Section C Professional Responsibility

Introduction

• Counselors aspire to open, honest,and accurate communication in dealing with the public and other professionals. They practice in a nondiscriminatory manner within the boundaries of professional and personal competence and have a responsibility to abide by the ACA Code of Ethics.
• Counselors actively participate in local, state, and national associations that foster the development and improvement of counseling.
• Counselors advocate to promote change at the individual, group, institutional, and societal levels that improve the quality of life for individuals and groups and remove potential barriers to the provision or access of appropriate services being offered.
• Counselors have a responsibility to the public to engage in counseling practices that are based on rigorous research methodologies. In addition, counselors engage in self-care activities to maintain and promote their emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual well-being to best meet their professional responsibilities

 Counselors have a responsibility to read, understand, and follow the ACA Code of Ethics and adhere to applicable laws and regulations

C.2.a. Boundaries of Competence

• 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.
• Counselors gain knowledge, personal awareness, sensitivity, and skills pertinent to working with a diverse client population. (See A.9.b., C.4.e., E.2., F.2.,F.11.b.)

C.2.b. New Specialty Areas of Practice

• Counselors practice in specialty areas new to them only after appropriate education, training, and supervised experience. While developing skills in new specialty areas, counselors take steps to ensure the competence of their work and to protect others from possible harm. (See F.6.f.)

C.2.c. Qualified for Employment

• Counselors accept employment only for positions for which they are qualified by education, training, supervised experience, state and national professional credentials, and appropriate professional experience.
• Counselors hire for professional counseling positions only individuals who are qualified and competent for those positions.

C.2.d. Monitor Effectiveness

• Counselors continually monitor their effectiveness as professionals and take steps to improve when necessary.
• Counselors in private practice take reasonable steps to seek peer supervision as needed to evaluate their efficacy as counselors.

C.2.e. Consultation on Ethical Obligations

• Counselors take reasonable steps to consult with other counselors or related professionals when they have questions regarding their ethical obligations or professional practice.

C.2.f. Continuing Education

• Counselors recognize the need for continuing education to acquire and maintain a reasonable level of awareness of current scientific and professional information in their fields of activity.
• They take steps to maintain competence in the skills they use, are open to new procedures, and keep current with the diverse populations and specific populations with whom they work.

C.2.g. Impairment

• Counselors are alert to the signs of impairment from their own physical, mental, or emotional problems and refrain from offering or providing professional services when such impairment is likely to harm a client or others.
• They seek assistance for problems that reach the level of professional impairment, and, if necessary, they limit, suspend, or terminate their professional responsibilities until such time it is determined that they may safely resume their work.
• Counselors assist colleagues or supervisors in recognizing their own professional impairment and provide consultation and assistance when warranted with colleagues or supervisors showing signs of impairment and intervene as appropriate to prevent imminent harm to clients. (See A.11.b., F.8.b.)

C.2.h. Counselor Incapacitation or Termination of Practice

• When counselors leave a practice, they follow a prepared plan fortransfer of clients and files.
• Counselors prepare and disseminate to an identified colleague or “records custodian” a plan for the transfer of clients and files in the case of their incapacitation, death, or termination of practice.

C.3. Advertising and Soliciting Clients

C.3.a. Accurate Advertising

• When advertising or otherwise representing their services to the public, counselors identify their credentials in an accurate manner that is not false, misleading, deceptive, or fraudulent.

C.3.b. Testimonials

• Counselors who use testimonials do not solicit them from current clients nor former clients nor any other persons who may be vulnerable to undue influence.

C.3. Advertising and Soliciting Clients

C.3.c. Statements by Others

• Counselors make reasonable efforts to ensure that statements made by others about them or the profession of counseling are accurate.

C.3.d. Recruiting Through Employment

• Counselors do not use their places of employment or institutional affiliation to recruit or gain clients, supervisees, or consultees for their private practices.

C.3. Advertising and Soliciting Clients

C.3.e. Products and Training Advertisements

• Counselors who develop products related to their profession or conduct workshops or training events ensure that the advertisements concerning these products or events are accurate and disclose adequate information for consumers to make informed choices. (See C.6.d.)

C.3.f. Promoting to Those Served

• Counselors do not use counseling, teaching, training, or supervisory relationships to promote their products or training events in a manner that is deceptive or would exert undue influence on individuals who may be vulnerable. However, counselor educators may adopt textbooks they have authored for instructional purposes.

C.4.a. Accurate Representation

• Counselors claim or imply only professional qualifications actually completed and correct any known misrepresentations of their qualifications by others.
• Counselors truthfully represent the qualifications of their professional colleagues.
• Counselors clearly distinguish between paid and volunteer work experience and accurately describe their continuing education and specialized training.See C.2.a

C.4.b. Credentials

• Counselors claim only licenses or certifications that are current and in good standing.

C.4.c. Educational Degrees

• Counselors clearly differentiate between earned and honorary degrees.

C.4.d. Implying Doctoral-Level Competence

• Counselors clearly state their highest earned degree in counseling or closely related field. Counselors do not imply doctoral-level competence when only possessing a master’s degree in counseling or a related field by referring to themselves as “Dr.” in a counseling context when their doctorate is not in counseling or related field.

C.4.e. Program Accreditation Status

• Counselors clearly state the accreditation status of their degree programs at the time the degree was earned.

C.4.f. Professional Membership

• Counselors clearly differentiate between current, active memberships and former memberships in associations. Members of the American Counseling Association must clearly differentiate between professional membership, which implies the possession of at least a master’s degree in counseling, and regular membership, which is open to individuals whose interests and activities are consistent with those of ACA but are not qualified for professional membership.

• 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.
• Counselors do not discriminate against clients, students, employees, supervisees, or research participants in a manner that has a negative impact on these persons.

C.6.a. Sexual Harassment

• Counselors do not engage in or condone sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is defined as sexual solicitation, physical advances, or verbal or nonverbal conduct that is sexual in nature, that occurs in connection with professional activities or roles,and that either

1. is unwelcome, is offensive, or creates a hostile workplace or learning environment, and counselors know or are told this; or

2. is sufficiently severe or intense to be perceived as harassment to a reasonable person in the contextin which the behavior occurred.

• Sexual harassment can consist of a single intense or severe act or multiple persistent or pervasive acts.

C.6.b. Reports to Third Parties

Counselors are accurate, honest, and objective in reporting their professional activities and judgments to appropriate third parties, including courts, health insurance companies,those who are the recipients of evaluation reports, and others.

See B.3., E.4.)

C.6.c. Media Presentations

When counselors provide advice or comment by means of public lectures, demonstrations, radio or television programs, prerecorded tapes, technology-based applications, printed articles, mailed material, or other media, they take reasonable precautions to ensure that

1. the statements are based on appropriate professional clg literature and practice,

2. the statements are otherwise consistent with the ACA Code of Ethics, and

3. the recipients of the information are not encouraged to infer that a professional counseling relationship has been established.

C.6.d. Exploitation of Others

• Counselors do not exploit others in their professional relationships. (See C.3.e.)

C.6.e. Scientific Bases for Treatment Modalities

• Counselors use techniques/ procedures/modalities that are grounded in theory and/or have an empirical or scientific foundation.
• Counselors who do not must define the techniques/procedures as “unproven” or “developing” and explain the potential risks and ethical considerations of using such techniques/procedures and take steps to protect clients from possible harm. (See A.4.a., E.5.c., E.5.d.)

C.7. Responsibility to Other Professionals

C.7.a. Personal Public Statements

• When making personal statements in a public context, counselors clarify that they are speaking from their personal perspectives and that they are not speaking on behalf of allcounselors or the profession.