counseling ethics

Ethics are based on philosophical principles and these guidelines assist a practitioner in making the best possible decisions for the welfare of the clients and the practitioner himself. Ethics are normative or critical in nature and concern human conduct and moral decision. Morality describes decision making and judgement by an individual concerning an incident or human behaviour. This is greatly influenced by the values he or she has acquired or formed as a result of external influence or indoctrination. Value is an enduring belief that a specific that a specific end-state of conduct is desirable (McLeod, 1998). Terminal and instrumental values are two types of values where the former refer to the desired end-state of existence, for example wisdom and the later refer to the mode of conduct that leads to it, for example broad-mindedness .Values then influence and determine the decisions we choose to make in our daily lives. In providing an effective, therapeutic therapy, a practitioner helping a client encountering dilemma in decision- making may adopt the eight – step model approach to think through the ethical problems (Corey, Corey & Callanan, 2007). The steps of the model are described as follows:

Step 1- Identify the problem or dilemma. In the first step the existence of the problem must be recognised. The nature of the problem has to be ascertained. Identify if it is an ethical, legal, moral, professional or clinical problem. The practitioner’s and the client’s insights regarding the problem must be examined. Consultation with the client can begin at this stage as problems are being identified. Looking at the problem from different perspectives is useful as most ethical dilemmas are complex.

Step 2 – Identify the potential issues involved. From the collected information, irrelevant ones must be discarded. The critical issues must be noted and described. The welfare of those involved; their rights and responsibilities must be evaluated.