Professional Practice and Ethics Overview
Professional practice and ethics in counseling encompass the principles,
guidelines, and standards that guide the conduct
and behavior of counselors in their interactions with clients, colleagues,
and the profession as a whole.
Professional counselors must become very familiar
with ethical and legal practice considerations and with historical perspectives
and advocacy models.
Counselors also must understand the roles of professional organizations
and the diverse nature of credentialing,
as well as the counseling specialties in counseling practice.
The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational
Programs defines standards for Professional and Ethical Practice as follows:
Studies that provide an understanding of
the following aspects of professional functioning.
History and philosophy of the counseling profession and its specialty areas.
The multiple professional roles and functions of counselors across
specialty areas and their relationships with
human service and integrated behavioral health care systems,
including interagency and interorganizational collaboration and consultation.
Counselors' roles and responsibilities as members of interdisciplinary
community outreach and emergency management response teams.
The role and process of the professional counselor
advocating on behalf of the profession.
Advocacy processes needed to address institutional and social barriers
that impede access, equity, and success for clients.
Professional counseling organizations, including membership benefits,
activities, services to members, and current issues.
Professional counseling credentialing, including certification,
licensure, accreditation practices and standards,
and the effects of public policy on these issues.
Current labor market information relevant to opportunities for
practice within the counseling profession.
Ethical standards of professional counseling organizations
and credentialing bodies and applications of ethical
and legal considerations in professional counseling.
Technologies impact on the counseling profession.
Strategies for personal and professional self-evaluation and
implications for practice.
Self-care strategies appropriate to the counselor role
and the role of counseling supervision in the profession.
This section describes the keys to professional practice and ethics
including history of ethical standards
and ethical dilemmas, confidentiality and virtue ethics, regulatory standards,
legal and political issues, research, process, data, and sampling,
measurements and analysis, research and counseling, careers in counseling,
counseling settings, private practitioner,
private practices, managed care, and technology in counseling.