Ethics in Counselling

Ethics are defined as moral principles that

govern a person's behaviour or the conducting
of an activity.
Successful counselling also demands skilled,
empathetic and trustworthy counsellers to
guide and support the client through the
change process.
Counsellors who : violate their clients trust,
are insensitive to clients needs and values,
experiment with counselling interventions
for which they have no training or
experience are acting unethically.

To be loyal to the institution

that employees them.
Ethical obligations for
Counsellors
To promote good reputation
of the counselling
profession.

Ethical Principles Of
Counselling
According to Kitchener, there are 5 basic principles of
counselling. They are :
Respect
for
autono
my

Fidelity
Ethical
Principle
s

Justice

Beneficen
ce

Nonmaleficense

Respect for
Autonomy
Autonomy means an individuals right to selfdetermination.Individuals have a right to think as
they wish , even if others disagree.
Respect for Autonomy assumes that individuals are
capable of understanding the implications and
consequences of the choices they make.
The principle of autonomy means that counsellors
cannot ethically impose their values on clients or use
their influence to get clients to see things the right
way. The work of the counsellor here is to allow the
client to explore beliefs and then take independent
decisions based on exploration.

Beneficence
This principle is the core of profession of counselling.
As a member of a profession whose justification of
existence is to do good to others, counsellors have
deeper ethical responsibilities.
Counsellors publicise themselves as expert helpers
and people come to see them when they are
desperate to get out of a situation they cant cope
with.Therefore it is the ethical responsibility of the
counsellor to do all they can to help.
In order to evaluate whether a particular course of
action is ethical is to ask Is this course of action
likely to benefit the client?

NonMaleficance
The responsibility
of not to make the client worse by
intention,reckless action or incompetence is the
principle of Non- maleficence.
The responsibility of the counsellor is to assess client
problem accurately,choose counselling strategies
wisely, and monitor the impact of counselling on each
client.
It is this principle which states practicing within the
limits of ones competence.
According to this principle clients cannot be exposed
to research or experimemtal treatments with high risk
and little hope of real benefit.
Therefore when evaluating whether a course of action
is ethical or not, the counsellor must see if the client is
at risk for harm or not. If yes, then alternative courses
of action should be chosen