1. Ethical and Legal
Aspects of Counseling

2. Counselors must be…
Knowledgeable about themselves and their values, ethics, and legal responsibilities,
Be dependent on Professional Codes of Ethics, and
External codes of law.

3. Ethics defined:
“…a philosophical discipline that is concerned with human conduct and moral decision making” (Van Hoose & Kottler, 1985 as cited in Gladding, 2004, p. 58)
Ethics focus on principles and standards that govern relationships between people, i.e., counselors and clients.

4. Ethics vs Morality?
Ethics involves decision-making of a moral nature and is often viewed synonynously with morality.
Yet, they each have a different meaning. Both do deal with what is good or bad in human conduct.
Yet, Morality, involves making a judgement or evaluation

5. Then what is law?
Law (as cited in Gladding, 2004, p. 58) is the preciser codification of governing standards established to ensure legal and moral justice.
Law does not dictate what is ethical.
Sometimes what is considered legal is considered by some to be unethical or immoral.

6. Codes of Ethics
The counseling Code of Ethics is a changeable document.
It can be changed by the membership when deemed necessary.
A new code of ethics has just been released by ACA and can be found on ACA’s website (2005).

7. Unethical Behavior in Counseling:
Violation of confidentiality
Exceeding level of competence
Negligent practice
Claiming expertise not possessed
Imposing one’s values on a client
Creating dependency in a client
Sexual activity with a client

8. More unethical behaviors
Certain conflicts of interest, such as dual relationships
Questionable financial arrangements, such as charging an excessive fee
Improper advertising

9. Professional Codes and Standards
Counselors have developed, based upon an agreed upon set of values – professional codes of ethics and standards of conduct.

10. Reasons for Codes: Formal statements for ensuring clients’ rights,
Help to professionalize an organization
Protect the profession from government imposes regulations
Helps to control internal disagreements
Protects counselors from the public, i.e., malpractice lawsuits.

11. Development of Codes of Ethics for Counselors:
First Counselor Code of Ethics by ACA in led by Donald Super in 1961.
The code of ethics has been revised 5 times including this year, 2005.
Go to the ACA webpage to review the new ACA Code of Ethics.

12. Activity: Locate in your text on p. 489 the 1995 Code of Ethics.
Locate the latest version of this Code on the ACA website.
Compare the two versions.
What Sections are included in both?
Locate the significant changes in the latest revision (2005).

13. Limitations of Ethical Codes:
Some issues cannot be resolved by a code of ethics.
Enforcing ethical codes is difficult.
There may be conflicts within.
Some issues not covered. Ethical codes cannot address every situation.
What is acceptable at one time in history may not be later.
Sometimes legal and ethical codes conflict.
Cross-cultural issues are not always addressed.
See p. 61 Gladding for more and further discussion.