Walden University
COUN-6360 Assessment in Counseling and Education
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, Ethical, Legal, and Professional Standards in Assessment
When discussing the counseling field, there are always ethical and legal considerations,
especially surrounding assessments. As counselors, we must always remain mindful and police
ourselves. We must maintain the highest ethical and legal standards possible to provide the client
with the most professional services possible. This paper will be evaluating the ethical standards
of two scenarios as defined by Neukrug and Fawcett (2015) using the Corey, Corey, Corey, and
Callanan Ethical Decision-Making Model.
Scenario One
The situation that I chose to evaluate first is Situation One. A graduate-level mental
health professional provides interest inventories while counseling clients on career issues without
specific career development training (Neukrug & Fawcett, 2015). This clinician is performing
services outside her scope of practice; this puts the therapeutic alliance at risk by performing
services she is not trained to perform. The therapeutic relationship is based on a trusting rapport,
and this action violates that trust and runs the risk of providing the client with misinformation.
Several ethical problems in this situation violate the ACA Code of Ethics. According to the
American Counseling Association (aca) (2014) in section A.11.a, it states a counselor must avoid
sustaining counseling engagement if they cannot provide professional support; Section C.2.a
states counselors practice only within the boundaries of their competence, based on their
education, training, supervised experience, state and national professional credentials, and
appropriate professional experience; Section E.2.a Limits of Competence states counselors
should only utilize testing and assessment services for which they have received training and
certification. (American Counseling Association (aca), 2014)
13:22:07 GMT -05:00
COUN-6360 Assessment in Counseling and Education
13:22:07 GMT -05:00
, Ethical, Legal, and Professional Standards in Assessment
When discussing the counseling field, there are always ethical and legal considerations,
especially surrounding assessments. As counselors, we must always remain mindful and police
ourselves. We must maintain the highest ethical and legal standards possible to provide the client
with the most professional services possible. This paper will be evaluating the ethical standards
of two scenarios as defined by Neukrug and Fawcett (2015) using the Corey, Corey, Corey, and
Callanan Ethical Decision-Making Model.
Scenario One
The situation that I chose to evaluate first is Situation One. A graduate-level mental
health professional provides interest inventories while counseling clients on career issues without
specific career development training (Neukrug & Fawcett, 2015). This clinician is performing
services outside her scope of practice; this puts the therapeutic alliance at risk by performing
services she is not trained to perform. The therapeutic relationship is based on a trusting rapport,
and this action violates that trust and runs the risk of providing the client with misinformation.
Several ethical problems in this situation violate the ACA Code of Ethics. According to the
American Counseling Association (aca) (2014) in section A.11.a, it states a counselor must avoid
sustaining counseling engagement if they cannot provide professional support; Section C.2.a
states counselors practice only within the boundaries of their competence, based on their
education, training, supervised experience, state and national professional credentials, and
appropriate professional experience; Section E.2.a Limits of Competence states counselors
should only utilize testing and assessment services for which they have received training and
certification. (American Counseling Association (aca), 2014)
13:22:07 GMT -05:00
