Rules of Ethics in Counselling

Today’s post discusses the rules of ethics in counselling, namely school counselling. Every well-established profession must have a code of ethics to guide the conduct of its members. What is meant by ethics? According to Schmidt (1965) ethics simply refer to standards of right and wrong; “that part of science and philosophy dealing with moral conduct, duty and judgment”

In dealing with ethical standards in Guidance and Counselling in Zambia, we shall concern ourselves with those code of ethic meant to guide the moral conduct, duty and judgment of the counsellor in practicing his profession. The standard code of ethics for counsellors in Zambia was drawn from the ethics of the American Personnel and Guidance Association as was found in Shertzer and Stone (1976) and writings of Wrenn 1951 those formulated by Denga (1986) to enlighten us on the ethics required for our practice. The code of ethics in Guidance are in six categories.

Ethical Responsibilities in General

• The Counsellor owes ethical responsibilities to his client, the institution in which he works and ultimately to the society. When a counsellor accepts to work in an institution it is implied that in principle he is in agreement with the general policies, where a counsellor discovers that his professional beliefs, principles and ethics are at loggerheads with the policies and goals of the institution, he would need to consider leaving the institution.
• Counsellors are expected to behave ethically in their professional duties (activities) towards themselves, their clients and the public. A counsellor who behaves unethically is expected to correct the misdemeanour immediately so as to retain his status as a counsellor. He can use any acceptable, legitimate means to correct the error.
• A counsellor is expected to use legitimate accepted ways to improve himself professionally. He must not seek self improvement at the expense of his colleagues through damaging their personality or worth.
• Counsellor must be law-abiding to their country and their professions. They should participate fully in the activities of their profession and fulfill their obligations like paying their dues up to date.
• Counsellors must not claim to posses qualifications which are beyond what they have. Any such false claims must be corrected by the claimant.

Counsellor’s Ethical Responsibilities to Clients

The ethical responsibilities under this section has to do with the counsellor- client responsibilities either in individual, or group counselling situation. They are based on the assumption that the counsellor recognises and respects the worth and dignity of his clients and therefore in every aspect of his dealings with them, seeks their welfare and not manipulate or exploit them for his own interest.

(1) The counsellor is expected to respect the integrity and promote the welfare of his clients at all times.
(2) The counsellor is therefore expected to accept every client for counselling. He should not accept clients for counselling on the bases of race, colour, religion or ethnic origin.
(3) Counselling employed in the school system or in institutions employed to render their counselling services for clients have no right to claim remunerations from their clients.
(4) Any information given by the client in a counselling session is to be kept in confidence. It does not matter the means by which the information was obtained.

The only time when confidential information can be disclosed is when it is abundantly clear that the client’s life is in danger, the client is seriously violating a societal law, or the life of some person or society is in danger. The counsellor should note that such situations occur in rare occasions. When they happen, however, he should use his discretion to save the situation.

(5) Information or counselling relationship which include test data, interview notes, tape recordings etc, are to be considered purely for counselling use. They are not to be included in the official records of the institution employing the counsellor. Such information can be revealed to others only when the client gives his consent.

(6) Any information from counselling which is to be used for research or training purpose must as much as possible sufficiently disguise the identity of the client so as to give him adequate protection.

(7) Whenever a counsellor is confronted with a case beyond his expertise, he must immediately refer the case to an expert who can handle it adequately. The counsellor should admit his limitations and do the referral.

(8) In situation where the counsellor realises that he will not be effective in handling the case of a client because of the nature of his relationship to the client, he is obliged to refer the client to another professional. Relationships which apply in this situation tend to be when the client is one’s spouse one’s child, sibling or one’s close friend etc.

Counsellor’s Ethical Responsibilities to the Public

1. The counsellor should not cheat the public by charging high consultancy fees. When voluntary services are rendered to the public the counsellor should not charge any fees.
2. The counsellor should not propagate false information to the public. Any information given while speaking to the public on the radio, television or elsewhere or while writing to the public in the news media should be valid accounts. The counsellor has the responsibility of checking on the validity of his facts before using them in his speech or writing to the public.
3. A counsellor should not accept from his employer, assignments or tasks that are beyond his level, competence or qualification. He should not offer services outside his area of training and experience.
4. Counsellors have the responsibility to protect the public against the activities of quacks by enlightening the public on the negative consequences of their activities and exposing the false claims of those known to have doubtful credibility.

Ethics on Testing and Appraising

The aim of appraising is to collect personal data of clients for appropriate use in
counselling. The ethics considered under appraising and testing of clients
therefore examine the validity of the tests used in collecting the data, the confidentiality in keeping test and appraisal information, the appropriate use of the data collected to benefit the client.

1. The counsellor must ensure that tests and approval materials he uses to gather client data are valid, reliable and appropriate. In addition, the administration, scoring and interpretation of such test or non-test instruments should be highly objective to ensure validity and reliability of the scores obtained.
2. Before administering a test to a client, the client must be briefed on the purpose of his taking the test to assure him that it is for his good or that it would not in any way harm his person when the testing is meant for research purpose.
3. Test data should always be interpreted by a person competent in the area of testing. The result should always be kept in confidence. Whenever a counsellor trained in testing is employed by an institution to render services in testing he should see to the administration, scoring and interpretation of the results. In cases where the institution has qualified staff, they can score and interprete the test.
4. Test results are not absolute and should be interpreted in absolute terms. They should be interpreted in probabilistic terms to account for error and other factors which contribute to the results.
5. Counsellors have the obligation not to reproduce, modify or appropriate published tests or some portions of them without seeking appropriate permission from the authors or publishers.
6. Test data are not to be released to anybody without the consent of the client (testee). Parents in some case may seek to know the test results of their children.
7. In interpretation tests results the counsellor should present them in such a way as to make meaning to the client (testee). Technical terms which the client does not understand should be avoided or explained. Emphasis should be in high-lighting the strong points of the client than weak points. The interpretation should be done in such an indirect way where it is evident that direct interpretation of the results could have damaging psychological effect on the client.
8. As much as possible the counsellor is expected to avoid the use of terms like I.Q. (Your I.Q. is ) Abnormal Behavioral (Test shows your behaviour is abnormal ) which can have serious negative psychological effects on the client.

Ethics on Research and Publication (Ethics in Counselling)

1. Counsellors must be sensitive to all ethical principles concerning their dealing with human subjects in their research and publication. Every aspect of their research and publication should ensure that adequate measures are taken to respect the integrity and worth of their subjects who are human-beings so as to avoid any psychological damage.
2. While the principal researcher is responsible for ensuring ethical research practice, others involved in research activities are responsible for the art they play.
3. The findings of the research must be genuine. All factors and conditions which the researcher is convinced must have contributed to the findings must be reported.
4. Where giving prior information to the research subjects on the purpose of the study will in no way affect the results, the researcher is obliged to give such information.
5. Authors whose works have been used by the researcher should be recognised and properly acknowledged. Persons and bodies who contributed immensely to the success of the research should be acknowledge. Sponsoring bodies who made grants available for the study should also be acknowledged.
6. In the matters of publication and research it is unethical for a counsellor to plagiarise the works of a colleague. Plagiarism of all types should be avoided.

Ethics on Consulting and Private Practice

Consulting refers to a service rendered voluntarily by a counsellor to the public. Consultancy as used by Denga (1986) is meant the type of service rendered by a counsellor to his public for which he charges or demand a fee. A counsellor in private practice is self-employed by any public institution like schools, prisons, social welfare centre, hospitals etc. He works in a private clinic owed by himself or a group of counsellors.

1. Counsellors employed to serve in a consultancy capacity must ensure that they possess the skills, expertise required for the job to be executed. Otherwise they should not take up the offer.
2. Counsellors in private practice must possess approved training, qualification, certification and licencing for private practice.
3. The role of a consultant counsellor is not to make decisions for his clients (e.g. institutions) but to create facilitative conditions to enable his clients make appropriate decisions.
4. Counsellors in private practice should not sacrifice their professional ethics for commercial benefits. Their situation requires more vigilance in ensuring that professional ethics are adhered to firmly.
5. A consultant and his client should come to agreement as to what task is to be performed, what goals to be achieved and what functions are to be taken by the consultant.
6. It is unethical for a counsellor to use the facilities of his employers for his private practice or to use the privilege of his affiliation to his institutions of employment to recruit clients for private practice.
7. Confidentiality should be strictly adhered to in both private practice and consultancy services.
8. These are some of the major ethics the author believes counsellors should be aware and employ in their professional practice. The code presented in this chapter is by no means exhaustive.

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