Case Study: Multicultural, Couples and Family, and Group Counseling



Case Study: Multicultural, Couples and Family, and Group Counseling

Ethical Violations in Group, Familial, Marital and Multicultural Settings

Ethical codes of conduct like those of the American Counseling Association exist so that the public can be adequately protected while offering extensive guidelines to the professionals with how to service their clients. It is the duty of each practitioner to understand the specific needs of the wide and diverse populations they could potentially serve. The preamble of the American Counseling Association (ACA) 2005 code of ethics says that each member of their association is to fully identify the diversity of the human race and embrace the cross cultural approach which supports each individual and recognizes their unique “comfort zone” (ACA, 2005). A failure to include the multicultural needs of the clients is a clear violation of not only the professional ethics of a client but also infringes on their fundamental human rights (Ivey, 1990). If and when the practitioner is not well versed or properly trained in multicultural counseling, as outlined in the case of “Allison-The case of the well meaning feminist,” the counselor did not understand her client's Latin background and the importance of the father figure within the familial setting which resulted in a clear violation of ethical conduct (Herlihy & Corey, 2006).

There are some clear ethical guidelines for marital as well as family therapists or even group counselors; they are required to treat the whole family structure as a client rather than taking each individual separately. Ethical dilemmas in such situations can occur from the very first day in such therapy sessions, different values, treatment of the entire family especially after a specific member leaves, imposition of personal values, manipulating the couple or family for supposedly “therapeutic” reasons etc. All of these ethical considerations exist on the borderline between right and wrong for therapists, and understanding that each situation requires a different approach is now encouraged. However, there are certain behaviorisms that are considered unethical, like imposing personal values on the family, couple or individual will always be considered a violation of the ethical code of conduct, as they “do more harm than good.” Moreover, they may not take any individuals' side as such conduct would only serve to further aggravate the clients in most scenarios (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2012).

Identification of the Ethical Codes within the Case Study

In 2005, the ACA code of ethics was revised to include many essential changes in the practice of client servicing and therapy in different settings. One of the changes was the acknowledgement of multiple relationships, or “non professional interactions or relationships,” the ACA understands are sometimes unavoidable and if carried out ethically could be acceptable (ACA, 2005). However, the ACA code of ethics of 2005 is entirely focused towards determining whether a client might be potentially harmed by such a multiple relationship or not. Standard A. 5. C. of the revised code of ACA states that only professional relationships should exist between a ...