• Some legal and ethical issues are not covered in codes.

• Ethical codes are historical documents. Thus, what may be acceptable practice at one time

may be considered unethical later.

• Sometimes conflicts arise between ethical and legal codes.

• Ethical codes do not address cross-cultural issues.

• Ethical codes do not address every possible situation.

• There is often difficulty in bringing the interests of all parties involved in an ethical dispute

together systematically.

Conflicts Within and Among Ethical Codes

First, points out, to act ethically counselors must be aware of ethical codes and be able to

differentiate an ethical dilemma from other types of dilemmas—a differentiation that is not

always easy. Second, sometimes different ethical principles in a code offer conflicting guidelines

about what to do in a given situation. Third, conflicts may occur when counselors belong to two

or more professional organizations whose codes of ethics differ, such as the codes of the APA
and the ACA. Such counselors may become involved in situations in which ethical action is

unclear.

MAKING ETHICAL DECISIONS:

Ethical decision making is not always easy, yet it is a part of being a counselor. At such times,

ethical issues aries and these counselors experience anxiety, doubt, hesitation, and confusion in

determining their conduct. Unfortunately, when they act, their behavior may turn out to be

unethical either because it is not grounded in an ethical code or it is grounded in only part of a

code that they have extracted to justify their behavior.

Ethical reasoning, “the process of determining which ethical principles are involved

and then prioritizing them based on the professional requirements and beliefs.”

Six ethical principles relate to the activities and ethical choices of counselors:

• beneficence (doing good and preventing harm),

• nonmaleficence (not inflicting harm),

• autonomy (respecting freedom of choice and self-determination),

• justice (fairness),

• fidelity (faithfulness or honoring commitments and promises), and

• veracity (truthfulness)

EDUCATING COUNSELORS IN ETHICAL DECISION MAKING:

Ethical decision making in counseling can be promoted in many ways, but one of the best is

through taking courses and continuing education credits that are now required in most graduate

Counseling programs and for the renewal of professional counselor licenses.

Ethical behavior of counselors in terms

Of a five-stage developmental continuum of reasoning:

1. Punishment orientation. At this stage the counselor believes external social standards

are the basis for judging behavior. If clients or counselors violate a societal rule, they

should be punished.

2. Institutional orientation. Counselors who operate at this stage believe in and abide by

the rules of the institutions for which they work. They do not question the rules and base

their decisions on them.

3. Societal orientation. Counselors at this stage base decisions on societal standards. If a

question arises about whether the needs of society or an individual should come first, the

needs of society are always given priority.

4. Individual orientation. The individual’s needs receive top priority at this stage.

Counselors are aware of societal needs and are concerned about the law, but they focus on

what is best for the individual.

5. Principle (conscience) orientation. In this stage, concern for the individual is primary.

Ethical decisions are based on internalized ethical standards, not external considerations.

ETHICS IN SPECIFIC COUNSELING SITUATIONS:

Ethical behavior is greatly influenced by the prevalent attitudes in the setting in which one

Works, by one’s colleagues, and by the task the counselor is performing. “Most organizations

that employ counselors are organized not collegially or professionally, as is in part the case with

Universities and hospitals, but hierarchically. In a hierarchical organization, the administrator or

executive decides which prerogatives are administrative and which are professional”.

School Counseling and Ethics

One way school counselors can assure themselves of an ethically sound program is to realize that

they may encounter multiple dilemmas in providing services to students, parents, and teachers.

School counselors are sometimes used as tools by school administrators to do nonrelated

counseling activities such as substitute teach, grade tests, or patrol the lunchroom.

Couple and Family Counseling and Ethics

Another counseling situation in which ethical crises are common is couple and family

counseling. . The reason is that counselors are treating a number of individuals together as a

system, and it is unlikely that all members of the system have the same goals. To overcome

potential problems, Thomas (1994) has developed a dynamic, process-oriented framework for

counselors to use when working with families.

Principle ethics to these situations that are based on a set of obligations that focus on finding

socially and historically appropriate answers to the question.

Virtue ethics as well, which focus on the “character traits of the counselor and nonobligatory

ideals to which professionals aspire”.

Research ethics is, appropriately, on the protection of human subjects [people] in research”

In the area of research in particular, there are four main ethical issues that must be resolved:

• Informed consent,

• Coercion and deception,

• Confidentiality and privacy, and

• reporting the results.

THE LAW AND COUNSELING:

Legal refers to “law or the state of being lawful,” and law refers to “a body of rules recognized

by a state or community as binding on its members” .

However, there are a number of court decisions and statutes that influence legal

opinions on counseling, and counselors need to keep updated. Thecase involving Gary Ramona

is one such legal decision. In this widely publicized trial, Ramona sued his daughter’s therapists,

“charging that by implanting false memories of sexual abuse in her mind they had destroyed his

life” (Butler, 1994, p. 10). The legal opinion on which the case was decided was duty to care—

health providers’ legal obligation not to act negligently.

In most cases, the law is “generally supportive or neutral” toward professional codes of

ethics and counseling in general. It supports licensure or certification of counselors as a means

of ensuring that those who enter the profession attain at least minimal standards. It also supports

the general “confidentiality of statements and records provided by clients during therapy” . In

addition, the law is neutral “in that it allows the profession to police itself and govern counselors’

relations with their clients and fellow counselors” .The only time the law overrides a professional

code of ethics is when it is necessary.