Step 1: Develop ethical sensitivity, integrating personal and professional values (Welfer, 2016)
The situation, described in a case study, demands the integration of the best professional and personal values, which in cumulative effect are powerful enough to overcome the toughness of dilemmas.
All the facts of the case are to be clarified with the help of all accessible tools. As regards stakeholders, they include the intern, his/her direct supervisor, current and perspective clients (especially those, whose cases are unique and complex). It also should be emphasized that the sociocultural context of the events also plays a crucial role, as it is new for the intern, who is not duly acquainted with specific cultural norms, and cannot adequately determine, whether the specific aspects of clients’ cases deserve the additional attention, or they are socially acceptable under this cultural environment.
Step 3: Define the central issues and the available options (Welfer, 2016)
What is of utmost importance, ethical issues within the relationship among representatives of counselling profession, clients and third persons cannot be regulated at one’s discretion. Instead, American Counselling Association Code of Ethics is applied not only to professional counsellors, but also to interns as well. Therefore, its demands represent the available options for the resolving of the ethical dilemmas of the case.
Step 4: Refer to professional standards, guidelines, and relevant law/regulations (Welfer, 2016)
Referring to the special ethical guidelines, section F of ACA provides that supervisors are supposed to have knowledge of supervision models; be fair, accurate, and honest in their assessment, and to fulfill these obligations, they also are supposed to meet regularly with supervisees to review the supervisees’ work and help them become prepared to serve a range of diverse clients. (American Counselling Association, 2014). Instead, any of these requirements is not fulfilled in the case, as the supervisor merely pretends that everything goes right, which is not true, and which is aggravated by the feedbacks of previous interns about the risk of being let go in case of additional questioning.
Step 5: Search out ethics scholarship (Welfer, 2016)
As Woodside (2016) has stated, supervision pursues four goals: 1) support of the professional development of the intern; 2) protection of clients’ welfare; 3) gatekeeping, namely – the evaluation of intern’s fitness for internship, identifying of strengths and limitations, providing feedbacks; 4) help for interns to become self-supervise. Unfortunately, all this goals are failed to be accomplished because of the lack of contact with a supervisor.
As Houser and Thoma (2013) have maintained, supervisors’ values and personal characteristics, their multicultural perspectives constitute another major element of the horizon for ethical decision-making. It is clear from this case as well, since for some reasons supervisor avoids the due execution of the professional duties, which undermines the intern’s possibility to approach correctly to the cases of clients.
Step 6: Apply ethical principles to the situation (Welfer, 2016)
The two important ethical principles are to be addressed here – namely, doing no harm, and benefiting others. They concern the clients, who deserve due level of care, even in the most complicated and sophisticated ethical situations, as the ones, which emerge in the current case.
Step 7: Consult with supervisor and respected colleagues (Welfer, 2016)
The situation when the intern cannot properly decide, what is right to do in the case with reported abuse from client’s father is inadmissible. Under the section B. 1. b. of ACA Code of Ethics, counselors respect the privacy of prospective and current clients and “request private information from clients only when it is beneficial to the counseling process”, whereas the point B. 2. a. of ACA Code of Ethics allows an exception, when disclosure is “required to protect clients or identified others from serious and foreseeable harm or when legal requirements demand” it (American Counselling Association, 2014). These complicated and delicate point, along with many other tough issues, are supposed to be discussed with more experienced and well-respected colleagues.
Step 8: Deliberate and decide (Welfer, 2016)
The important step, the weight of which is dangerous to be underestimated, is the deliberation step, during which the decision is being formed. In this case, such step is important to take place after the consultation with respected colleagues.
Step 9: Inform supervisor, implement and document decision-making process and actions (Welfer, 2016)
In the current case, it is of paramount importance to document the suggested scheme of decision-making process. Under the circumstances of this very case, it would be recommended to discuss more thoroughly with client the causes and consequences of the abuse, trying to understand whether it harms the client, and therefore, whether more active actions should be undertaken, including the possibility to step out from common confidentiality rule.
What is more, the situation with the neglecting of supervising should also be resolved. Beginning from the further attempts to consult with current supervisor, aimed at clear and ethical statements of the reasoned concerns, the resolving may proceed with the consultation of another respected counsellors, who would not be so indifferent and unconcerned.
Step 10: Reflect on the experience (Welfer, 2016)
Such experience would serve as a valuable lesson of applying ethical principles and requirements in practice, of building a bridge between the desired situation and the reality with the help of ethical tools.
References
American Counseling Association (2014). ACA Code of Ethics. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Houser, R. A., Thoma, S. (2013). Ethics in Counseling and Therapy: Developing an Ethical Identity. California: SAGE Publications.
Welfel, E.R. (2016). A Model for Ethical Practice: Using Resources to Enhance. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Woodside, M. (2016). The Human Services Internship Experience: Helping Students Find Their Way. New York: SAGE Publications.
