The Australian Counselling association (ACA) along with the Singapore Association for Counselling (SAC) and the Career Industry Council of Australia (CICA) are three governing bodies that have developed codes of ethics and professional standards, which provide explicit guidelines on ethical functional and professional conduct for helping professionals. Mental health organisations such as the ACA have developed the Code of Ethics and Practice (2013) with a with the objective to provide clarity on the stance of the organisation, protect consumers and provide explicit standards of ethical conduct for counsellors (Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2011).
Varying levels of ethical practice describe the ethical functioning that the helping professional …show more content…
An ethical dilemma is a situation where a counsellor needs to adopt a framework of moral principles alongside the code of ethics to support them in identifying and resolving ethical problems (Stockall & Dennis, 2015). Sound ethical decision -making is one of the cornerstones of the counselling profession. When faced with an ethical dilemma, counsellors need to employ a moral model framework such as (Kitchener, 1984) to assist them in the decision-making process. Kitchener’s six moral principles include autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice and fidelity (Neukrug & Fawcett, 2015). These principles cannot address all situations a counsellor may encounter, though they can be used to form an understanding of any conflicting issues (Forester-Miller, Davis, & Alexandria, …show more content…
This principle focuses on the individual being self-governing within their social and cultural context (Corey et al., 2011) The individual’s priority of values and beliefs can then be self-determined and integrated into their belief system. In order for clients to be autonomous in the counselling relationship, counsellors need to early on obtain informed consent. Informed consent is a shared-decision making process in which the counsellors provides the client with information regarding the nature of the therapy and alternative treatment options in order for the client to make an informed decision about proceeding the counselling relationship (McLeod, 2013) . It is imperative that counsellors acknowledge and understand the belief systems of culturally diverse populations and thus are able to provide appropriate support/guidance for these individuals. An ethical issue that could arise in the counselling relationship is the imposition of the counsellor’s worldview onto the client. Value imposition refers to the counsellor influencing the client the take on their values, beliefs and attitudes (Corey et al.,
Varying levels of ethical practice describe the ethical functioning that the helping professional …show more content…
An ethical dilemma is a situation where a counsellor needs to adopt a framework of moral principles alongside the code of ethics to support them in identifying and resolving ethical problems (Stockall & Dennis, 2015). Sound ethical decision -making is one of the cornerstones of the counselling profession. When faced with an ethical dilemma, counsellors need to employ a moral model framework such as (Kitchener, 1984) to assist them in the decision-making process. Kitchener’s six moral principles include autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice and fidelity (Neukrug & Fawcett, 2015). These principles cannot address all situations a counsellor may encounter, though they can be used to form an understanding of any conflicting issues (Forester-Miller, Davis, & Alexandria, …show more content…
This principle focuses on the individual being self-governing within their social and cultural context (Corey et al., 2011) The individual’s priority of values and beliefs can then be self-determined and integrated into their belief system. In order for clients to be autonomous in the counselling relationship, counsellors need to early on obtain informed consent. Informed consent is a shared-decision making process in which the counsellors provides the client with information regarding the nature of the therapy and alternative treatment options in order for the client to make an informed decision about proceeding the counselling relationship (McLeod, 2013) . It is imperative that counsellors acknowledge and understand the belief systems of culturally diverse populations and thus are able to provide appropriate support/guidance for these individuals. An ethical issue that could arise in the counselling relationship is the imposition of the counsellor’s worldview onto the client. Value imposition refers to the counsellor influencing the client the take on their values, beliefs and attitudes (Corey et al.,