Ethical Obligation Paper

857 Words4 Pages

Each profession possesses a code of ethics that need to be understood to be a competent professional and to ensure compliance with expectations of the clients. Herlihy and Corey (2014) stressed several functioning of the code of ethics of counseling such as; sets forth the ethical obligation for the counselors and ministers guidance intended to inform the ethical practice of practitioners, identify ethical considerations relevant to clinician, clarify ethical responsibilities held in common by therapists, guidelines meant to aid members in constructing a course of action that best serve those utilizing counseling services and establish expectations of conduct with a primary emphasis on the role of the counselor, and more. As practitioners, …show more content…

In the counseling profession, there are some behaviors that could go undiscovered or entirely ignored but are a violation of ethical practice resulting in potential, but unidentified, harm to a client. One example of an inappropriate, unethical, and discriminatory act that would also typically go unrecognized is a so-called imposing value, which is one that is based on the individual’s morals, values, or attitudes and not on the clients’ actions. Corey et al., (2015) introduce the idea of bracketing, which is a concept that does not require the counselor to be free from values or ethics, but they need to be able to turn off their own beliefs and values to work with clients successfully. When counselors are unable to turn off their personal feelings they have violated A.11 (a and b) and should recuse themselves so that they do not engage in discriminatory referrals (Herlihy & Corey, 2014). Value imposing are not the only common issues in the counseling profession, Gladding & Newsome (2017) stressed several matters that refers to an ethical and even legal matters while practicing counseling. From these concerns, I can allude to confidentiality and its exceptions, privacy and privileged communication, professional relationships and boundaries, informed consent, responsibilities and competencies, and within an evolving profession the use of technology and distant counseling and more based on the ethical code sections. While professional ethics codes are merely a suggestion on how to act and behave, they are designed to serve as the moral compass of the entire profession, and while each section may be up to interpretation, it is a sign of the code of ethics limitation. According to Gladding & Newsome