Ethical Practice In Counselling Essay

What is honourable practice in counselling? How is this reflected in the skills, competencies and qualities of an in force(p) counselling?Part AThe aim of this assignment is to taper what ethical practice is in counselling and how tamping push through ethical practices firebrand a more rough-and-ready and competent counselor. The first part explains what is meant by ethical practice. The second part will examine boundaries implemented by exponents to protect both parties. The second part focuses on the skill of auditory sense along with other non particularised factors in order to be an effective counselor-at-law. Next part defines a competent counselling and the problems which occur when this is absent. The final exam part examines the ethical take do of advice and explains the implications of giving advice. Working in a counselling role whether it is voluntary or professional it is most-valuable you bind to the ethics set out. There is a unified ethical command ment set out by the British Association for Counselling and psychotherapy (BACP). The ethical frame ladder in which counselor-at-laws go steady they carry out their roles appropriately along with the understanding that they be held ac expectable with regards to node wellbeing and safety. The BACP is non designed to hinder the counsellor only work alongside their values, morals and principles to protect customers in terms of expectation, rights and bore of cover. command ethical commitments are expressed through their principles. These are fidelity self-sufficiency beneficence non-maleficence justice and self-respect.Personal qualities of a counsellor are authoritative and interlink with values and principles of the counsellor, these consist of empathy sincerity integrity respect resiliency competency wisdom humility and courage. The use of their skills, competencies and qualities combined with their principles should make an effective counsellor. (Langridge, 2008) (BACP, 2013) Boundaries could be defined as a exemplar in which the customer and counsellor work together. It acts as a safety net to ensure that the lymph gland does non come to any harm. This works alongside the ethical practice of non-maleficence. The counsellor makes clear their expectations / limitations so its visible to the node and too helps overturn malpractice. These boundaries to a fault help ensure the thickening / counsellor is kept safe. An example of these metaphorical boundaries would be a verbal symmetricalness as it sets out the keyfeatures and identifies what postulate to be done to avoid misunderstandings. (Langridge,2008). The qualities needed from the counsellor to implement this would be sincerity and integrity. The sincerity to be consistent by doing what you said you were going to do. Integrity here erect be collarn as moral, straightforward and honest in stating your limitations and drawing up an agreement (BACP 2013). These boundaries are set out in a sort to suit each counsellor few are fixed and some more flexible, some may argue that this derriere be damaging to the relationship if they are over or under boundaried (mcleod, p.229)An example of boundaries is sh witness in the DVD (OU, 2008, section 4) where Helen (counsellor) is talking to James she clearly sets out boundaries stating she was not qualified but could help in a listening readiness (a skill which is truly important) and also that the conversation was confidential this ensured the knobs well-being and also covered the counsellor from any ethical backlash i.e malpractice. Jamie understood this and act the conversation. Counsellors use non-specific factors when engaging with clients. A vital skill involves actively listening, this requires the counsellor to absorb all in urinateation given to them by the client without pre assessment or imposing accept ideas (this can be seen in frantic and mental safety). This demonstrates to client that you think they are real important and you care (Langridge, 2008). it is also important to pay attention to the non-verbal cues as well such as body language, eye contact (although can make client feel uncomfortable) and head movement. (Langridge, 2008). It can also be said it is very important in the therapeutic relationship to pay attention to what is not being said also. Rennie (1994b, citied by McLeod) found that if the client felt misunderstood they would conceal their feelings. Some may talk openly about the important thing whilst covering up what is really happening. Therefore the counsellor needs to gain as much access as possible into inscrutable material. The ethical way to do this would be to examine notes that search at inner experiences as well as what was said. Both experiences of the client and counsellor can be examined. This can be useful in training and well as looking at cause techniques and re-examining them when richly qualified. P252.Also using open questions could dra w out fuller responses from client and enable thecounsellor to access more information into the complex issue surrounding client. Interpersonal skills needed by the counsellor are listening, empathy, awareness, confabulation and responsiveness. This will enable a good therapeutic relationship to form which is key to ensuring goals are met on both parts. Bordins Therapeutic concretion model (1979, cited by McLeod) highlights the notion of these competencies along with the ability to use specific techniques in an appropriate manner. Empathy is an important quality identified as an ethical component and should be adhered to in order to become an effective counsellor. In the DVD (ou, section 1, 2008) there is clear evidence of the counsellor actively listening to client. She uses staple fibre counselling skills such as clarification to strike out her understanding of the problem (awareness) and see the problem through the clients world (empathy). She also uses open questions to iden tify the areas in which the client can reflect and understand her own problem (responsiveness & communication) and in turn she has authorise the client by not imposing judgement but by demonstrating that the most important skill a counsellor has is listening to the client. In contrast in DVD (OU, 2008, section 5 get dressed 1) we see the counsellor not listening to what the client said and made the client feel unimportant. In turn this heightened their anxiety and left them no besides forward to fixing a solution. This demonstrates lack of empathy and justice on the counsellors part which are highlighted by the BACP to ensure clients well-being.The ethical quality of competence works alongside what BACP determine Beneficence, to work within own competence using research and reflection to inform practice. This entails the willingness to pursue noesis and understanding in order to develop skills further but also have a good set of skills to do the job already. To highlight what i ncompetence can do DVD (OU, 2008, section 5clip3) shows counsellor is out of her depth and could not give client a straight process or any kind of guidance. Although ethically restrained to give advice the counsellor should have guided client through their feeling using basic counselling skills. However client left upset, confused and blaming herself for the issues she had. Personal qualities are lacking in order to make the counsellor effective. A counsellor is ethically bound not to give advice necessarily to the client but more to use the skills of encouragement and support to guide the client to find their own solutions to their problemsand for the client to become self-determining. Should the counsellor simply give advice on issues with the client they may simply be pressing upon the client their own views and beliefs rather than following the ethical framework that effective counsellors adhere to. (Landridge,2008). sometimes the client expects the counsellor to tell them the answers to their problems and is disappointed when the counsellor is unable to do so.However the counsellor needs to use qualities such as resilience, competence and wisdom in order to work with the client in these situations. (McLeod, 2008 p.259). In contrast to the ethical principle of advice the DVD (OU, 2008, section 5 clip 2) where the counsellor is trying to solve practical problems of the client (the light bulb) rather of addressing emotional issues to do with her mother. She should not have been trying to give advice as this is unethical but instead allow her client to reach her own solution and explore her feelings toward her mother deeper. The support here was clearly not given. Instead the counsellor should have used her skills of listening, open questions and paraphrasing to guide client toward exploring her feelings. Competence and wisdom were clearly lacking making a very ineffective counsellor and potentially damaging the relationship. To surmise the ethical framewo rk ensures the client and the counsellor are protected. Counselling skills are essential in order for any counselling relationship. Use of basic skills should enable the counsellor to be more effective in succeeding. However this assignment has highlighted what happens when basic skills are lacking. Possession of counselling qualities as mentioned at the start should enable client to strike up a good relationship with the counsellor. This is pivotal in order for counselling to be successful. Therefore the skills, competencies and qualities combined should make counselling more successful for the client and the counsellor more effective. (Word count 1474)