Ethics & Responsibilities 1

Counselor Ethics and Responsibilities

Michelle Hernandez-Morfin

College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Grand Canyon University

CNL-505: Professional Counseling, Ethical, and Legal Considerations

Dr. Afiya Burson

February 22,2023
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Counselor Ethics and Responsibilities: Part 1

There are many challenges, steps, and policies counselors must face and abide by in order

to be ethical and responsible. To be ethical and responsible, counselors should understand client

rights and ensure that they are being protected in all areas ranging from billing, records, privacy,

confidentiality, and more. To do so counselors should adhere to incorporating five principles

such as autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, and fidelity each defined within the

following passage to guide them to successful and quality services with clients. In addition to

counselors ensuring the privacy and protection of client rights, they must also be able to disclose

client limitations such as those to warn and protect the client or others. Cases as such may

become difficult; therefore, it is important to take a client record of each interaction with clients

as it may protect the counselor from accusation of malpractice but it could also be beneficial to

the client. Client record-keeping allows the counselor to remain competent in clients' cases while

ensuring that their case is confidential. Below counselors will be able to understand the

importance of protecting client rights, their responsibility to warn and protect, and client

record-keeping to ensure clients are receiving quality and ethical services and being informed of

their rights to privacy in order to decide whether they would like to continue services.

Counselor’s Role in Protecting Clients Rights

In order to protect client rights, counselors should be familiar with the five ethical

principles that would allow them to successfully provide quality services to their clients while

aiming to protect client rights and do no harm. The five principles consist of autonomy,

nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, and fidelity. Each of these principles set the tone for the

counselor to abide by when practicing to ensure client satisfaction and protection. In “A

Practitioner's Guide to Ethical Decision Making,” Holly Forester-Miller and Thomas Davis
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(1996) define the term autonomy as allowing clients to decide what they believe is the best

course of action on their own. Counselors encourage clients to think for themselves while being a

part of their support system that may assist in guiding the client when needed; however, the main

purpose of autonomy is to allow clients to have a say on their choice or individuality (Miller &

Davis, 1996, p. 1). Miller and Davis continue to inform that nonmaleficence and beneficence are

also principles that each define the importance of doing minimal harm and the utmost good.

Nonmaleficence could be termed as the idea that counselors should be practicing with the

intention of doing more good than bad. For example, assisting clients in their therapy and

ensuring that each step of the process will only aid them. This is because the counselor is

working in a manner that will eventually lead to clients' needs being met within their sessions.

This also means counselors do not lead with judgment, bias, or negligence as they are to “not

cause harm to others,” instead they are to ensure clients success (Millet & Davis, 1996, p. 2).

Similarly, the ethical principle of beneficence refers to how a client receives treatment with an

end goal of providing quality and safe practice for clients while avoiding harm (Miller & Davis,

1996, p. 2). So far, the principles autonomy, nonmaleficence, and beneficence have been defined

to incorporate the importance of ethical practice to maintain and enforce client rights with

counselors doing more good than harm and allowing clients to make their own decisions.

Miller and Davis then include that justice and fidelity are also the two of the remaining

principles that implement respect, protection, and meaning to clients rights and sessions with

counselors. Justice could be suggested as the meaning behind certain behaviors and treatments.

The counselor should be able to explain the reason behind specific sessions and why certain

treatments are used. They [the counselors] are also to acknowledge sessions with clients and

discover why the client rights and therapies provided are deemed justifiable and fair (Miller &
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Davis, 1996, p. 2). Fidelity, on the other hand, leans into the respecting of clients rights, privacy,

and honoring confidentiality (Miller & Davis, 1996, p. 2). Without trust of the clients counselors

would no longer be able to proceed with quality services and/or practices. When these are

broken, the counselor loses a client who had opened their privacy and life creating clients to lose

interest and cease treatment. Therefore, it is important to discuss any limitations in the intake

process as it is required to by the “2014 ACA Code of Ethics,” American Counseling

Association (2014) under code A.2.e to allow client(s) to refuse service ahead of time (American

Counseling Association [ACA], 2014, p. 3).

Counselors Role on Informed Consent

The five ethical principles autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, and fidelity

allow a counselor to abide by a guideline that ensures respect for client rights and protection.

Like the five ethical principles, informed consent acts in a manner where counselors are to

disclose every piece of information to potential clients. This allows clients the opportunity to

make a decision based on information provided by the counselor. In “Informed Consent in

Clinical Practice: The Basics and Beyond,” Jeffery E. Barnett (2015) explains that informed

consent could be described as “the process that involves the psychotherapist sharing sufficient

information with the client in order to make an informed decision about participation in the

proposed course of treatment,” meaning that clients have the ability to decide whether they

would like to continue with working with counselor (Barnett, 2015, para. 5).

Counselors should disclose during first interactions with clients over fees/billings, rights

to privacy, HIPAA compliances, and compliance with credentialing board requirements for the

incorporation of informed consent into practice. These allow clients to feel a sense of confidence

when receiving services by a counselor who informs clients of their rights and protection when
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deciding to work with a counselor. Under informed consent regarding billing, clients have the

right to know about any possible fees to decide whether they would like to receive services with

a counselor or refrain. The discussion of fees is to remain confidential within client and

counselor as it is deemed a topic to be sensitive and private; thus, counselors should not be

sharing personal information such as the cost and fees of services except to the client or those the

client has given consent to disclose private information (ACA, 2014, p. 4).

In respect to clients' right to privacy, counselors are to inform clients of their ongoing

relationship such as their [the clients] rights but also any limitations that are in place. Counselors

inform clients over the “obligations to review in writing and verbally with clients the rights and

responsibilities of both counselors and clients,” allowing the client to determine continuation of

services or refusal based on information provided (ACA, 2014, p. 6). Like the clients right to

privacy, counselors are to abide by the HIPAA compliance, the professional assisting the client

must disclose the clients rights to privacy and confidentiality. The clients are to receive

information in regards to possible limitations and ways that the client may file a claim in case

they feel as if their rights in reference to confidentiality and policy under HIPAA have been

violated (Converse & Brohl, n.d., pp. 18-21). In “Meeting HIPAA Requirement: Notice of

Privacy Practices and Client Rights Document,” Robert J. Walsh and Norman C. Dasenbrook

(2005) describe the importance of being “HIPPA compliant,” in order to provide ethical,

respectful, meaningful, and confidential services to clients (Walsh & Dasenbrook, 2005, p. 2).

Under the compliance with credentialing board requirements such as the American

Counseling Association (ACA), counselors must comply with their credentialing board in

reference to informed consent in order to respect clients privacy and protect. In the “2014 ACA

Code of Ethics,” American Counseling Association (2014) informs that counselors who are
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compliant with their board requirements under code A.2. should allow clients to decide based on

the information provided by the counselor such as limitations, privacy, and rights on whether

they would like to proceed or decline services with counselor (ACA, 2014, p. 4).

Responsibility to Warn and Protect

The responsibilities of a counselor is to define and inform clients of their privacy, rights

and limitations. For counselors to be able to disclose clients personal information there must be

exceptions such as clients harming self or possibly others. Counselors who are looking to

practice in the state of California, for example, the California Association for Licensed

Professional Clinical Counselors (CALPCC) members must follow the “2014 ACA Code of

Ethics,” American Counseling Association (2014). Under the ACA code of ethics [B.2.a.]

describes which exceptions are made when a counselor is needing to disclose a client's case such

as any intentional harm that seems to be foreseeable whether that is being inflicted upon self or

others (ACA, 2014, p. 7). In cases as such, counselors are allowed to disclose in order to protect

the client or to warn others of potential harm. However, in “Issues and Ethics in the Helping

Professions,” Gerald Corey, Marianna Schneider Corey, and Cindy Corey (2019) mention the

difficulty in being able to identify whether a client is at self-harm or if another life is in danger

which may possibly lead to ethical and confidential misconstruction (Corey et al., 2019, p. 224).

Client Record Keeping

Counselors who practice to maintain privacy, protection, and respect for clients rely on

documentation of services in order to continuously remain competent and knowledgeable of

clients' cases. Keeping client records allows counselors to provide a professional standard of care

in order to successfully aid clients in therapy. It also prevents cases where clients are being

underserved and not having access to quality service such as counselor malpractice. Record
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keeping allows supervisors to overview case notes or records to determine if counselors are

competent or providing “good care,” to their clients (Luepker, 2012, p. 14). In recognition of

clients rights, record keeping provides a sense of doing good or beneficence in order to

continuously provide great practice by abiding to clients rights, for example, confidentiality and

privacy when documenting (Jungers & Gregoire, 2012, p. 148). Similarly, when documenting

records electronically the “2014 ACA Code of Ethics” by the American Counseling Association

(2014) states [code H.5.a.] the importance of counselors abiding to standing law in the current

moment in reference to electronic documents that keep clients information stored within a

secured drive. The drive consists of client files and case management or any other records.

Counselor is to also inform the process of electronic files to the client to ensure confidentiality

(ACA, 2014, p. 18).

Counselor Ethics and Responsibilities: Part 2

To remain ethical, competent, reliable, and responsible counselors should remember the

importance of their own health as well as the clients, being able to resolve issues, and put aside

differences when values are not shared with clients. These steps will allow a counselor to

proceed working with clients in a manner that will benefit their health, resolve a conflict, and

ensure that clients values and beliefs are protected rather than stripped. In the following

paragraphs, self-care, advocacy, and counselor values are described for the purpose of how

counselors are able to remain ethical and responsible.

Self-Care

To provide great counseling services counselors need to be aware of possible

impairments that may lead them to a low quality of service which may impact their clientele.

Under the “2014 ACA Code of Ethics,” American Counseling Association (2014) code C.2.g.
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explains that counselors are to engage or implement self-care to ensure the health of their own

physical and emotional being in order to provide their best service. When counselors are unable

to do so they are to refrain or reduce time from practicing (ACA, 2014, p. 9). As counselors,

when awareness of any work or personal stressors or impairments arise, steps to balance both

inside and outside of work are seeking ways to implement activities that are enjoyable such as

exercising, binge watching television, and/ or spending time with friends/ family. Personally, in

the past I have taken on hikes or trails as well as other forms of exercise to deescalate stress and

anxiety. At times where there are an extra few hours in the day I would enjoy purchasing a

manicure and eating fast food as a reward to myself for making it through a possibly tough week.

In the present, similar steps have been taken to release stress and anxiety that may be stemming

from education and/or work. A few activities I have considered in the past and present moment is

the implementation of meditation and therapy. These are two healthy self-care activities I have

considered but have yet to officially implement. As there are times when stress and anxiety are

elevated, being able to know that there is a way to release these feelings with therapy and

meditation may allow me to feel relaxed and at ease to no longer worry about what may not be in

my control. A few things I have noticed that may create a rise in anxiety and stress could be what

some would term as a red flag, for example, reacting out of emotion rather than logic. However I

have come to realize that taking a step back, breathing, and thinking will assist in responding

clearly out of logic rather than feeling.

Those seeking assistance in the State of California in regards to counseling may refer to

the California Health and Human Service Agency (CALHHS) to have access to reliable services

that consist of multiple different departments that range from behavioral health to mental health

and more (California Health and Human Services, 2022). Current counselors who seek assistance
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in counseling for themselves will benefit from reducing stressors both in the work and personal

life. This will then positively impact their quality in practice and prevent any future burn out.

With this, counselors are guaranteed to protect client rights, privacy, and confidentiality as they

are ensuring that their own well being is not impacting the one of the clients as they are

personally working on their own health to successfully assist clients.

Advocacy

Counselors face many challenges whether it stems from personal or work health or other

such as challenges in completing licensure. In this case, student counselors or pre-licensed

counselors are specific populations in this section to discuss their limitations and challenges.

Limitations and challenges such as being able to afford any continuous education, certification,

and licensure due to additional fees after graduation at a mastery level. It is important to

advocate that it is possible that some professionals do not aim for licensure after their masters

degree due to additional costs and fees as well as longevity it takes to accomplish official

licensure. To speak on behalf of those who share similar beliefs these challenges could be

mentioned to university counselors and if needed at a governmental level the federal or state

officials. When advocating the “2014 ACA Code of Ethics,” American Counseling Association

(2014) describes that counselors must acknowledge and make known any issues that have

prevented others such as clients or groups to positively develop. Doing so under the A.7.b.

Ethical code counselors should first have permission from clients and/or groups for whom they

are advocating for to disclose issues or challenges that need improvement (ACA, 2014, p. 6).

Counselor Values

Many individuals who seek the career of a counselor must be able to put certain values

aside, for example, in times when a counselor holds a certain belief but the client does not share
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it. Counselors are to remember that their beliefs must be put aside in order to properly assist

clients both ethically and respectfully. In the case of Eleanor, an elder who believes her time has

come due to terminal cancer decides she no longer wants to continue life. Eleanor has disclosed

this to her counselor and mentions that she is seeking word of advice in regards to informing her

family over her life-ending decision. She mentions that there is no other option and just wants

advice on whether she should disclose it to family. In the counselor's personal beliefs Eleanor

should discuss her decision as it could bring a sense of closure to family members and herself.

However, ethically, Eleanor is disclosing to her counselor the possibility of a life-ending decision

and counselor may be able to re-visit with Eleanor that because she is debating on a life-ending

decision under the “2014 ACA Code of Ethics,” American Counseling Association (2014) the

counselor has the option to disclose Eleanors choice as it meets the exception of life-ending

decisions [codes B.2., B.2.a., B.2.b.] (ACA, 2014, p.7).

Conclusion

Counselors understand client rights and ensure that they are being protected. Counselors

should adhere to incorporating the five principles such as autonomy, nonmaleficence,

beneficence, justice, and fidelity to successfully protect client rights and privacy. In addition, for

a counselor to provide quality ethical and responsible services they too must respect client

personal values while ensuring personal health and of the clients, and providing advocacy when

challenges arise. On the other hand, clients have the right to privacy and protection but

limitations are also set in place such as duty to warn and protect. These should initially be

mentioned at the beginning of intake. To ensure counselor and client protection on either side of

the case, it is important to record-keep to prevent any claims against the counselor or client;

however record-keeping in other cases allows the counselor to remain competent while ensuring
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that their case is confidential. Therefore, informed consent regarding client rights, privacy, and

limitations as well as respect to client values, client’s care, and advocacy is important to discuss

during the beginnings of initiating counseling so clients may decide whether they would like to

continue sessions with a counselor and if the counselor is deemed to be ethical and responsible.
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References

American Counseling Association. (2014). ACA 2014 code of ethics. American Counseling

Association. 3-21. Retrieved from,

https://www.counseling.org/resources/aca-code-of-ethics.pdf

Barnett, J. E. (2015, March). Informed consent in clinical practice. Society for the Advancement

of Psychotherapy. Retrieved from,

https://societyforpsychotherapy.org/informed-consent-in-clinical-practice-the-basics-and-

beyond/

California Association for Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors. (2023). ACA code of

ethics. CALPCC. Retrieved from, https://calpcc.org/aca_code_of_ethics

California Health and Human Services. (2022). Guiding principles & strategic priorities.

Retrieved from, https://www.chhs.ca.gov/guiding-principles-strategic-priorities/

Converse, D. (n.d.). Ethics in social work and counseling and HIPAA privacy rules. 18-21.

Retrieved from,

http://s3.amazonaws.com/EliteCME_WebSite_2013/f/pdf/SWUS06EHI15.pdf

Corey, G., Corey, M. S., & Corey, C. (2019). The Duty to Warn and to Protect. In Issues and

ethics in the helping professions (10th ed., p. 224). Cengage Learning. Retrieved from,

https://bibliu.com/app/#/view/books/9781337671378/pdf2htmlex/index.html#page_224

Dasenbrook, N. C., & Walsh, R. J. (2005). Meeting HIPAA requirements. American Counseling

Association. 1-2. Retrieved from, https://www.counseling.org/Kaplan/hipaa.pdf

Forester-Miller, H., & Davis, T. (1996). A practitioner's guide to ethical decision making.

American Counseling Association. 1-2. Retrieved from,

https://www.counseling.org/docs/ethics/practitioners_guide.pdf?sfvrsn=2

Jungers, C. & Gregoire, J. (2012). Explanation of Records. Counseling ethics: philosophical and
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professional foundations (1st ed., p. 148). Springer Publishing Company. Retrieved from,

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=8yvmVI2c

Luepker, E.T. (2012). Record keeping in psychotherapy and counseling: Protecting

confidentiality and the professional relationship (2nd ed.). Routledge. 13-14. Retrieved

from, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203128527