6) Ethical and Legal Aspects in Counseling

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ETHICAL AND LEGAL ASPECTS IN

COUNSELING
PRESENTED BY SIDRA AZIM
Introduction
◦ Ethical codes and standards of practice for counselors have been
formulated by the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the
American Psychological Association (APA).

◦ Ethical codes are guidelines for what counselors can and cannot do
as each counseling situation is unique and sometimes the counselor
must interpret the code accordingly.
ETHICS , MORALITY AND LAW
◦ Ethics refers to a philosophical discipline that is concerned with
human conduct and moral decision making

◦ Morality involves judgment of an action

◦ Law is the precise classification of governing standards that are


established to ensure legal and moral justice
The Role of Ethics Codes as a Catalyst for Improving
Practice
Professional codes of ethics serve a number of purposes.
1. They educate counseling practitioners and the general public about the
responsibilities of the profession.
2. They provide a basis for accountability, and through their enforcement,
clients are protected from unethical practices.
3. Ethics codes can provide a basis for reflecting on and improving your
professional practice. Self-monitoring is a better route for professionals
to take than being policed by an outside agency
ACA code of ethics
ACA code of ethics is based on Kitchener's five moral principles:
1. Beneficence : a counselor must accept responsibility for promoting what is
good for the client with the expectation that the client will benefit form the
counseling session.
2. Nonmaleficience: “doing no harm “.
3. Autonomy: encourage client independent thinking and decision making.
ACA code of ethics
3. Justice: provide equal and fair service to the client regardless of age, gender
, race, ethnicity, culture etc.
4. Fidelity : being honest with the clients and faithfully honoring the
counselors commitment to the clients progress.
Eight Sections of ACA Code of Ethics

1. Counseling Relationship
2. Confidentiality, Privileged Communication, and privacy in counseling
3. Professional Responsibility
4. Relationship with other Professional
5. Evaluation, assessment and interpretation
6. Teaching, training and Supervision
7. Research and Publication
8. Ways to resolve ethical issues
Ethical Issues That Influence Clinical
Practice
 Client Welfare: Client needs come before counselor needs and the counselor
needs to act in the client’s best interest.
 Informed Consent: Counselors need to inform clients as to the nature of
counseling and answer questions so that the client can make an informed
decision.
 Confidentiality: Clients must be able to feel safe within the therapeutic
relationship for counseling to be most effective. What the client says stays in
the session unless the client is threatening harm to self or others.
 Dual Relationships: When a counselor has more than one relationship with a
client
UNETHICAL BEHAVIORS IN
COUNSELING
1. Violation of Confidentiality

2. Exceeding one’s level of professional competence

3. Negligent Practice

4. Claiming Expertise one does not possess

5. Imposing one’s values on a Client


UNETHICAL BEHAVIORS IN
COUNSELING
6. Creating dependency in client

7. Sexual engagement with the client

8. Conflict of interest (dual or multiple relationships)

9. Charging excessive fees or accepting any financial favors


Some Steps in Making Ethical Decisions
1. consider the nature of the problem. This will help you decide whether
the problem is mainly ethical, legal, professional, clinical, or moral.
2. Identify the potential issues. Evaluate the rights, responsibilities, and
welfare of all those who are involved in the situation.
3. Look at the relevant ethics codes for general guidance on the matter.
Consider whether your own values and ethics are consistent with or in
conflict with the relevant guidelines.
Some Steps in Making Ethical Decisions
4. Seek consultation from more than one source to obtain various
perspectives on the dilemma, and document in the client’s record what
suggestions you received from this consultation.
5. Brainstorm various possible courses of action. Continue discussing
options with other professionals. Include the client in this process of
considering options for action. Again, document the nature of this
discussion with your client.
Some Steps in Making Ethical Decisions
6. Enumerate the consequences of various decisions, and reflect on
the implications of each course of action for your client.
7. Decide on what appears to be the best possible course of action.
Once the course of action has been implemented, follow up to
evaluate the outcomes and to determine if further action is
necessary. Document the reasons for the actions you took as well
as your evaluation measures
The Right of Informed Consent
It is an ethical and legal requirement that is an integral part of the
therapeutic process.
It also establishes a basic foundation for creating a working alliance and a
collaborative partnership between the client and the therapist.
It involves the right of clients to be informed about their therapy and to
make autonomous decisions pertaining to it.
The Right of Informed Consent
Providing clients with information they need to make informed choices
tends to promote the active cooperation of clients in their counseling
plan.
By educating your clients about their rights and responsibilities, you are
both empowering them and building a trusting relationship with them.
Dimensions of Confidentiality
Sense of trust and privacy that is essential for counseling to be successful
Confidentiality and privileged communication are two related but somewhat
different concepts. Both of these concepts are rooted in a client’s right to privacy.
1. Confidentiality is an ethical concept, and in most states the legal duty of
therapists to not disclose information about a client.
2. Privileged communication is a legal concept that generally bars the disclosure of
confidential communications in a legal proceeding.
Dimensions of Confidentiality
Confidentiality is central to developing a trusting and productive client–
therapist relationship.
no genuine therapy can occur unless clients trust in the privacy of their
revelations to their counselors, professionals have the responsibility to define
the degree of confidentiality that can be promised.
Counselors have an ethical and legal responsibility to discuss the nature and
purpose of confidentiality with their clients early in the counseling
BREAKING CONFIDENTIALITY
1. Child abuse
2. Children under the age of consent
3. Clients who may be physically dangerous to self and others
4. Clients who face possibility of involuntary hospitalization
5. Clients who are forced to undergo medical or psychological treatment
6. Clients in group therapy
7. If the information is involved in a court action.
Ethical Issues in a Multicultural
Perspective
Ethical practice requires that we take the client’s cultural context into
account in counseling practice.
individuals are best understood by taking into consideration salient cultural
and environmental variables
It is essential to focus on both individual and social factors if change is to
occur.
Ethical Issues in the Assessment and
diagnosis Process
Assessment consists of evaluating the relevant factors in a client’s life to identify
themes for further exploration in the counseling process.

 Diagnosis, which is sometimes part of the assessment process, consists of


identifying a specific mental disorder based on a pattern of symptoms that leads
to a specific diagnosis. Both assessment and diagnosis can be understood as
providing direction for the treatment process.
Dual and Multiple Relationships in Counseling
Practice
Dual or multiple relationships occur when counselors assume two (or
more) roles with a client.
This may involve assuming more than one professional role or
combining professional and nonprofessional roles.
Dual and Multiple Relationships in
Counseling Practice
Some examples of multiple relationships are
1. combining the roles of teacher and therapist or of supervisor and therapist;
2. bartering for goods or therapeutic services;
3. borrowing money from a client;
4. providing therapy to a friend, an employee, or a relative;
5. engaging in a social relationship with a client;
6. accepting an expensive gift from a client;
What makes dual or multiple relationships
so problematic?
According to Herlihy and Corey (2006b), some of the problematic aspects of
engaging in dual or multiple relationships are:
1. that they are pervasive;
2. they can be difficult to recognize;
3. they are unavoidable at times;
4. they are potentially harmful, they can be beneficial; and they are the
subject of conflicting advice from various experts.
5. Exploiting the client
6. Potential for misusing power

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