Ethical Practice Involves Working Positively Diversity Difference

Ethical Practice Involves Working Positively Diversity Difference

Counseling is a profession that involves associations based on principles and values ethically. Patients are able to benefit by understanding themselves better and through creating relationships with others. Through counseling, the clients are able to make positive alteration in life and enhance their living standards. Communities, organizations, couples and families are different groups of individuals are main sources of relationships (BACP Ethical Framework, 2013, p.4). Frameworks of ethical practice direct the attention of counseling practitioners to engage in ethical responsibilities. This stud describes the purpose of each principle following the development of good counseling practice. Practitioners make reasonable decisions grounded on these principles without making any contradictions. Nevertheless, research indicates that professionals have met barriers hindering them to integrate all the principles in some cases. In such situations, they are forced to select between required principles. A course of action or a decision is not a merely ethical because it is contentious and that some professionals may have come up with differing judgments. Counseling practitioners should consider all reasonable circumstances by being careful and making appropriate justifications for their decisions and course of actions (Clarkson, 2009, p.17).

Fidelity

Counselors should honor the trust that clients place in them. It is fundamental for counselors to be trustworthy in order to resolve and understand ethical issues. Counselors who follow this principle behave in a manner consistent with trust that clients place in them. They hold confidentiality as part of their responsibility stemming from the trust of clients. They are obligated to restrict disclosures of all private information concerning the client and further the purpose of disclosing the information (Handout 7).

Autonomy:

Ryde (2009) elucidated that that counselors must respect the right of clients to govern themselves. This ethical code puts emphasis on the need for clients to show commitment by participating in the psychotherapy or counseling session by volunteering him/herself. Professionals who show respect to the autonomy of their clients by ensuring accuracy in the information provided in advance tend to seek consent before engaging with the client. This principle goes against manipulating patients without their consent, even if they will have social benefits in the end (Handout 8).

Beneficence:

Counseling professionals are required to show that they are committed to promoting the well-being of clients. The beneficence principle requires that counselors act in a manner that puts the interests of the clients as priority consistent with professional diagnosis. McKenzie-Mavinga (2009) found that this principle directs attention of the professional towards acting strictly with competence limits and provision of services based on adequate experience and training. In order for counselors to ensure that the best interests of clients are taken care of, they must systematically monitor the outcomes and their practices. Counselors are obligated to engage on-going and regular supervision to promote service quality and dedicate them to update the practice through constant professional development. It is a paramount obligation for counselors to prioritize the interest of clients in situations where the autonomy of clients has been diminished. This stems from poor understanding by the client, immaturity, personal constraints and extreme distress (BACP Ethical Framework, 2013, p.9).

Non-maleficence:

This principle on founded on avoiding emotional, financial, and sexual exploitation of clients. Counseling professionals should not engage in malpractice or incompetent behaviors such as not providing services to clients because of intoxication or personal circumstances. Counseling PR actioners are ethically obligated to ensure they mitigate potential harm directed to clients even when the harm is unintended or unavoidable. Restitution may be achieved through following appropriate insurance. It is an individual responsibility of practitioners to challenge any adjudication or investigation appropriately regarding professional practices underlying the reasonable competent risks and practice (Clarkson, 2009, p.31).

Justice:

Counselors are required to be impartial and fair in providing adequate treatment and services to clients. The justice principle requires that counselors must be fair and just while dealing with different clients. They are also needed to respect the dignity and human rights of all clients. While distributing their services, counseling psychologists must be able to make impartial decisions about how they allocate services to clients. For them to be dedicates to the principle of fairness, they need to appreciate the disparities between different clients and ensure they provide equal opportunities. This stems from avoiding discrimination clients or groups of people based on their social or personal characteristics. It is the obligation of practitioners to promote fair treatment during psychotherapy and counseling sessions, appropriate and accessible to different needs of clients (Handout 9).

Self-respect:

Practitioners must ensure good care of themselves. This principle implies that counseling practitioners must appropriately apply all the aforementioned principles as self-entitlements. In this regard, they must seek therapy and counseling opportunities for their required personal development (Handout 6). They are ethically obliged to employ appropriate professional and personal support and other opportunities to enhance their professional development. Appropriate insurance is necessary for them to secure financial costs arising from undertaken work. The self-respect principle motivates active participation in enhancing relationships and life activities, which are independent associations in psychotherapy and counseling (BACP Ethical Framework, 2013, p.10).

Diversity, Performance, and culture in counseling psychology

The idea of diversity entails respect and acceptance. It suggests that practitioners must understand the uniqueness of all s and acknowledge their disparities. This is regardless of sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity, race, age, socio-economic status, physical abilities, political beliefs, and religious beliefs. Practitioners must explore these disparities in a positive, safe, and fostering environment (Kearns, 2007, p.15). They are bound to understand and shift beyond ordinary tolerance by celebrating and embracing the wider perspectives of diversity contained in different clients. The principle of diversity is conscious and rooted on appreciating and understanding natural environment, cultures and humanity (Handout 2). Counseling practitioners are required to show mutual respect, appreciation and understanding clients from different backgrounds. They must be aware that the principle of diversity does not solely entail ways of being, but it also entails ways of knowing. This means that counselors recognize that personal and cultural discrimination fosters and sustains benefits for some clients while fostering and sustaining disadvantages to other clients. Such forms of discrimination towards clients can be eradicated through constructing alliances across diversities (Handout 7).

Diversity in the counseling profession entails various disparities between clients seeking for counseling services. As much as this may sound easy, diversity entails background, education, cognitive style, personality, age, ethnic group, gender, and race. It encompasses not only how practitioners perceive themselves, but also how they view clients. The perceptions they hold towards themselves and towards clients are dangerous because they influence counselor client interactions. For different assortments of counselors and clients to work in an effective manner, counseling practitioners must be effective in addressing issues of change, adaptability, and communication. Through diversity management process, practitioners develop and sustain a positive workplace environment where differences and similarities of clients are valued. This enables clients to reach the highest level of participation by maximizing their contributions to the counseling session (Ryde, 2009, p.44).

The benefits of diversity in the counseling context have heightened manifold. There is much information about linkage between organizational culture and diversity, the impacts of diversity, and the linkage between performance and diversity. Both are useful in establishing the impacts of diversity on the outcomes of counseling and participation of clients in discussions (McKenzie-Mavinga, 2009, p.173). Although, we are experiencing increased technological advances in the modern communication world, global relations require practitioners to deal with different clients on an individual basis. For practitioners to be effective in delivery of services, they need to overcome barriers of stereotype and language. This requires mental elimination of terms like alien and reviewing clients based on their different backgrounds (Handout 5) .With the progress of age, there is a decrease in diversity openness resulting in the need for older practitioners to be oriented with the importance of diversity in the counseling profession, sessions, and discussions with clients. This develops opportunities for clients to collaborate with counselors from different countries. Similarly, it enables counselors to have a global understanding of global characters, mindsets of an assortment of clients and management philosophies (Sterling, 2007, p.39).

Through diversity, the performance of practitioners has been enhanced through broadening their individual perspectives. Research presents great empirical evidence that effective management of diversity in counseling psychology and leading to increased improvements in institutional performance. Nevertheless, studies have provided consistent confirmation that disparities should be addressed through moderation. The ability of practitioners to expound on diversity information is likely to increase with time as they continue to familiarize themselves with different perspectives of clients. In this context of a diversified clientele, psychologists are encouraged to attain a further tenure and extend their phase beyond homogenous clients. In the counseling industry, the performance diversity level of expertise is strongly linked with the outputs of counseling sessions at the diversity level (Kearns, 2007, p.72).

Strategies and perspective in diversity management

Perspectives of diversity in counseling are found on major structural principles. The first perspective is grounded on the patterns of interaction between counseling practitioners and their clients as the basis for collective and coordination action. The second perspective focuses on the links between international divisions based on learning and information transfer (Handout 1). In addition, such founding principles of the practice of counseling encompass key elements of what it takes practitioners to achieve their professional goals. Practitioners who do not create connections with clients fails to create learning that can only be derived through interaction with different clients. High diversity levels are driven by the benefits of tapping communicative, cultural, and creative skills of different clients. Practitioners engage such skills to enhance their counseling policies, client experiences, and services. Diversity practitioners have cited the benefits of having an open discussion with clients because this profession requires that clients must come out of their areas of comfort and have an experience with unfamiliar things (Handout 3).

Counseling institutions in Britain are increasingly going global. This leads to increased diversity in their workforce hence fostering challenges of diversity management. Dealing with diverse employees and diverse perspectives of clients are some of the concerns raised by counselors. If diversity in counseling is not managed in an effective manner, it is likely to result in lack of competencies, interest in the workforce and inadequate skills leading to increased turnover of employees and reduced performance of individuals and institutions. Through management of diversity, institutions are able to enhance the development of counselors and their contributions to counseling institutions (McKenzie-Mavinga, 2009, p.207).

Researchers have directed their attention and efforts towards culture and its influences in the institutions of counseling. Studies have focused on establishing the attitudes of practitioners towards formulating diversity programs at the workplace. This has enabled practitioners to incorporate diversity perspectives in their counseling sessions. This is seeks to make clients more productive and committed in the respective discussion. It is evident that workplace diversity is encountering significant barriers (Handout 4). In the counseling sector, practitioners are employing different strategies to curb workplace diversity barriers. Researchers have predicted that workplace diversity in counseling industry is poised to increase in the coming years. Successful practitioners continue to acknowledge the benefits of taking immediate measures and are willing to invest resources in to manage workplace diversity. In this regard, this study is based on diversity in counseling psychology in the Britain context (Sterling, 2007, p.27).