ACA Code Of Ethics Case Study

Case 1 This paper will discuss the case involving Petra who is an immigrant to the United States. However, Jonathan is not familiar with immigrants. Jonathan refers Petra to another counselor who is well trained in working with immigrants, but not as confident with depression. The paper will look at the ethical issues surrounding this case and use research and other case examples as well. Ethically speaking Jonathan made the decision to refer Petra to a new therapist based solely on her being an immigrant. He knew before transfer that she was struggling with depression, which he is confident in. He then referred her to a therapist who was less confident in dealing with depression. All of this means that Jonathan did not act in an ethical way regarding his treatment of Petra. Jonathan did not act ethically according to the ACA Code of Ethics. The ACA Code of Ethics (2014) states that in terms of multicultural counseling, counselors should educate themselves on clients with diverse backgrounds in order to counsel them effectively. Jonathan took no steps to properly educate himself regarding immigrants prior to transferring Petra to another counselor. Jonathan does …show more content…
They surveyed counselors from various backgrounds. The ethical issues around culture were somewhat split amongst counselors. On the one hand, some counselors believe that a counselor should see any client who seeks help. On the other hand, others might argue that a counselor should work with clients who they can better assist based on their background. Although, there was some disagreement regarding accepting clients from only certain backgrounds based on counselors own preferences (Neukrug & Milliken, 2011). Less than one third of counselors under 40 years old saw these counselors’ preferences as ethical. Same can be said about less than one half of counselors over 40 years