Modern Ethical Issues in Counselling

Modern Ethical Issues in Counselling
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Modern Ethical Issues in Counselling
Definition and Description of the Chosen Topic
By the launch of ethic codes by the American Counselling Association, the topic of the emerging ethical concerns in counselling has attained broadened attention, analysis and written literature. This set of ethical guidelines is meant to develop a relationship of trust and reliance between the counsellor and the client and to improve the poise of the field with extended professionalism. However, it exposes the potential ethical dilemmas faced by the counsellors, which can also impact the life of the client. The ethical conflicts are larger in the list than given in this piece of literature. The ethical issues in counselling, which have been attention-grabbing from the past, and have become more arduous in the current age, including the concern of confidentiality, uncertainty while going on with LGBTQs, the potential merging of personal and professional life and professional outlook regarding human rights; analyzing these concerns can improve the approach of a counselor and positively affect the life of the client, with a learning of how to build a welcoming and trustworthy counsellor/client relationship in this field.
Existing Literature
Stoll, with his fellow researchers, has raised the issue of confidentiality as an ethical issue in counseling in 2020. It has become one of the biggest emerging counseling concerns, particularly because we are living in the age of computer technology. Security of private information is essential to build the bond of trust between the counselor and the client. If sometimes, the process needs to record or observe a conversation or information, the client must know it, according to Stoll (2020). Confidentiality is, however, not a new ethical concern in this field. In 1984, Goodyear and Sinnett raised alarms regarding data storage, analysis, processing and sharing through technology. According to them, the advent of computers in the field of counseling has made private information more vulnerable to leakage and misuse. Both scholars presented their worries around confidentiality decades ago when computer technology was in its infancy. In the current age, it has reached its peak, and all professions use tech-based gadgets and the internet to proceed with their clients. Thereby, the risk of security has risen because hackers can steal information from the World Wide Web and use it as they want (Stoll et al. 2020). Although this ethical issue has not to the weekend the tie between the counsellor and the client to a great extent because technology has prevailed in personal life as well, and people consider it convenient to be consulted online; it demands its solution to enable counselors to safeguard themselves and promote trustworthy relationships with clients.
Bhola and Reguram (2016) invite attention to another noteworthy ethical dilemma faced by counsellors, which is their uncertainty when working with queer minority groups like lesbians, Gay, intersex and transgender. Similar types of uncertainty occur when the counselling process the case of relat...