10-20 page Career Assessment Paper

A code of ethics is important because it clearly lays out the rules for behavior and provides the groundwork for a preemptive warning. Regardless of size, businesses count on their management staff to set a standard of ethical conduct for other employees to follow.

2.       Advocacy has been included in the 2005 code of ethics? Is this needed?  Why? Give several examples of times when career counselors in various settings might need to become advocates?

Advocating for your client is extremely important. In a lot of situations, you are the only person that they have to speak up and fight for them, as they may not be able to do it themselves. An example where this would be a case that was in Maryland. There was a mother, struggling to survive and only living from each paycheck and couldn’t afford health insurance and she couldn’t take her child to the dentist. Tragically, the tooth became infected, spread to the child’s brain and he died. In this situation, the counselor could help the mother find a better job, get her into a program to gain skills for a better job, and lastly, the local dept of human resources building could be contacted, to see what type of benefits the mother would be eligible for.

3.       How could a career counselor do harm to his/her clients?

Boundaries are extremely important in a counseling session. Setting boundaries and limits in therapy sessions represents an ethical decision that is set by each counselor, when entering a therapeutic relationship. Physical contact with the client and self-disclosure to the client is not illegal; however, as self-disclosure is a form of boundary that is within the therapist’s theoretical approach and the touch is client’s verbally expressed need, both have to be monitored as they could be misinterpreted by the client. If the need for touch is not verbalized by the client, therapist should not assume that that what the client needs as the whole processed could be damaged. The use or lack of the use of touch and self-disclosure could be crucial in the therapeutic process. The therapists need to be aware of when and if it is appropriate to touch the client and self-disclose some of personal experiences to them; and always keep in mind of a big possibility of misinterpretation.

4        What aspects of career counseling practice might, if not properly done, result in a liability suit?