Ethics in Counseling the Research and Empirically-Derived

Ethics in Counseling

The research and empirically-derived conclusions in the article, So what do u want to work on 2 day? (Rummell, Joyce, 2010) illustrate just how much of an ethical quagmire online counseling is today. The article clearly shows how much of an urgent need there is today for greater compliance and oversight, with a call for the American Psychological Association (APA) needing to be involved. One of the most valuable insights gained from the analysis and empirical research is just how urgently the need is for a standardized set of guidelines and compliance frameworks. The researchers point out how the APA Ethics Code Standard 2.01 only goes so far in regulating online counseling and support (Rummell, Joyce, 2010). Across the wide spectrum of Internet counseling programs that include e-mail-based programs, private instant messaging, chat services, videoconferencing and most recently, Google+ chat rooms that are used for diagnosis and treatment there is a lack of any ethical guidelines or programs (Rummell, Joyce, 2010).

Analysis of the Ethicacy of Online Treatments

Having grown from multichannel to omnichannel in scope, online counseling continues to flourish as a means for both reputable and unethical opportunists who pose as trustworthy practitioners to reach clients. The continual evolution of online counseling has also progressed beyond the mundane and easily treated programs to where many reputable providers are offering psychoanalysis entirely through online programs (Rummell, Joyce, 2010). This continual development of programs at the farthest reaches of treatment programs is primarily for profit with little afterthought of the ethics of giving patients what they really need in terms of a long-term treatment program that will be verifiable and therefore trustworthy over time (Rummell, Joyce, 2010).

Where trust is the most powerful catalyst there is in delivering medical services and curing patients, the myriad of online treatment programs for counseling has been a fertile field for charlatans as well. The need for oversight and compliance to drive out the unethical providers of counseling services is clearly needed, as the researchers cite several examples of how patients placed a high degree of trust in providers only to be charged thousands of dollars and not improving their conditions in the least (Rummell, Joyce, 2010). The APA needs to step in and define an overall framework for the specific level of training and continual certification of providers to operate online to alleviate the financial and emotional loss occurring with patients worldwide. This premise dominates one of the more well-defined and researched area of the analyses presented by Rummel and Joyce (2010).

The researchers are thorough in their analysis of the ethicacy of online counseling, specifically in the areas of client confidentiality, risk management, practice within the scope of credentials and licensing and the emergence of psychotherapy as a treatment strategy entirely online. Dissecting each of these specific areas starting with client confidentiality exposes how difficult it is to navigate the ethical quagmire of offering counseling programs online. The nature of the Internet provides patients with the opportunity to remain anonymous in all interactions, yet for any counseling programs to be effective the counselor or treatment professional will need an abundance of personal information. Trusting a provider online to share at times the most intimate and emotionally charged aspects of a person's life requires a strong platform of trust, often with little more to go on that the certifications and claims on an Internet site (Rummell, Joyce, 2010). With often no recourse for incorrect analysis and treatment, online counseling patients are often left without the results promised. In fact, the authors argue, online counseling sessions require even greater self-disclosure and data sharing compared to their offline and face-to-face counterpart treatment programs (Rummell, Joyce, 2010). Client confidentiality is the cornerstone of counseling trust and the role of the Internet alone cannot bridge this gap on its own. Instead the orientation needs to be for consistent ethics guidelines and validation of compliance. The authors point to APA Ethics Code Standard 2.01 as a first step, yet not going far enough to protect client confidentiality. Clearly much more needs to be done in this area to close the gap and provide ethical counseling that is delivered to a standard that helps, not harms, the patient.