Autonomy In Mental Health Counselor

804 Words4 Pages

• Autonomy is defined as the freedom from external control or influence; independence. Ethically, it is the counselor's position to promote independent thinking and problem solving when appropriate. As a mental health counselor, one must promote self-determination so a client can take what they learned in session and apply those practices outside of the session. This is imperative when working with multicultural clients because the sessions should be based on the client's beliefs and personal courses of action to be able to obtain the independence needed for establishing self-direction. • Nonmaleficence is defined as avoiding doing harm to a client to reach a specific outcome. Ethically, a counselor should not engage in a way that would do …show more content…

Ethically, it is to provide a client with all relevant information needed to make rational decisions about their healthcare/situation. The mental health counselor must provide the information about the client's care and ensure understanding of their care. An example of this would be a client's diagnosis and understanding of their diagnosis and symptoms. This is important to those with multicultural clients because societal or cultural norms may change the direction of care. It also may involve language barriers which will need to be addressed to ensure the client’s understanding. Being familiar with a client's norms and culture will help counselors to honestly and truthfully provide information relevant to the client’s individualized …show more content…

Ethically, it is the integrity, competence, social responsibility, and refinement of moral practice by continuing education. The counselor must provide services where the counselor constantly strives to become better in their profession by continual learning, growing, and develop skilled, ethical judgment to provide the highest level of care that exceeds the client's expectations. Continuing education, conducting research, or involving one’s self in multicultural groups or opportunities to learn about other cultures is a way to continue to grow and best serve multicultural