6 Professional Ethics of a Counsellor

Introduction:

Counselling is a professional field like any other profession which needs vital attention to
the matters, selection and training. In India, owing to many factors such as overpopulation,
poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, neglects the service of counselling profession has been
neglected. It cannot be emphasised that counselling must find a place in the field of school,
college and universities. There are several other avenues in which counselling become
commanding such as in the field of education, health, family, marriage and nutrition.
Counsellors can be made professionally competent with suitable training programmes. Every
profession has its own ethical code of conduct and can be evolved and implemented through
licensing and certification measures. We could follow some of the principles, code of
conduct, ethical standards like in advanced countries.

As we all know counselling is a helping profession in which that underlies the roles,
responsibilities, functions of a counsellor. There are numerous unique legal and ethical
concerns that clinicians should consider when counselling children, adolescents, and their
families. Counselling profession is one in which members are especially trained and licensed
or certified under to perform unique and needed services for human beings for different kinds
of issues. These counsellors (helping professions) are recognised by the society as per their
services offered, like law, medicine, education, psychology, psychiatry, social work or child
related issues (Gibson, R.L. and Mitchell, M.H., 2008).

Objectives:

 To know who is a professional counsellor and his responsibilities

 To understand counselling preparation and professional issues
 To identify the activities of a professional counsellor
 To be aware of legal and ethical issues pertaining to counselling profession

The Professional Counsellor:

The term professional counsellor distinguishes the profession from those who represent
with family, industry, sales and so on. These professionals are full time active representatives
of their profession and they accept the responsibilities of professionalism. These type of
counsellors have good educational background, training, work experience, designation,
nature of setting and characteristics. These professional features help in establishing a nature
of professional identity of counsellors in the society.

Responsibilities of a Professional Counsellor:

 Professional counsellors must be trained and qualified to meet the needs of the client
in society. This training would be an appropriate graduate level or master’s degree
level which should make them an understanding and awareness of the theories
guiding professional practice.
 Professional counsellors should seek and obtain the certification which in appropriate
to their training, practice and background.
  Professional counsellors need to be committed professionally and personally to update
and upgrade their knowledge, skills and attitude to reflect ongoing progress in their
field.
 Professional counsellors should contribute themselves in conducting research studies
through professional writing, presentations, meetings, conducting
workshops/seminars etc.
 Professional counsellors should have active participation in local, regional, state,
national and international level organizations as a member.
 Professional counsellors are aware of all legaland ethical guidelines in the field of
counselling and its practice.

Personal moral qualities of a Professional counsellor:

Every Professional counsellor’s moral qualities are most important to the clients. Various
personal qualities considered as utmost important in the provision of services have an ethical
or moral constituent and are subsequently considered as virtues or good personal qualities. It
is unsuccessful to recommend that all practitioners possess these qualities, since it is
important that these personal qualities are deeply rooted in the person concerned and
developed out of personal commitment rather than the obligation of an external expert.
Individual qualities to which counsellors and psychotherapists are strongly encouraged to
seek include:

 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 (Tim Bond,
2010).

Counsellor preparation and professional issues:

The type of preparation of an individual to satisfy any kind of job will be depending upon
the nature of job. Job analysis always helps in understanding the job requirements, the
preparation and training needed for every job depends upon its performance, routine activities
and the height of complexity. The work of professional job would not be routine rather it’s
changing, challenging and also requires analysis, synthesis, evaluation and critical appraisal.
Thus any time preparation could be given importance and it’s a continuous process which
never be complete and concluding. Each professional individual should update their
knowledge constantly with day today events. He could be called upon to deal with varieties
of situations and issues in which his specific training sometimes may not been equipped him
for. In that case he has to generalise the situations through his experience to take responsible
actions or decisions. An important concern for counselling is the growing demand for early
assortment and training personnel. There is a need to help people with increasing
complexities of modern living and frustrating situations. Social change also increases the
need for raising the level of competence in counselling.

During the last decades, people are treating every kind of situation or failure as mental
illness such as school phobias, underachievement, and child delinquency. These deviations
require special attention and treatment with proper educational and experienced
professionals.

The nature of ethics:

A code of ethics represents the values of a profession transformed into standards of

conduct for the membership. Ethics provides the structure or guidelines for a professional
member to follow professional practice and also for the society to help the client issues which
affecting their lives. The ethical issue of competence begins when the counsellor accepts a
position as a professional counsellor.

In India, for making counsellors professionally competent suitable training programmes

have to be evolved and implemented every profession must have an ethical code of conduct
for its members and should be implemented through licensing and certification procedures.

In the early decades of the present century, the counselling movement tend to emphasise
the need for appropriate methods, sound theoretical basis for practice. Individuals who are
engaged in professional counselling have to face 3 basic issues. These are

 The procedure of selection and training.

 Academic preparation to reach the level of profession, adequate knowledge and
understanding of principles and dynamics of human growth, developments,
motivation, adjustments and coping skills.
 Methods of analysing problems and appropriate application of skills.

Ethical standards:

The ethical issues or concerns which invariably accompany the development of a

profession. According to Wrenn (1952), a profession implies ‘professional’ relations with the
members of the society and counselling relationship in a highly personal one and also a
chance of its abuse. It is true that some of the counsellors would misuse the counsellor-
counselee relationship. On the job-the counsellor is responsible professionally to practice
within his/her limitations. It is therefore, essential that professional rules/ethics could be laid
out in no ambiguous terms. This may create public trust and confidence in the profession.

Schwebel (1955) explains unethical practice may arise from ignorance, inadequate training
and self-interest. All these instances would be viewed as unethical behaviour. However,
society cannot be at the mercy of ignorant or ill-trained professional counsellors. This can be
secured by a system of certification or licensing. A statement of such certification is utmost
important for an individual as well as community.

Ethical issues of a professional counsellor:

Ethics refers to human conduct as to make judgements between what is right and wrong. It
could be that there are several factors that may encourage one to adopt unethical behaviour. A
right person is the one who can assess the situations and make differentiation between what is
morally good and wrong in order to follow the code of professional counsellor. Thus,
maintaining ethical standards is must for the wealth of an organization as well as the
development of one’s personality. Good ethics will lead every individual to maintain their
honest image.

Following are some of the ethical issues in which every professional counsellor should
follow:

1. Competence

The ethical issue of competence begins with the counsellor acceptance as a professional
counsellor. The counsellor must possess appropriate qualifications, experience, license and
certification for his/her position. When a professional counsellor knows that client
expectations are beyond their competencies they should identify a suitable professional for
that client.

2. Confidentiality

The utmost important ethical consideration is confidentiality. Trust is a vital keystone in

client-counsellor relationship and it is the principle of confidentiality. This may be viewed as
ethical responsibility which requires professional counsellor to protect from others the
information shared by client during counselling process. The information shared by the client
may be sensitive in nature, even a slight careless handling of the information may cause
harmful situations and also unethical to a professional counsellor. Lewis (1970) listed out
some of the ethical practices, these are

 It is unethical to share the client information with others, but discussing information’s
about a client with professional counsellor is not unethical.
 A professional counsellor should not interrupt the principle of confidentiality. If third
party is present in the counselling room, then client must know the reason of their
presence and he has every right to permit or deny the person.
 Special circumstances and situations across the family may vary the counselling
process and its confidentiality. Special circumstances related to confidentiality and
privilege include counselling the persons with HIV/AIDS, minors or school settings
or children with behavioural problems, child maltreatment etc.
 Counsellor need not disclose any of the information’s to any government body or
authority, the professional counsellor must give foremost importance to the client
rather than others.
 Licensing and certification are used as the basis for legally controlling the practice of
several professional areas, but in USA, the figures are in force to ensure proper
management through licencing and certification. Whereas in India it has not yet
attracted the attention of state or central government in legal acceptance of
certification and licensing. The statues (figures) should cover the broad areas such as
marriage, family, child, school, parent, educational, vocational and personal etc.

Exceptions to confidentiality and privileged communications given by Ramley and Herlihy

(2001) are Sharing personal and confidential information’sis permissible under the following
circumstances:

 Counsellor can consult with other experts for better results.

 Protecting someone in the dangerous situation may require disclosure of confidential
information such as when counsellor suspects abuse or neglect of children, if client
poses dangerous situations to others, if client has fetal/communicable diseases and his
behaviour may cause risk to others.
  In case of group counselling, counselling with families and couples.
 Counselling with minor clients.
 Disclosure by court orders.

3. Personal relationship with the client

Every organisation has to follow limits in the professional relationship. Eg: child
maltreatment when the client is minor or mentally ill. Counsellors must be aware of most
frequently recognised violations of professional ethics may involve child harassment/
maltreatment/ sexual relationship with the client. If counsellors engage in these issues are at
risk for proceedings, loss of license and also court criminal charges. A counsellor must avoid
exploiting clients for their financial gain or social status, research data or other ways of
motives. He should be aware of human rights of clients.

4. Working with life-endangering clients

This includes situations such as child abuse, neglect, possible homicide, suicide threats,
and juvenile cases. These types of cases may be reported and counsellors also require
breaching confidentialityif necessary. Counsellors in all situations cannot afford to be legally
ignorant; they must understand the law and its implications.

5. Appropriate service

Once the counsellor gets license and certification after training he is permitted to accept
any kind of client. He can judge himself as he could manage the client and can provide
necessary help or advice to the client. The professional counsellor must honestly believe that
he can and specifically understand that he can make efforts to correct any false impressions
by the client regarding his qualifications and competence. If necessary, the counsellor can
make referral. Infrequently a client may refuse to accept a referral. It is necessary that
counsellor should help the client in the critical situations or can terminate the relationship.

6. Malpractice

As previously mentioned, counsellors are expected to function within their professional

limits, which is not only ethically expected but also legally appropriate. Some of the most
common situations in which legal problems may occur are:

 Counsellor may administer drugs to the client to control his behaviour

 Giving advice for mental treatment
 Giving birth control or abortion related suggestions
 Violating confidentiality and disclosing privacy of records
 Personal events in the life of profession

Legal considerations:

Licensing and certification are the main basis for controlling legally the practice of several
professional areas. In USA and other countries, they follow proper supervision through
licensing and certification. But in India it has not yet attracted the attention of doing it either
in state or central government. The major reasons for such type of measures are to prevent the
pseudo-practitioners from entering in the field. When such types of statutes are made, the
professional counsellors can be involved largely in all the fields.

Preparation of a Professional counsellor:

 A stable and comprehensive training programme should include

 Basic theoretical preparations- Understanding of motivation, human adjustments,

psychodynamics, principles of counselling.
 Technical and applied knowledge- understanding of test use and interpretation,
interviewing skills and competencies in specialised procedures of intervention.
 A broad-based workshop and training for enabling the counsellors to meet needs of
the client.
 Practical training and experience.

Every counsellor must know the culture and the cultural background of clients in which he
functions with. Counsellors need to have sound knowledge and precarious understanding of
individual differences and its significance. Every cultural differencehas far-reaching effects
on individual ethics and personality development.

Some administrators argue that to be a good counsellor, teaching experience is useful.

However, it is argued that counselling and teaching has different activities and for a
counsellor it is not needed to have teaching experience. Sometimes, teaching attitudes follow
authoritarian behaviour whereas counsellors perform specific functions like helping people,
he must be kind, sincere, intelligent, able and have a sense of commitment to his profession.

Conclusion:

It is important and mandatory to follow ethical standards, ethical issues and legal concerns
for all professional counsellors.

The challenge of working ethically means that practitioners will inevitably encounter
situations where there are motivating responsibilities. In such situations it is essential to
retreat from all ethical analysis in order to discharge a sense of what may appear to be
uncountable ethical conflicts. These ethics are intended to be of assistance in such
circumstances by directing attention to the variety of ethical factors that may need to be taken
into consideration and to alternative ways of impending ethics that may prove more
beneficial. No declaration of ethics can totally aggravate the difficulty of making professional
conclusions. By accepting this statement of ethics, members of many other countries for
Counselling and Psychotherapy are committing themselves to engaging with the challenge of
determined to be ethical, even though doing so involves making difficult decisions or
performing courageously. So why can’t we Indians follow all these ethical considerations in
the field of counselling?