Ethics in Counseling

Dr. Sunita Singh

Faculty of Education
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi
What are the ethics
Ethics is generally defined as a philosophical discipline that is
concerned with human conduct and moral decision making.
Ethics are normative in nature and focus on principles and
standards that govern relationship between counselor and
client.
Counselors who are not aware of their values, ethics and legal
responsibilities as well as those of clients they can cause harm
to their client despite their good intention.
Ethical counselors display care and wisdom in their practice.
Morality involves judgment and evaluation of action. It is
associated with such words as good, bad, right, wrong,ought
and should (Brandt 1959).
Reasons for ethical codes
Without a code of established ethics, a group of people with
similar interest can not be considered a professional
organization.(Allen 1986)
Hoose and Kottler (1985) offer three reasons for the existence if
ethical codes
Ethical Standards protect the profession from the government. They
allow the profession to regulate itself and function autonomously.
Ethical Standards help control internal disagreement and bickering,
thus promoting stability within the profession.
Ethical Standards protect practitioners from the public. Especially in
malpractice cases. If professional behave according to ethics , the
behaviour is judge to be compliance with the profession.
In addition, these provide clients with some protection from
incompetent counselor.
Some other reasons
Ensuring competent professional behavior.
Responsibility to public trust.
Professionals monitor their own and other member’s
professional behavior.
Aspiration and guidelines
Character and virtue
American counseling association (ACA) ethics code
Standards
Ethical dilemmas
Philosophical Principles

Being trustworthy
Autonomy
 Beneficence
Non-maleficence
Justice
Self-respect
Being trustworthy:

It involves the notion of loyalty, faithfulness and

honoring committees.
Being trustworthy is regarded as fundamental to
understanding and resolving ethical issues.
 Practitioners who adopt this principle: act in accordance
with the trust placed in them; strive to ensure that
clients’ expectations are ones that have reasonable
prospects of being met; honour their agreements
and promises; regard confidentiality as an obligation
arising from the client’s trust; restrict any disclosure
of confidential information about clients to furthering the
purposes for which it was originally disclosed.
Autonomy: 

respect for the client’s right to be self-governing.

The essence of this principle is allowing an individual the freedom of
choice and action.
This principle emphasizes the importance of developing a client’s
ability to be self-directing within therapy and all aspects of life.
It addresses the responsibility of the counselor to encourage clients,
when appropriate , to make their own decision and to act on their own
values.
Helping the client to understand how their decisions and their values
may or may not be received within the context of the society in which
they live.
Helping the client to make sound and rational decision.
 The principle of autonomy opposes the manipulation of clients
against their will, even for beneficial social ends.
Beneficence
 
A commitment to promoting the client’s well-being.
The principle of beneficence means acting in the best interests of the client
based on professional assessment.
It reflects the counselor responsibility to contribute to the welfare of the client
Ensuring that the client’s best interests are achieved requires systematic
monitoring of practice and outcomes by the best available means.
 Use regular and on-going supervision to enhance the quality of the services
provided and to commit to updating practice by continuing professional
development.
To act in the best interests of a client may become paramount when working
with clients whose capacity for autonomy is diminished because of immaturity,
lack of understanding, extreme distress, serious disturbance or other
significant personal constraints.
Non-maleficence
A commitment to avoiding harm to the client
Non-maleficence involves: avoiding sexual, financial,
emotional or any other form of client
exploitation; avoiding incompetence or malpractice; not
providing services when unfit to do so due to illness,
personal circumstances or intoxication.
This principle reflects both the idea of not inflicting
intentional harm and not engaging in action that risk
harming others.
The practitioner has an ethical responsibility to strive to
mitigate any harm caused to a client even when the harm
is unavoidable or unintended.
Justice
 The fair and impartial treatment of all clients and the provision of adequate servicesJ
The principle of justice requires being just and fair to all clients and respecting their
human rights and dignity.
Justice does not mean treating all individual same
It directs attention to considering conscientiously any legal requirements and obligations,
and remaining alert to potential conflicts between legal and ethical obligations.
 Practitioners have a duty to strive to ensure a fair provision of counseling accessible and
appropriate to the needs of potential clients. 
The formal meaning of justice is “treating equals equally and unequals unequally but in
proportion to their relevant difference.
If an individual is to be treated differently, the counselor needs to be able to offer a
rational that explains the necessity and appropriateness of treating this individual
differently
Self-respect
Fostering the practitioner’s self-knowledge and care for self.
The principle of self-respect means that the practitioner
appropriately applies all the above principles as entitlements for
self.
This includes seeking counseling or therapy and other opportunities
for personal development as required.
There is an ethical responsibility to use supervision for appropriate
personal and professional support and development, and to seek
training and other opportunities for continuing professional
development.
The principle of self-respect encourages active engagement in life-
enhancing activities and relationships that are independent of
relationships in counseling or psychotherapy.
Counseling Ethics
Professional ethics that are mandatory to counselor are
as follows:
1. Anonymity: The personal identity of the counselee
must be strictly kept hidden and guarded and not
shared with anyone without his/her permission.
Small children are exceptional where parent,
guardian can be given the identity of child client.
2. Confidentiality: The content that the counselee shares
must be protected and not shared else the counselee
looses confidence in all counselors and may doubt
profession itself. Exceptions for special cases where,
counselor feel requirement for some expert advice to
solve the problem of client.
3. Counselee's Right as Consumer: healthy relationship
is obligatory between the two and optimum befit must
be received by counselee in proportionate exchange of
time spent, expenditure incurred and expections
unmet.
4. No Exploitation: physical/sexual or emotional abuse of
counselee is un pardonable.
5. Equality Relationship: human dignity of counselee
must be respected and equality relationship during
counseling session should be maintained by avoiding
any type of dominance feeling from both side.
6. Legal Issue: sharing information, incidents and actions
by counselee during counseling is legally “ privileged
communication”, and none of it, in full or in part
should be ethically or legally shared, disclosed or made
public.
7. Credentiality and Licensure: no one without proper
education, training and credentiality must take on most
noble profession of being a “Mental- Health
Counselor.
Licensing is compulsory in some count but not in all.
So, without licensing, it is a counselor's own
professionalism to be honest about his/ her
specialization, credentials and expertise.
PERSONAL MORAL
QUALITIES
  
 
It is fundamental that these personal qualities are deeply rooted in the
person concerned and developed out of personal commitment rather than
the requirement of an external authority. This includes:
Empathy: the ability to communicate understanding of another
person’s experience from that person’s perspective.
Sincerity: a personal commitment to consistency between what is
professed and what is done.
Integrity: commitment to being moral in dealings with others,
personal straightforwardness, honesty and coherence.
Resilience: the capacity to work with the client’s concerns without
being personally diminished.
 
Respect: showing appropriate esteem to others and their
understanding of themselves.
Humility: the ability to assess accurately and acknowledge
one’s own strengths and weaknesses.
Competence: the effective deployment of the skills and
knowledge needed to do what is required.
Fairness: the consistent application of appropriate criteria to
inform decisions and actions.
Wisdom: possession of sound judgement that informs practice.
Courage: the capacity to act in spite of known fears, risks and
uncertainty.
THANK YOU