Mark Code of Ethics Made Easy

Mark code of ethics

hello in this video we're gonna be looking at the part 1 of an introduction to 2014 ACA Code of Ethics in this first part of this video we want to talk about just what the purpose of ethics are and discuss that a little bit and the second part of this video on getting to more the specific parts of the ACA code of ethics and discuss what that looks like for us as we look at practicing counseling so one of the first questions that we want to ask ourselves is is what is professional advocacy and this for question becomes really important because of one part of our job as therapists is to make sure that as we are working with clients and we're seeing them in those counseling settings so we don't forget the work they're not only to provide counseling for them but we're also there to provide advocacy for them and so we need to be able to get a better picture what professional advocacy it looks like and then how do we enact that and as a part of our code of ethics and as a part of our prep our practice as counselors so when we think about professional advocacy there's four things I want you to be kind of focusing on and then you're thinking about as we go through this presentation first of all is what's so good about counseling for the individual I think this is an important question to all of us that need to do to kind of struggle with a little bit is what why would someone want to come in and get counseling in the first place how do they benefit from that and if we can't really think of any reasons why they would benefit from coming into counseling then the question then becomes why are we in this field in the first place so I think that's a good question for us to start looking at and to begin this process with it's what is so good about counseling that people come in and pay a professional to talk to them but the things are going on in their life so we want to think about that in this innocent this whole lens of professional advocacy the second thing one think about is how does society benefit from counseling so we looked at though we took we think about how does the individuals look at it or in benefit from it but does society get better because of counseling in general and if or if the society does not change or decide society's like better because account same then once again it goes back to that thought process of what in the world am i doing why am i in counseling or wise counseling important but feel to be involved in so it's important for us to make sure that something we're doing a therapist it's not only a benefit an individual at that individual level but also the societal level that we are there to advocate and to make sure great things come about in society based on we're doing inside that room so it happens inside that room but advocacy happens outside the room as well so all work is not just on the individual level third thing is what can we do to advocate for the counseling profession and so when we think about the profession in general and once again connecting us back to the ACA code of ethics how do we advocate for our profession then when we look at the counseling profession and we compare it to psychologists or to sociologists or we compare to social workers or whatever the case may be these other professions or that are similar in nature to what we do but not exactly the same we want to look and see how do we advocate for the profession and itself that it when it can whether it comes to benefits and reimbursements from Medicare and everything is that nature how do we begin to come be a part of the advocacy process so that a counseling profession itself doesn't get left behind other professions so you want to think about that as well and also then what can we do to promote advocacy for our clients we may be working with certain specific populations in counseling and so because of that certain populations may have a special needs so that they need to be addressed and as counselors we can do some things to promote advocacy for them so as we begin looking at professional advocacy we don't want us to once again get our mindset out and away from just thinking about the counseling office itself and not just at the individual not that that's not important we won't look at that individual level look at the societal benefits from this and also that profession as a whole how does the profession a growth company counseling that we provide and our involvement in a professional advocacy so when we think about ethics and as we try to go by defining ethics specifically and for us look at the ACA Code of Ethics what what the Code of Ethics basically is for us is something that is a written down so we are able to go to this we're able to search through these codes of ethics and be able to see what is going on as a part of this whole process and so we were able to to see it all right now so it's not thinking with it guess what the code of ethics says we have a written down for us and we're able to go to a website and read it or download it whatever the case may be but it's written now so we can benefit from it in that way so we have this was written out piece or just written out in document and it's agreed upon by the profession and I think we reason why that's important when as we as we look at the code of ethics in our in our second video specifically the things that we'll be talking about in though in that video it's gonna show you things that that counselors have come together and said these are things we find important this is the basic things we need to know in order to be able to practice in our field so it's not just one person who is making these decisions on this this is something that is agreed upon by the profession so I think that's a super important part to think about also not only this is agreed upon about profession is something that is enforceable one of the things that I'm pretty excited about is I just started my three-year term on the ACA code of ethics committee in Sonoma and I'm on the card the ethics committee I'll be a part of enforcing the code of ethics on at the national level and hopefully be a part of the rewriting of the code at some point down the road and so whenever we do break the code of ethics we have to have a group who goes about and enforces that and so that can happen at the state level it can also happen at the national level but it is something that is enforceable also it's distinct to the profession so when we look at social workers social workers have their specific code of ethics when we look at teachers they have their specific code about when the counselors we have our specific code of ethics so whatever profession you are part of you have a code of ethics that you always go back to because there's distinct to your profession so for me as a counselor I can't hold a social worker to the same ethics because their ethics may look different from mine same thing for me before a psychologist or psychiatrist or whoever case may be I'd look at the weak weak I hold only counselors to that standard of the I am practicing by because we're practicing by the same code of ethics and even though it may be similar to other codes I want to be specific about holding people accountable to the codes that they are connected to so it is distinct by profession also a code of ethics is something that is evolving the code of ethics is something that whereas it's constantly being produced and I think the interesting part about it is like the last time so there was a 2005 code of ethics we'll think about that but when in the 2005 code of ethics came out it probably took three or four years in order to be able to write that it's about time 2005 code ethics came out there may have been parts of it that may have already been out of date based on certain things and so because of that when they came out the 2014 code of ethics they try and made it an update from 2005 but once again is something that evolves one thing the part that process is technology which we'll talk a lot more about in a second video that from 2005 2014 technology and counseling the extent expended so much and so because of that the code had to expand and had to a ball and so the code of ethics is not something that is static it is changing sometimes even on a daily basis that the processes are coming up about and so we want to look at that the fact is something is always changing and also that the coda method is not persecutors prescriptive and so there's there are are obviously are certain things we can go when we look at say hey there's pretty black and white but the code is saying but sometimes there are some gray areas in the code we want to be a word up and be able to know how do we go about making the decision based on that code so the code becomes more like a god book then turn-by-turn directions and so it kind of gives give us a bigger picture perspective of what we need to be looking for but it's impossible for the code of ethics Ingle thing and so it's important for us to look at it once there's a guidebook versus being a step-by-step directions so when we think about the definition of my query Cory and Cory they define epics this way it says these are beliefs we hold about what consumer constitutes right conduct and I think that's important for us to think about that and so this is the police we as the counseling profession we look at these the right way to come to act these are things that we do so the code looks at actions it looks at our intent as well as we as we are working with people and those two things are extremely important intent and action as you go about trying to interpret the code of ethics and so as we do continue this topic and look at the Code of Ethics important for us to make sure that we realize these are based on our counseling beliefs these will our beliefs change into what we say this is what someone should do in this situation and so once again it can't cover every situation that's out there but it does begin the whole process for us at least to be able to see here is the right way to act in these certain situations to give us a guideline to do what we should do you know when when those situations come about so when you when you think about the code a little bit more more questions of our mind kind of come up first of all you know the question come did you become a counsel to follow a code of ethics and I will probably say no I've never heard anyone come in and say hey the reason why I like to be therapy so much is because I die I want to follow a code of ethics I don't think is any more you get into the field now don't get me wrong I love ethics ethics is a really big part of what I teach ethics is really a big part of what I do every single day and I love talking about ethical situations so for me that's an exciting thing it's not for everybody but you know I'm just strange that way but this is but even for it much excitement is our brain said hable when it comes to ethics this is not something this is not the reason why I became a counselor and so it's important for us to look at it and to realize that many of us didn't get in to cut into counseling because we were looking for a code of ethics also what our counselors not allowed to do and knows are put allowed now once again this code of ethics is not gonna be specific about every single things or every situation because reality is everyone will be in situations with things change and some things with the situation that happen to me may happen to you a little bit different in your context and maybe handle different but we still use these ethical guidelines to help me know what I should be doing or what I'm allowed well well I'm not allowed to do in those situations so we have to be have an end on mind as we look at the code it's it does help us see some things were not allowed if they leave our actions or kind of we should not be a participating in but also helps us to see what we should be doing as counselors and well we'll talk more about that in the second video but some things we should be doing as counselors and this and this code gives us that that framework to begin thinking about how to approach this this whole process of counseling so that's why the reason why I think that this code of ethics is it's important for all of us so when we think about some of the themes that you'll find in professional codes and specifically the ACA as we're talking about it's gonna look at the welfare of the consumers at the end today the our code of ethics the main thing is looking out for is making sure our clients are being taken care of and that is important because if we are not taking care of our clients being our clients won't come in so we're breaking Hinde confidences or we're doing other things the code says we should not be doing we've cut with clients then once again the welfare of the consumers or it is not being taken into thought and then those people will end up going away and now working for us or working with us and so that were the welfare of the consumer is it because when the top priority that you see that's laid out in the coda Dick's also talks about us practicing with competence and they think this isn't it's really important concept to think about we think about confidence is that the code is basically saying to us that when you do something in the counseling room or when you do something outside the counseling room as it may be is it there's a someone who teaches counseling make sure that I had the right type of training to be able to do what I am doing now in the reality is there gonna be some certain things that are new to you whenever you begin to practice counseling and there's no that's just expected but there are certain things and when it comes to competence day if I don't know anything about it if I've only maybe I've seen some videos about certain therapeutic approach or something like that or maybe I'm going to maybe over an hour long training or anything like something like that that doesn't mean I have competence that just means I have a base technology of it confidence means that I am able to speak intelligent ly about how this works I know the best practices of that prayer of that approach that I'm taking I know how to use it in the right way and so the coach is gonna talk about you practicing with confidence another thing we need to think about is doing no harm this is that's very I think is one other things you see it and just about every code of ethics then whenever we've approached the code of ethics we don't want to harm anyone and so whether that comes to research whether this comes to counseling whether it comes to referring clients or applying abandonment where the case may be we want to make sure we're doing no harm for our clients nothing that becomes a very important thing and very important piece what we're doing as we work in the counseling profession also confidentiality and privacy this is the bedrock of our counseling field that when someone comes to my office they expect I will not be talking to other people about things that they are that they have shared with me in this counsel in the counseling session and so I'm important it so that confidentiality becomes the vitally important for me to make sure I keep that and not such as a privacy in nature of what they do and where the things that are the in a relationship that we have and so there's no confidentiality and prophecy come those two terms come on quite a bit as we talk about the code because it's important for people to feel like they are coming to talk about the things are dealing with in a safe space and they don't feel like work that they can come and talk to you and things are telling you it's gonna be held in a safe manner then you will not be able to keep clients long at all so a confidentiality and privacy becomes important also we're just acting ethically and responsibly so remember we just goes back one thing about how we do things see the action so acting ethically so doing the right or doing the right thing but also doing it responsibly and so that puts that that weight on our shoulders and making sure that we have a great understanding of our code and so now I've looked at it and I have a great understanding and depth of what is expected of me in the counseling profession so my hope and my goal for you is not for you to just read the code one time and say okay I've got it down become intimate with the code read it on a regular basis know what's expected of you getting into groups with people sometimes and talk about these codes because of it it's important for you know how do you enact the code when it comes to you getting when you're dealing with clients because one thing I see the most I think often happens with new clinicians and even when conditions have been to feel for a long time is that they end up losing their license or they end up finding themselves with that sanctions put against them because they're just not acting ethically and responsibly anything about it it's not like it's up a code that is look like something that's hidden away deep in the code these are things that people don't already it is choose to ignore because it's easy to ignore things so acting ethically and responsibly also to avoid exploitation that we don't want to exploit our clients when they come in so we want to make sure we're mindful of that as well and also having an aspirational practice and we're talking a few minutes about with that what it was exactly what does that mean we practice aspirationally but these are some of the themes of professional codes that you will see in general but specifically what they see a code of ethics so once again they see a code is a good Travel Guide for you so it can't tell you what to do in every single situation it's just there's just not enough room for that to happen sometimes I even see different codes where they actually get shorter as time goes along because it gets to it looks that general idea ideas instead of trying to be super specific because I can't tell you everything you do in every situation and also it's kind of silly this whole travel guide the thought process reading it it's not the same thing is taking the trip you can read the code of ethics every single day but if you don't actually practice it if you don't try to put it into action with the clients you're working with or what the students you're working with that becomes a problem so reading is not enough we got to put it into practice so we know what it is expected of us also it still requires you to make some decisions and choices and so what your heroes use this term called ethical decision-making models and we have a video about that a little later on as well it's important for us understand that this requires you to you guys to mix into decisions even though you may look at the code and look at section aid to beef a Tutsi or something in one case maybe and you may read it and maybe it may say something very specific you still have some decision to choose you to make even after you've read this code and the thing about this code it may sometimes contradict other good travel guides because there are other codes of ethics that are out there so for example if you are a counselor you know there are certain others in BCC which is just national border certified counselors they have their own code of ethics and there may be some things that and actually actually for a fact I know there's some things that are conflict a little bit what but the ACA code of ethics or if you think about American mental health counseling Association once again is another counseling group they have their code of ethics and sometimes these coasts don't always mesh up exactly right and they may contract other that contradict other good travel guys or so it's important for us to be aware well aware of the update codes of ethics that we are putting ourself under so for me as a national certified counselor I fall under the NBC C code of ethics as a member of the American counseling Association I fall under the ACA code of ethics as well so I have to constantly be making sure I'm going back and forth between these two codes and making some decisions and choices about what you oh how did I fall down how do I make a decision indeed when I look at these two codes also when we look at these codes that we did these codes are always explained all cultural differences so when I read the code it may not fit specifically with a cultural group down working with and so because of that I have to adjust I need to make sure what I'm doing is actually working for the clients that come in contact with me and so it's important for us to realize that these codes of ethics although they are super important some of them aren't necessary speaking directly to cultural differences now there's a section in that it talks about culture in general but it's not but the code cannot explain every cultural difference in there so it's leaving it up to you to pay attention than to just your practice based on a culture of the person in the job that you're working with and also if the code may not be up-to-date with current travel regulations and basically what that means is by the time these codes are written life has already happened life has already changed and so because of that it's important for you to realize that your code could be a little bit outdated and so as you look at like so art the one we currently have was Adam was created in 2014 well it was published in 2014 which means it was probably written between 2011 and 2013 so network in 2020 and so there's a big gap of time and a lot of things have changed since that code has been been written and so it's important for us to realize that there may be some things in our current code or not up-to-date with everything we're doing right now so as a wouldn't us to realize that and to make adjustments and to and to wasn't gonna be flexible and to adjust I asked me see the code may not be up to to where we are with time in her link and Cory and Annette related as they they talk about the code of ethic it says there's two there's three things that they look for one is to educate that the code of ethics helps to teach you about the country or teach you about the group of people you're working with and what to look out for word taken being informed traveler and I like that that metaphor there that it tells you about the landscape you're about to get into you tell you yours the things you should look at look out for so the once again these are necessary rules it says this is what you look out for so when you're in this situation or you're in a similar situation over here this is what should be look out for so you have information on how to be to go through that so that so education becomes a big piece of the code of ethics also does an accountability piece where it helps everyone behave in a way that will maximize the anjuna of the trip and being a good citizen of the world so basically what that does is it helps me to know as a counselor practicing in Arkansas that a counselor who practices in Virginia or practical one who practices in Tennessee or one who practice in Puerto Rico or whatever the case may be these counselors after following the AC a code of ethics we're all behaving in a way that's gonna help this help this journey of being housed or to be enjoyable and helpful for everyone because when someone begins to break the code of ethics even if they're in a different place that puts about the percent black eye on the entire counseling community when that those things happen so it's important for me that we are held accountable and I'm gonna hold accountable those individuals as well but just like I need to be held accountable when it comes to this code of ethics and also this last part is an improvement it's just how do you make the most of your trip how do you grow how do you improve as a therapist and the code of ethics helps you to be able to do that and then usually this piece this picture how do you grow so education accountability and improvement these are part of what the code of ethics does for us so once again as we talk about the the key terms here which we've already talked about at the already if this is our values like this is this is the dista beliefs and there we go Larkin the riot constant the conduct we have our values are a little bit different that's our beliefs and attitudes that would that provide direction to our everyday living now when we talk about values of code which we'll talk about in a second be a lot more but the code base they talk about you that it's not people's values so it's not saying I can't have values as a bit for me as a as individual is important for me to have values I hope everyone has that values and I hope everyone has good beliefs and attitudes because it guides how they act in every single way so with the code base he tells us is you can have your values you can have your beliefs just don't impose those on your clients we want our class be able to have the ability to make their own choices and so we may have people come into contact with us who have a different set of values they may have they may believe things different from us the attitudes may be different from ours but we still want to service them in the right way and so our code will helps us to see that values are important but they are different from our ethics then we also have morality and this is this is more concerned with the right and proper proper conduct and this is an insert value but evaluated by certain religious standards now the reality of it is you're gonna have clients who come in who who do not have any type of faith background and also as a therapist you may not have any type of faith background none of those things are wrong but we do have to understand is but that we all have some type of moral code that we live by regardless of what our beliefs is what regards about value everyone has some type of moral code they live by we all have a certain thing that we think all right and things are good and we also think it are something we should not be involved in and it's base sometimes on culture it can be based on religious views it's based on a lot of different things and so the code is not telling us to check out more roles at the door it's not saying that once again I just just don't need to impose my morals on other people and so let's just say for example it me as a counselor who happens to be Christian if I have someone who comes in who is not a Christian or someone who is it's just from a from a different faith faith background or doesn't have faith background at all the way I look at morality may not be the way they look at morality and that's okay and that connects with my values my beliefs which is fine and they can say their values and their beliefs which are fine but I don't impose what mark was important to me or what our view is being moral I don't impose it on them I don't put I don't place that pressure on them because that's not the place for that and so with just this important for us refer to the realize where we are in life when and when it comes to religion spirituality whatever the case may be and what we are and our values there's nothing wrong with that we just have to make sure we're not in putting that on anybody else because that's not what they're coming into the counseling room with you some other things to think about it it's just community standards or just more raised and these are just standards of living and it can be based on your geographical basis could be by interdisciplinary type of the thing EVs could be theory but basically every community has certain standards of living that we are accustomed to and so because of that those things are important to me and so since I know what those things are and I know that they are important to me I have to once again be careful to make sure I am NOT imposed my mores or my community standards upon someone else and so isn't just important for them to know that one thing people talk about all the time is that regardless of where you are in the world or whatever type of context you're living it there's a certain rules that you have and so I think a lot about the prison system sometime but there are certain rules of life that they have in the prison system there are different for people then who are outside of prison system same thing for military life there are certain community standards that are in the military life they're different for people who living that within that world before and so once again I can't tell someone who's in that military lifestyle or someone who may be in prison whatever the case may be I can't say that the way I live life into my standards are better than yours they're just different and so we allow that so this does this become a multicultural issues within itself also the some will look at being reasonable so there as we look at these codes they try to help us to be able to practice in within our own within our specialty but it but they would be reasonable about what they're the expectation so once again the expectations aren't too high it's not such such a high bar to set that we can't have a reach in so you know there's some reasonableness test is attached to this code also when it comes to virtue this is where we look at moral excellence the goodness and righteousness or to say good and Admiral property so for better term adjust professionalism our code looks at professionalism in general I think this is something every coded I think is gonna have is how do we approach professionalism as we are working with our clients now there's nothing in our code it talks us about that you should be on time to your counseling employment it's your clients you're not gonna find that but that's for bad it's for best being professional you want to be there on time for your sessions and so there's nothing that code event for this says you should not fall asleep when you're talking to a client you're not confined in there that's just a part of professionalism so it's important for us to realize that there is a professionalism piece that is embedded to a certain extent in our code even though it may not spell out certain things for us and then we guys think about laws and these are are the the rules that are set by either your city your state or the federal government and we have to realize that these laws can come in conflict with the code and so we had to make decisions trying to make the best decision possible because there are some times where we may be following our code of ethics but it could be be breaking the law or we could be following the law but it's breaking the code of ethics or so during those time periods to make a decision what's more important is it more important for me to follow my code of ethics was it more important for me to follow the law we have to make a decision on a daily basis so when we think about some of the different levels of ethical practice there's there's a couple kinds of want to talk about one is the what we call mandatory ethics and this is but always to call basically these are the basic nuts and bolts of ethics and these are things that we must do and things we must not do so it's like that it's like the lowest level these are things we just have to do if we're going to practice and so as we go through our code we're going to the things were it's just mandatory it's very very specific about when you're in a situation this is what you must do and so those so what we call those those mandatory ethics there's no way of looking around it so if it tells us something in one section of the code and it's being very specific about it like for example it talks about in the code if you're going to have a relationship with a former client there has to be at least a minimum of five years from from the last contact you have that client before you can have a relationship with them that's not like a when it says it's not saying that's a good idea is saying no that's a mandatory ethic that's something at the minimum you must do it and so those meant energy we're going to see there some may need or mandatory ethics that we had to follow but then we have what we call aspirational ethics and this is where we are looking at what the spirit of what the code is trying to tell us and for and also the principles of the code and we try to be able to look at this part of say what's the highest possible standard I can hold myself when it comes to ethics so for example I'm a it may be a thing were I have a client who has has who would need to be drugged to be transfer to another agency for some reason because I'm able to work with them anymore for an aspirational athlete you know it would talk about making sure that we provide referrals now in a perfect world and from an aspirational ethics point of view I want to have about four or five excellent referrals for this client I want to get them all typed out to them on paper and make sure they know exactly where to go and all these situations and things like that that's aspirationally that's where I want to be but reality may be that may not be able to happen so it may just be a thing whereas account so I'm like you know what there's only one or two people I even know they even deal with this type of counseling that's in this area that takes its clients insurance and so that's all I'm able to do so there may be another therapist in town who aspirationally they may go they may do more in that area than what I've done but it doesn't make one right and one wrong it just means that there is some there are some leeway do we have there when it comes to at what level we do this so we look at these two different things mandatory basically means this is the bare minimum you can do aspirational looks that here's this broad spectrum of things that you can do with that code of ethics when it's not something that it's very very specific so it's important for us to know the difference between those two also there are principled ethics and this is what we have a set of obligations where we're trying to solve a particular dilemma and also establish some type of framework to how to think through it ethically now when we think about principled ethics this comes up quite a bit because for many of us we find ourselves in situations that the code of ethics don't specifically speak to you so we have to go through a Antico decision-making model which will which will talk about later on in another video but as a part of ethical decision-making we had to figure out what are the steps I need to take to make sure I'm doing everything in the ethical way because the code as I speak to this specifically and so my professional principal ethics basically is telling me is I kind of think through this on what is what it is I'm going to do to remedy this the situation because the code is not specific and so I can look at math looking some principles outside of the code to figure out what's the best way for this to to be taken care of and so as important for us look at that the work on found ourselves a modest situation when we're trying to get principal ethics and because of that if we at the moment we look at these chrisboy ethics we have to realize it's a gift for us to get consultation it's good for us to get supervision things that nature so we can make that decision and be able to document this is this is the thought process I went through when I made this decision so I don't just simply make the decision and hope for the best I plan it out I have it a decision-making model that I use and once I had that model used I document this is how I this is why I did the things I did because there may be they said I may look at the way you did it and say hey I wouldn't have done that way but that doesn't make my way better than yours it just means we thought about it from a different way but you still had to justify it and so that's what does that the gist of a principal ethics are are and then virtue ethics this focuses on the character traits of the counselor and their ideal switch the professional aspires you know so for each of us when we look at us we think about am i doing what is best for my client and that's going to look different for every therapist so as we look at our code of ethics once again to me it might give us some bare minimum things it might give us some mandatory things we need to do but as we put it into practice we look we may look and say what am i how do I do this abyss for my client and so me as present as a professional then I need to be able to sit down and think what does it look like for me which could look different for someone else and this is why I talked about beginning how this thing is in flux at all time it changes it's going to look different for everybody when we look at our code of ethics once again some things are gonna be mandatory and other thing it's all going to be aspirational when you find yourself in a situation where it comes down to an aspirational ethic then I got about the virtue ethics begin to kick in so how did this work out for me my doing was best mark what does that look like for me which may look look different for a different therapist so as we look at making some principles to guide our decision-making there's about a few things we need to think about when it's just about autonomy this is where I give my client the ability to to make their own decisions and so this is why I'd always tell clients over and over to what dr. Klass tell students all the time then when it comes down to working with clients I am NOT someone who gives advice and the reason why I don't give advice that first of all is not my job and number two the reason why I don't give a client's advice because I don't want them making a decision based on my viewpoint of it I wanted to make a decision because they feel like this is something was best for them and so if I look I want to get the metonymy I want to give them to give them choice in what they do and then put them to choose their own direction because this counseling is not about me and what I want for the client this is what output the client wants for themselves and we help them and work with them as they choose their own direction then we have non mouthface nah my fees yes I always mess that word up and this a week there's basically avoided doing harm so it means we're gonna stop not doing any actions that's gonna cause any any risk in hurting our clients also we look at beneficence this is what we're trying to actually promote the good for other people and their so we're looking at what can we do to benefit this client so that that's just processes it works out in the best for them also we look at justice and that means that in my counseling sessions am I being fair between my clients about doing certain things with some clients are not doing it for other clients and if I find myself doing that the question then becomes where is the justice why am I not being the same for all of my clients and also when we think about fidelity this is that when I say I'm gonna do something for a client I do it I just recently had a client I was working with and one of the things I thought was a child fine and we were talking about their love of Legos and I don't own any Legos but I want to work with this client and so it's gonna be important for me that when that client comes in for the next session I have Legos whenever we get together and work because I made that promise to this client and so when this client comes in next time if I don't have the Legos our promise that we will have that we can use and and and and put together some things while we're talking and that client will feel devastated probably because I because I didn't have any fidelity because I didn't keep my word and so we have to be people who are trustworthy and it was important for us to remember that and also voracity this is where we look at truthfulness I've never lied to my clients say that one more again more time again not never lied to my clients it's important for us to remember that that this is not something that this is what I'm saying we just that's aligned we don't cross that I don't try to trick them into anything I'm gonna ought to be truthful with them and actually a my informed consent with my clients that's one of the main things I tell them is that there will be some types of things I tell you sometimes that you may not like and it's not because I'm trying to be mean or anything like that the reason I tell you this because I want to be truthful with you it's important for us to better to do that I'm not gonna tell them anything that is misleading because if they coming to this session and they have trust issues already and here the therapist is lying to them then for things like where can I go to find someone who's actually gonna be truthful with me so ferocity fidelity justice beneficence non-maleficence and also autonomy these are just some good more principles to help us to guide us in our decision-making so we see here we have these three things that come into I wouldn't say conflict but three things that overlap with each other and we have our values that we have as therapists and need one thing and these are things we find out important to us individually then we have our ethics which is our roadmap or our overall God to the trip to where it or do with a high then we have our laws which are set up and things that we are held accountable for illegal equalize and also those things overlap with each other but in our society we have our practice and we have to figure out some way of moving this practice into the middle of all those ethics to the laws and values and then do it in such a way in which we don't break these moral principles that we have here so it's important for us to realize this is there this is a fine line we're always walking as therapists because we're trying to make sure that we're balancing ethics and laws and values as we go through the practice of counseling and so as we think about this these areas are specifically ethics and law that our ethical codes are enforced love enforced by the law to some degree that in some states your licensing laws may be backed up by your code of ethics so for example with me living in Arkansas part of the law in Arkansas for counselors is they follow the ACA code of ethics so if I don't follow the ACA code of ethics not only am I breaking the ethical code I'm also breaking laws so those two things at least in the state of event are they overlap with each other but sometimes and so and because they sometimes are the course may look to the coach determine proper conduct and so they may say the clerk could say well you broken a law because you didn't follow your code of ethics that you know that you should be following it so sometimes our ethical can be enforced by the law now at other times where our laws are in our ethics may contradict not find myself in that situation quite a bit in the state in which I practice I say perfect licensed professional counselor I have the ability it happened I had the same legal standing as a lawyer when it comes to the information that my clients tell me so I have what is called privileged communication and that's a legal term so it's different from for this charity confidentiality it has to do more with ethics but privileged communication has to do with the law and so because of that in the state I live in if I get called a court I don't have to talk about the things my client have told me unless I have written permission from them because if I do that I'm actually breaking a law by doing it and so a lot of times lawyers still want me to come to court and talk about it and the reality of this that becomes a continent can become a conflict because they want me to break my name I want me to date too they say well well confidentiality you know that's an ethical thing you can do that but legally I'm bound to certain things so you can find yourself in a situation where your laws and your ethics end up being contradicting with each other also when civil and command Criminal Court that you might be be brought into those situations and once again you have to ask yourself am i following laws here and my phone ethics and do they conflict with each other and so it's important for us to realize is you need to know when to seek legal counsel one of the great things about have been professional liability insurance is they have lawyers that is a part of that process and so you can call on your liability insurance and ask them about the specific question on the legal end and they can help you on that specifically with ACA American counseling Association since they do have an ethics committee other ethics committee members that you can get in contact with and they can talk to you to the ethical piece of that so it's important for you know what the ethical and law pieces are for you in the state that you're practicing and so you're doing things from the ethical perspective but also doing it legally so just a couple of questions for us to consider is this that as you read through the code of ethics we have to start beginning to think about what do I bring to the table as I read the code of ethics part of it is off our personal and professional history now for some of you you have may have been in the mental health field for a long time whether such as abuse field already and so because of that have some idea or what will you have you have a scope of practice in your mind because you've all been doing certain things involved in a counseling related field so because of that your personal professional history that's gonna come into play and how you interpret and you act out the code of ethics also your philosophical assumptions the way you look at life that's gonna affect the way in which you look at the code of ethics also cultural influences so me being an african-american male and they I may look at the code base though I mean look at the code a little bit different than someone else who is a different cultural background and also just my personal values that may that may in turn may be a part of my interpretation that I have as I look at the code of ethics and the point I'm trying to make is this is like it's impossible for all of us that come to the code of ethics and walk away with the exact same thing that's why it's important we where we have consultations and things to discuss and so our personal professional history our philosophical assumptions our cultural influences and our personal values all these things together influence the way that you read and interpret the code of ethics so when it comes to enforcement there's a couple things we think about for for the code of ethics one would reliably become part of professional associations so obviously the American counseling Association is one specifically and they're able to enforce your code of ethics your state licensing board that's possibility where you can actually lose have your license suspended if you're not following the cadet the code there's also private certification boards maybe you are certified in a type of counseling but you're not following the ethic or code for that specific type of counseling and so like a telehealth for example or some or some type of trauma based counselor that you we got training in and if there's a requirement that you have a certain number number continue the kitchen units after you get that certification if you're not doing that they may be to enforce that because you may not be following what the ethics is for that specific the private certification board also graduate programs the employers a the one as as as a counseling professor I realize that as a when we look at our students we look at them from a from a coda or lens from an ethical lens because we want to make sure they're practicing things from away things from an ethical point of view so testing that's important and your employers can do the same thing so your employer's can actually you can be called out by your employers as well for not following a code of ethics or your colleagues your colleagues may see that you're not practicing your code so this is important to realize and we look at this code of ethics it's coming enforced by several different people so we have to be informed about that and so this could be something as it could be a reprimand where it kind of made it may be it may be a thing we'll use giving a warning about it it may be a remediation thing we meant to go back and take some extra classes even after you graduated that may be another way they may be enforced I've seen people where they've been put on probation for a while I've seen people with their license were suspended for a certain time period man to wait you know what maybe up to five years before they were able to reapply for a license and I've seen situation where people have lost their license totally and they'll never be able to get a license back again so it's important for us not I don't say that to scare you I said that they help us to see that our code of ethics is extremely important for us to follow and to listen to because when it comes to enforcement piece of it it can have some long-term consequences if you're not careful with it also when you're handling religious as the religion and spirituality and counseling for some reason for many of us when we think about religion and spirituality we we have this fear word that I can't really bring up and talk about the US religion spirituality as part of the counseling process now the reality is we can wonders actually a per se what is actually a division of the American counseling Association that specifically revolves around religion and spirituality because much when we look at polls majority people in our country have summary that have connect with Lee there's some religion or specifics religion or with some type of spirituality and so because of that it's okay for us to bring these things up in the counseling session and he's okay talk about it but what we're doing is we could we do that because that's important to them we don't do if we don't bring it up so we can impose what we believe on them I mean we're not there to debate them on their beliefs but for us to understand them and so I think we also need to realize we do we don't have to sign your own beliefs whenever you're working with a client we're still have certain beliefs I believe I have a just this thought process that because of my faith because of the way I have been trained because of my spirituality and my religion that I connect to it affects the way I treat my clients and now believe that helps me in in a very positive way so that's so I don't no one has ever ever asking me to disconnect from that piece all they're saying is don't impose that on your clients but it's still the way I look the way I look at spirituality religion it does affect the way I deal with my clients and so I'm proud of that but I had to but once again I had to be careful not to impose without my spiritual reality religion on my client I also just whenever you do involve religion a counseling you know just think of the consider your counseling is a sitting at your end remembering an informed consent talk about those things as well and also when you're at concede Foucault's and licensure laws when it comes to religion and spiritually all those things are important but once again no one's know there's not anyone telling you to check your religion or check your faith to the door all we're saying is make sure that you're not using that as to do harm to your clients when this presentation we basically have gone through looking at just some some some basics that we need to understand when it comes to the ACA Code of Ethics we talked about a different type of ethics that there are out there in the world with this aspiration of ethics or the basic ethics if we need to just kind of get by we talked a little bit about the ethics change over time and that you know when the code is written it may be someone some way outdated a little bit but it's important for us to still say up-to-date with what's going on but also they also talked about a little bit about religion and spirituality how all these things came to play but the whole purpose of this video was to help you to get understanding that ethics are important and once again outlaws for me I'm I get excited about ethics ethics it to me are exciting I love talking about ethics and I realize that's not for everybody but I think one of the things we have to come away with as we as we look at this video is that we have to make sure that ethics are important part of what we do and because of that it helps us to be it helps us to be in a space well we know how to treat people in the right way because they are human and because they deserve that and that we're not going to harm them in the process and this code of ethics gives us a basic overview on how to do that so that's that's the end of this first video part 1 of this ACA code of ethics in the second video on ACA Code of Ethics we're gonna talk give you a more a broader view of the specific codes and kind of talk a little bit about what they mean and how you go about looking at these different parts of the code of ethics