Journal for Professional Counseling the Work Performed

¶ … Journal for Professional Counseling The work performed by qualified professional counselors involves the development of an extremely intimate relationship with clients who expect and deserve confidentiality, cultural sensitivity, and other conventions of ethical treatment as mandated by the American Counseling Association's Ethics & Professional Standards provision. Throughout my time as (insert your work/internship/class, whatever you are 'reflecting' on), I have witnessed firsthand how maintaining a commitment to personal ethics has improved my professional conduct.

The best counsellors are able to balance their personal emotions toward a given situation confided to them by their client -- be it infidelity, thoughts of suicide, or other extremities in terms of life experience -- and upholding my personal ethic of objectivity during my counseling work enhances my ability to provide effective treatment across the widest possible spectrum of potential client interactions.

I find that when I am able to refrain from indulging in private judgments of my client's behavior, the depth and scope of my counseling efforts improves significantly, and preserving this professional ethic is an extension of my personal commitment to scientific neutrality. There are situations, however, which force me to reexamine this ethical obligation to remain impartial; namely those involving a client grieving the sudden death of a loved one.

Based upon my own personal experience, I have found that the grieving processes identified by researchers as most commonly adopted by professional counselors are those which I typically resort to as well. In my own personal experiences with grieving, I've learned to avoid dwelling on the pain which is inevitably felt by focusing on the positive memories, the shared experiences, and the time I was fortunate enough to spend with them.

After poring over the current research on grieving models and the process of coping with bereavement, I realize that this subconscious desire to limit my emotional intake to pleasant recollections may be a form of internalized denial -- the first stage of Kubler-Ross grief theory -- as I am simply avoiding the emotional trauma of death by choosing to focus on life.

Nonetheless, this process has allowed me to effectively cope with grieving within my personal life, so despite learning much from the available research, I believe my own approach to grieving will remain intact. The problem I have often encountered during my own experience as a counsellor is that, in light of my own approach to grieving, I find it difficult to understand those clients who tend to dwell on such issues.

The ethic of impartiality demands that I identify viable methods to separate my personal coping processes with the counselling I offer others.