An Ethical Aspect of Multicultural Practice

The word “values” appears 12 times in the ACA Code of Ethics (2005) and “belief” appears twice. I believe values/beliefs pay a more crucial role than ACA and/or Universities give credit or time to. Furthermore, not only due cultures vary in beliefs but so do subcultures nationally, regionally, communities, and families. Afterall, as a client seeks counseling they are seeking the values of the Counselor under the assumption that the Counselor’s values are beneficial to healthy functioning. Unfortunately, at least in my opinion, too often the Counselor does not even disclose their World View to the client, leaving the client unaware and an unsuspecting “victim” in the process.

The first issue and probably the most discussed is one of exposing versus imposing. While most standards agree that it is appropriate to disclose values but not impose values, this may be an incomplete evaluation. First, many Counselors do not even go so far as to expose their values, leaving the client as an unsuspecting bystander of the biases of the Counselor. My Informed Consent documents states, “Christian Counseling is a unique service in that the values of the Counselor are revealed at the forefront.” This is not a statement of imposition but, rather, one of exposing my World View.

Second, some Counselors believe that by informing the client of their theoretical perspective they are informing the client of the values of the Counselor. Do Counselors really believe that clients understand the assumptions, biases, and weaknesses of a theoretical approach such as CBT? The second issue is one of imposing values. This is has been an oversimplified issue and “rule out”. At initial evaluation it appears to be a good idea to make sure that Counselors do not impose their values. However, is not the essence of counseling one of imposing values? After all, the Counselor is asked to help the client improve their life. If the client did not believe that the Counselor had some values that were beneficial to leading a healthy life they would not seek counseling in the first place.

The primary concern, then, becomes one of educating the client. The client needs to understand the World View of the Counselor. The education of the client needs to go well beyond identifying religious or spiritual values but, in my opinion, should include theoretical values explained in a manner that the client can understand.

The second is the inherent simplification of the issue of imposing values. If in fact, counseling by nature is a process of imposing values, then how is this controlled in such a manner as to protect the welfare of the client? Furthermore, as managed care and even legislation of federal/state programs move towards “evidenced based practices”, each of these researched practices is inherently based on a set of values and assumptions.

A final concern is the philosophical and practical debate regarding the differentiation between an “absolutist” World View and a “relativistic” World View. This issue creates an enormous bias in the approach and even in the implementation of the theory utilized by the Counselor. My bias is toward an absolute value system because to do otherwise would negate the use of any particular theoretical approach since the utilization would be subject to a variety of factors and therefore be impossible to evaluate (among other things, such as religious beliefs).

(This is a shortened version of a paper I submitted for class).