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Ethical Reflection Assignment
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Ethical Reflection Assignment
The moral dilemma common within the field of counseling, and affects the interactions
and relations of the counselor at large is the question of how to honor the principles of honoring
other people’s privacy. Privacy is not only a rule based on law, but also a professional ethical
rule which makes it possible to protect privacy of clients and make people as open as it is
possible during the sessions. Nonetheless, the aspect of confidentiality turns into a big problem
when a counselor is faced with some instances where this privacy must be violated for the sake
of protecting the client, such as in issues to do with suicide or child abuse. This issue is important
in counseling because it involves the client canter, the strategy of counseling, and the ethic duties
of the counselor.
Recent Literature on Confidentiality in Counseling
Recent research gives some understanding of the problems of preserving confidentiality
in the occupation of counselor. McKeown (2023) stress that several problems arising from care
and information sharing that is co-ordinate between the different teams, is likely to harbor some
ethical concerns such as boundaries of confidentiality. While integration seeks to promote care
by varying specialists, it is a destabilizing factor for a client’s relationship with the counselor
since confidentiality is in jeopardy when several individuals are participating in the treatment of
the client. Noroozi et al., (2018) agrees with such an argument about the importance of
confidentiality; nonetheless, he notes that there are occasions when confidentiality can be
breached ethically for the sake of the third party or the public-good. These studies show that
confidentiality is not as black and white and the ethical data and judgment are fundamental
components of practice.
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Application of Ethics in Addressing Confidentiality
There is always guidance in ethical rules to address the confidentiality issues. For
example, the American Counseling Association (ACA) Code of Ethics. The ACA Code of Ethics
provides direction in the counselor’s ability to maintain confidentiality for the client but to
appreciate occasions when disclosure is required (American Counseling Association, 2014).
Employing these considerations, a counselor is able to address the problem of confidentiality by
adhering to a mechanical incline decision model that gives due regard to the best interest of the
client, code of ethics in practice and legal requirements. For example, in situations where one’s
client threatens to harm themselves or others, the counselor would have to put the principle of
confidentiality against the code of ethic that compel the counselor to prevent harm. When
viewing decision making as involving a sequence of activities, it becomes easy to approach the
decision-making process systematically, reduce charges of bias and maintain professional
manners. Furthermore, ethical decision-making models like Ethical Justification Model can assist
counselors in finding certain ways to solve those types of cases thus guarantee that the principles
of confidentiality are followed while victim’s safety is also prioritized. These models offer a
guideline which contain steps like, first recognizing the problem, second, the counselor weighs
the legal and ethical factors and third, the choice of the most reasonable action to take is made;
thus, such frameworks aid the counselor to make proper and accountable decisions.
Conclusion
Confidentiality is in fact among the most connotative and challenging ethical issues to
handle while practicing as a counselor. Contemporary writing stresses that this is a complex
problem and counselors should be alert to this risk. This paper will seek to rethink over
challenges faced by counselors in regards to the concept of confidence by incorporating ethical
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principles, structured decision-making models as well as the welfare of the client and
responsibility of the counselors.
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References
American Counseling Association. (2014). ACA code of ethics. American Counseling
Association.
McKeown, A. (2023). Ethical challenges and principles in integrated care. British Medical
Bulletin, 146(1), 4-18. https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fbmb%2Fldac030
Noroozi, M., Zahedi, L., Bathaei, F. S., & Salari, P. (2018). Challenges of confidentiality in
clinical settings: compilation of an ethical guideline. Iranian journal of public
health, 47(6), 875.
