Prejudice and Ethics in Counselling
Prejudice
Examples of types of prejudice: religious affiliation, class, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, sexual practices, mental health diagnosis and physical disorders.
Stereotypes of every kind could serve to pose a problem for any counsellor who is unable to limit their judgement of clients due to these stereotypes.
Ethical dilemmas
If a counsellor finds herself drifting into judgemental thoughts upon listening to a client describe a lifestyle in which she eats all day, while attempting to lose weight, it will be extremely difficult for me to keep the results of my emotional response to this judgemental attitude from reflecting in my voice and choice of words in working with the client. Clients may be dysfunctional, but they aren't emotionally insensitive or unintelligent, and are very likely to hear the implied feelings of the therapist. Obviously, this will do little to establish or maintain the kind of trust necessary for effective counselling. I need to recognise this more in myself. I am sure that intellectually I try to have no prejudices; however I know that I do because I can tell by the tone of my voice or the little voice that may appear in my head. I know that I am hypocritical in several of these instances. For example, I may think that that unemployed people are lazy, and that fat people are lazy too, when I have been unemployed and not looking for work. Even though I don't often think in prejudicial terms I can do if under pressure and stressed, and looking for someone to blame.
Therapists are necessarily aware of and respect cultural, individual, and role differences, including those based on age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language, and socio-economic status and consider these factors when working with members of such groups. Therapists try to eliminate the effect on their work of biases based on those factors, and they do not knowingly
Examples of types of prejudice: religious affiliation, class, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, sexual practices, mental health diagnosis and physical disorders.
Stereotypes of every kind could serve to pose a problem for any counsellor who is unable to limit their judgement of clients due to these stereotypes.
Ethical dilemmas
If a counsellor finds herself drifting into judgemental thoughts upon listening to a client describe a lifestyle in which she eats all day, while attempting to lose weight, it will be extremely difficult for me to keep the results of my emotional response to this judgemental attitude from reflecting in my voice and choice of words in working with the client. Clients may be dysfunctional, but they aren't emotionally insensitive or unintelligent, and are very likely to hear the implied feelings of the therapist. Obviously, this will do little to establish or maintain the kind of trust necessary for effective counselling. I need to recognise this more in myself. I am sure that intellectually I try to have no prejudices; however I know that I do because I can tell by the tone of my voice or the little voice that may appear in my head. I know that I am hypocritical in several of these instances. For example, I may think that that unemployed people are lazy, and that fat people are lazy too, when I have been unemployed and not looking for work. Even though I don't often think in prejudicial terms I can do if under pressure and stressed, and looking for someone to blame.
Therapists are necessarily aware of and respect cultural, individual, and role differences, including those based on age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language, and socio-economic status and consider these factors when working with members of such groups. Therapists try to eliminate the effect on their work of biases based on those factors, and they do not knowingly