2.2. Autonomy: Respecting the Clients Right to be Self-Governing
The autonomy principle addresses an individual’s freedom of choice and action and the counsellor’s responsibility to encourage and guide clients in making their own informed decisions consistent with their personal and cultural values and act on them. Primary element of autonomy is voluntary participation which is the purpose of informed consent wherein all important information about the counsellors background and credentials, counselling process, therapy approach and length of consultation period and termination, foreseeable benefits and risks, alternative therapies, confidentiality and exceptions (i.e. colleague consultation and supervisory relationship), recording methods …show more content…
Primary Responsibility & PERKAMA, A.1. Counsellors Responsibility to Prioritize Client Welfare). A counsellor or therapist is expected to do everything within their boundaries of competence; using necessary knowledge, skills, abilities, and values to help their client solve their problems. This includes providing early intervention to prevent any foreseeable issues identified in sessions. For example, a client is aware of the ill feelings slowing building up in her client for his wife and helps him work through these emotions although he had come to her because of issues at work, because she knows his work stress is slowly beginning to affect his marriage life. On the other hand, they are to refrain from practising outside their boundaries of education, training and supervised experience, as well as state (minimum standard) and professional (maximum standard) credentials as it may adversely impact the client’s wellbeing (APA, 2.01.b. & ACA, C.2.a. Boundaries of Competence). For instance, a counsellor who is not trained to counsel people with drug addiction, will not have the necessary skills to help the client overcome their addiction. In such cases therapists are to refer the client to another professional with the necessary competence unless in circumstance of emergencies wherein helping the client is in the client’s best interest, after which the work is to be delegated
The autonomy principle addresses an individual’s freedom of choice and action and the counsellor’s responsibility to encourage and guide clients in making their own informed decisions consistent with their personal and cultural values and act on them. Primary element of autonomy is voluntary participation which is the purpose of informed consent wherein all important information about the counsellors background and credentials, counselling process, therapy approach and length of consultation period and termination, foreseeable benefits and risks, alternative therapies, confidentiality and exceptions (i.e. colleague consultation and supervisory relationship), recording methods …show more content…
Primary Responsibility & PERKAMA, A.1. Counsellors Responsibility to Prioritize Client Welfare). A counsellor or therapist is expected to do everything within their boundaries of competence; using necessary knowledge, skills, abilities, and values to help their client solve their problems. This includes providing early intervention to prevent any foreseeable issues identified in sessions. For example, a client is aware of the ill feelings slowing building up in her client for his wife and helps him work through these emotions although he had come to her because of issues at work, because she knows his work stress is slowly beginning to affect his marriage life. On the other hand, they are to refrain from practising outside their boundaries of education, training and supervised experience, as well as state (minimum standard) and professional (maximum standard) credentials as it may adversely impact the client’s wellbeing (APA, 2.01.b. & ACA, C.2.a. Boundaries of Competence). For instance, a counsellor who is not trained to counsel people with drug addiction, will not have the necessary skills to help the client overcome their addiction. In such cases therapists are to refer the client to another professional with the necessary competence unless in circumstance of emergencies wherein helping the client is in the client’s best interest, after which the work is to be delegated