Ethical Issues in Multicultural Counseling

Abstract In the past, counselors have lacked the knowledge and skills to interpret ethical guidelines in multicultural counseling. The ethical guidelines dictate how a counselor should have the necessary tools when conducting a counseling session. There is a shortfall of training and education when dealing with race, ethnicity, and cultural backgrounds in today’s society. Ethics is a hot topic for counselors, partially because there are so many different situations that can be affected by ethical behavior. These situations can range from betraying the clients trust to injustice. There tends to be a lot of ambiguity for how to handle a situation ethically since there are a lot of
Fleischman, Robbins, and Wallace (2011) say that different cultures handle ethical dilemmas differently, and have different ethical touchstones that establish ethical behavior (p. 191). Ethics is a core part of the identity of professionalism, not a list of dos and don’ts to be able to avoid poor practice.
Confidentiality Risks In order to have a counseling session, it is imperative for there to be confidentiality. Good clinical practice and thoughtful ethical judgment often overlap (Gans & Gans, 2008, p. 122). There is an ethical tightrope that needs to be walked in order to make sure that the client’s needs are being met. Confidentiality is essential for the client to feel a sense of safety within the counseling session.

Informed Consent Every form of psychological intervention presents it’s own set of ethical and legal problems and dilemmas (Brabender & Fallon, 2009, p. 127). Informed consent is where you as the counselor, need to acquire permission of the client before having any involvement in a study (Feldman, 2011, p. 38). For those clients under the age of eighteen, their parent or guardian must also provide consent. The use of deception in research must be justified, cause no harm, and the clients privacy must be maintained (Feldman, 2011, p. 38). For example, if the counselor would videotape the session, the client must give their permission for that