Counseling Morals for Practitioners

Ethical Considerations for Counselors There are definite ethical implications of a counselor expressing his or her own personal values to a client. In general, the summation of these issues makes the expression of such values to a client the sort of action in which counselors should not engage. From a purely ethical stance, however, it is clear that counselors and most other professionals who work in areas of social and salutary concerns wield an exceedingly amount of power.

Quite simply, these individuals are frequently perceived as authority figures due to the fact that they have experience in their fields, possibly have advanced degrees as well, and are deemed experts in their profession. Thus, the principle ethical consideration of a counselor expressing his or her own values to a client is that he or she can substantially impact that person's own values. In most instances, the point of people seeking counseling is not to influence their opinions or their value.

The point, rather, is to help them with a certain situation or problem that might have lingering psychological, mental, and even social ramifications. In almost all instances, it is possible for a counselor to help solve those problems without conveying his or her own values. Doing so forces counselors to remain objective about the situation and not ascribe their own values to it, which may produce the unwanted effect of 'brainwashing' clients and molding their own thinking and valuation into that of their counselors.

Such a result is not the point of counseling and effectively represents an unfair manifestation of the sort of power ascribed to a counselor. Furthermore, additional ethical implications of such a practice on the part of counselors are akin to socializing or interacting with their patients outside of clinical hours. Such interactions are avoided because of the undue power in such a relationship attributed to the counselor's job -- the same concept applies to the counselor's values.

Of the numerous actions a counselor might take when confronted with clients they find difficult to treat due to differences in values and beliefs regarding serious issues such as abortion or domestic violence, the initial would be to examine the code of ethics that accompanies this profession.

Listed in such codes, in some form or another, is the wisdom that counselors are tasked with helping a wide diversification of individuals, and that they should ideally not limited their assistance to merely ones who look like them, or have similar backgrounds, or who act and think like them. In this respect, counselor's should get a reminder of the reason that they are practicing and see how it relates to the person who might be involved in the aforementioned undesirable behavior or circumstances.

Licensure boards might also provide resources for such a situation (Henderson, 2013, p. 297). Alternatively, counselors may try to foster a sense of hope in their clients, which could enable "people to make changes to their lives and come closer to living the life they want to live" (Koehn and Cutcliffe, 2010, p. 78). Additionally, counselors can seek assistance from either their peer group (meaning other counselors in similar positions or with a similar range of experience) or from their superiors.

Oftentimes, the latter might have experienced something similar to what the counselor is experiencing with this conflict of values in the counselor's beliefs and the actions or circumstances of the patient. These individuals might issue recommendations that can help the counselor to contextualize the situation and make the best of it. Similarly, counselors can also seek authority from their source of values.

For instance, if the counselor is a Catholic and his or her patient is dealing with an abortion or already had an abortion, the counselor could seek assistance from his or her local church about the counselor's professional and personal responsibilities in such a situation. Any of these actions could help a counselor to assess his or her priorities and to make a decision that can hopefully positively affect the counselor and his or her patient.

There are numerous steps a counselor can take to deal with a situation in which his or her client is in a situation which involves circumstances that the counselor has a strong aversion to due to his or her own personal values -- and in which referral is not an option. Ideally, the counselor should attempt all of the steps identified on the second page of this document.

If those steps are not sufficient then the counselor should quite possibly contact both the overarching ethical agency that determines the ethical behavior that counselor must adhere to, as well as the counselor's employer. The latter may be of extreme beneficence in this situation, as that employer may be able to get another employee to finish up that case. However, if that option is not available, then the counselor should contact the previously mentioned ethical governing body and broach his or her quandary to representatives from that agency.

Perhaps the agency can foster a solution so that the counselor can help the patient while still maintaining his or her values. For example, the American Counseling Association can issue "training and practice" (Rogers et al., 2001, p. 365) for those dealing with suicidal patients. It is worth mentioning that counselors can always resign, as well. This option should be reserved for the most extreme cases -- perhaps those which personally involve the counselor.

Still, it might be beneficial to seek employment elsewhere where some of the options mentioned in this document -- such as referring the patient to another counselor, or obtaining some sort of assistance form the counselor's employer or overarching ethical agency -- can help. Although leaving one's position is by no means desirable, the fact that an individual has resigned due to ethical reasons should not be viewed by additional employers as reason not to consider a counselor for future employment.

There are numerous factors that could possibly contribute to a counselor attempting to refer a client with controversial issues to another. Firstly, a counselor might have to do so when he or she believes that he or she cannot help the person because of those same controversial issues. There are some counselors (and some people in general) who are not able to overlook their own values and beliefs. Ideally, it would be advantageous if counselors were readily able to do so.

However, in the event that they feel so strongly about their beliefs that.