Counseling And Psychotherapy: Chapter Analysis

The book chapter that dealt with the topic of ethics was Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy by Gerald Corey. This was the book that was used for the Introduction to Counseling class. The chapter, called “Ethical Issues in Counseling Practice”, gave a good deal of information about what ethics looks like for a counselor when it comes to therapy. First of all, the chapter provided a great basis at the beginning by giving steps that a person needs to take when making an ethical decision. The eight steps seem helpful to use when there is an ethical dilemma, especially because it helps to break down the problem and ultimately gives ways on how to approach the situation. One of the things that was very helpful and informative was understanding the difference between assessment and diagnosis and when these should happen in counseling. This is something that I think can become confusing in different situations. Additionally, it was interesting how the section on these two factors focused on what ethics looked like in certain ethnic groups. Some patterns of behavior that fall under a diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders may not apply to other cultures. Therefore, there is a higher chance of misdiagnosing populations whose
Before reading the chapter, I was not aware that there were different groups that certain ethical standards fell under. I understand that mandatory ethics includes the basic ethical standards that professionals should always follow. However, aspirational ethics and positive ethics had very similar definitions. Because they were both described as a practitioner following ethical standards above and beyond what the basics in order to look out for the best needs of the client, it was a little confusing to grasp the difference between the two (Corey,