Multicultural Ethics Case Study

Multicultural Considerations
There are many things that must be considered when working in the helping profession. A few of the vignettes in chapter 4 have provided issues that may be addressed in the helping profession. These vignettes were challenging situations in which the group had to use the eight steps involved in making a rational ethical decision. As a group we went through the ethical decision-making process which involves the following steps: identifying the problem, define what ethical guideline that was used and what potential issues were involved, review the relevant ethics codes, describe any legal issues, suggested consultation, appropriate course of action, consequences, and what would be the overall best course of action. …show more content…
Miguel was a therapist who had obtained his Ph.D. and started his career at the community clinic. The issue that was brought about in the chapter dealt with Miguel not considering all the concepts that he was trained to use in his sessions. These concepts were: directness, assertiveness, and triangulation. A Latino family came to Miguel to solve the issue of the son disrespecting his mother. In the session he asked the mother to directly address the issue of the son’s disrespect, in his attempt to be direct and eliminate triangulation. This made the atmosphere of the session tense. The ethical issues that arrived in this case was that Miguel diminished the role of the father by requesting the mother to be direct with her son. As the therapist, he seemed to be too direct and assertive at an inappropriate time. Miguel could have handled the situation differently and should have considered that the father is the head in Latin families. Also, Miguel should not assume that he can be assertive and direct with all of his clients. There were no legal issues present in the case for Miguel. The consultation that the group suggested for Miguel was for him to be supervised during his sessions’ with a professional who can address the tasks that he needs to improve on working with clients who have different cultural backgrounds. If Miguel were to continue to be insensitive to the cultures’ of his clients, he would essentially not be able to ground a strong relationship with his clients. Miguel could have addressed his understanding of the father’s way of communication, as it related to Latino families. He should have also formulate a more comprehensive method to address the family’s problem. The course of action that the group decided was that Miguel should not have dismissed the father by asking the mother to speak to the son about his behavior. He also should make it his job to