Counselors Case

Becoming a Licensed Personal Counselor requires all counselors to be able to assists all clients from diverse backgrounds. Everyone has a culture identity, but "counselors who provide services to clients who are culturally different from themselves, when counselors are not competent to work effectively with such clients, [they] risk[s] engaging in unethical conduct" (Herlihy & Remley, 2010, p. 57), it is the responsibility of all licensed professional counselors to protect their client from any possible harm. Therefore, multicultural competence can be an ethical issue as it relates to professional standards regarding competence to practice, as stated by Herlihy and Remley (2010) "the primary ethical issue that relates to multicultural counseling is competence" (p. 59).

As we are all human we are all engrained with certain morals and values in which we have either adopted by society or throughout being raised from our parents. Understanding that we all belong to a certain cultures, races, ethnicities and social classes is the first step to understanding our own biases. Working within a mental health field, we will more than likely encounter all types of people from different cultures, social class statuses, ethnicities and races, we as professional must know how to relate and be competent with helping these individuals reach autonomy. Counselors have to learn to not be a "culturally encapsulated counselor" (Herlihy & Remley, 2010, p. 58) and not see things from our own preconceived notions but through the eyes of the individual. In chapter one of Herlihy and Remley (2010) they stated it concisely that "one of the hardest lessons for counselors must learn is to respect values that are different from their own and to avoid imposing their own personal values on their clients" (p. 23). One of the hardest things for humans to do when dealing with any situation is to not think about their personal opinions but put themselves in the other person's shoes. "Culturally encapsulated counselors" only see things through their point of view which is an ethical issue when being a professional, I have noticed this through the biases that I have read throughout the Discussion Forum Posts how some of my classmates have had or do have some biases towards working with sexual offenders, homosexual and etcetera. The American Counseling Association (ACA) states that Licensed Professional Counselors "do not condone or engage in discrimination based on age, culture, disability, ethnicity, race, religion/spirituality, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status/partnership, language preference socioeconomic status or any basis proscribed by law" (Standard C.5).

Working with a client to help the client become successful in practicing self-autonomy requires that counselors be competent in multicultural societies to ensure that no client is harmed (Herlihy & Remley, 2010, p. 73). There are three goals of ethical multicultural practice, which are explained through self-awareness, knowledge and skills (Herlihy & Remley, 2010, p. 68-71).