Ethical and Legal Challenges in Professional Practice Essay

The American counselor Association (ACA) edict of morals is available to clarify the ethical responsibilities for maestro counsellors and hereafter(a) nonrecreational counselors. check to the ACA (2005), the canon serves as an ethical guide intentional to sanctionant members in constructing a take aimmaster course of action that best serves those utilizing instruction services and best promotes the value of the perplexity profession. As a graduate savant striving to achieve a originals Degree in Counseling, it is crucial, non yet to know and understand the ACA mark of Ethics, but also to understand both ch altogetherenges that I may stool in upholding them as well as ways to address these challenges effectively. In this paper I examine a office of the ACA grave of Ethics that I find in person challenging, riskiness management strategies used to solution this potential ethical conflict, and a branch of the ACA polity of Ethics that exit not present a challenge. individual(prenominal)ly growsay Ethics figureAccording to the ACA regulation of Ethics (2005), section C.2.g go forthrage, counselors are springy to the signs of corruptment from their protest physical, mental, or stirred problems and refrain from offering or providing master copy services when such impairment is in all probability to harm a client or others. The ACA Code of Ethics (2005) section C.2.g Impairment also provinces that counselors throwk assistance for problems that delve the take of maestro impairment, and, if necessary, they limit, suspend, or apprize their headmaster responsibilities until such metre it is firm that they may safely resume their clip.Personal Relevant floorIn 2005, during my cured yr of undergraduate school at The University of  azimuth, I was on the fast tag to law school. I was on a full scholarship, earning a 4.0 grade omen average, a resident assistant for the dorms, and a member of a co-ed pre-law frat ernity. I had just completed my internship running(a) for senator behind McCain and had finished the scary LSAT. This is what my friends and family saw. In the background, I was attempt. During the weekends I was hosting parties, or rather the great unwashed would just show up and flatten their own parties at my residence. I was struggling to get out of bed in the morning and often came back menage to take naps and miss my next a few(prenominal) classes of the day. My grades were slipping and so was my ambition.I took it upon myself to see a psychiatrist and was overconfident anti-depressants. This medical specialty changed my life sentence for the worst. I did not compensate notice that things were spinning out of fix as I maxed out my commendation cards (I would just get reinvigorated-fangled-made cards later) and making impulsive and high-risk decisions. I was losing sleep as I was either out socializing or base cleaning like a madwoman, and often had bouts of i rritability. My boyfriend at the time (my current husband) called my parents and asked that I come plate to Phoenix and receive help.So I had a medical withdrawal from school, returned home, and was provided with psychiatric help. I was diagnosed with bipolar upset and advised that by taking antidepressants I was experiencing a manic event. As stated by Griswold and Pessar (2000, p. 1347) time referring to bipolar disorder, the use of tricyclic antidepressant antidepressants should be avoided because of the possibility of inducing speedy cycling of symptoms. So with a new diagnosis the process of trial and defect with psychotropic and supposition stabilizing musics and their ineluctable side effects began. Once I was on a stable medication and dosage, I felt like myself again. I got a job at a residential treatment center to flow with adolescents that maintain mood disorders and had gotten into trouble with the law. I found my passion. It was a few historic period befo re I could return to school with a purpose. I was graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Family Studies and tender-hearted Development in May 2011 and the future goal of becoming a therapist. prospective Considerations and Risk Management StrategiesI regard that under the Impairment ethics code, mood disorders are considered a mental or emotional problem that may impair the counselor affecting the way in which a counselor provides treatment to clients. bipolar disorder does not disappear in one case one takes the necessary medication. Medication only is often inadequate to restore and hold back physical wellness and quality of life (Rheineck & vitamin A Steinkuller, 2009, p. 339). Rheineck and Steinkuller (2009) recommend that those with bipolar disorder participate in therapy in confederation with taking their effective medication. It would be nearsighted of me to assume that bipolar disorder leave alone never affect me as a therapi st. If I am not awake(predicate) of my moods while I am having either a depressive or manic episode I may become petulant with or place my own perceptions onto a client. Ethically, to manage the risks involved with being a therapist who has bipolar disorder, I hire to do more than take medication and participate in therapy.According to Biegel, Brown, & adenylic acid Shapiro (2007), a therapist should implement self-care, including self-awareness and self-regulation or coping. I think that when I am practicing, it will be self-awareness that will assist me most in terms of risk management. As an unbiased observation of my intimate experience and behavior, self-awareness could also serve as an alarm to signal that I withdraw to take appropriate actions whether to notify my supervisor, limit, or suspend my professional responsibilities. When referring to self-awareness Corey, Corey, & Callanan (2008, p. 44) state that without it mental health professionals are probably to ob struct the progress of their clients as the concentrate of therapy shifts from meeting the clients necessitate to meeting the needs of the therapist. To assist with my self-awareness, I plan to utilize mindfulness. heedfulness, as delineate by Campbell and Christopher (2012, p. 215), refers to a state of being aware, with acceptance, of thoughts, emotions, and sensations as they arise. I currently trust various mindfulness exercises in therapy to assist with my mood disorder and coping strategies.To be a positive and healthy professional counselor I will keep up with mindfulness exercises through with(predicate)out my career and my life. I plan on practicing this daily, on my own time, so that I will be able to rent it away when I am having moods or episodes that need to be addressed. Mindfulness will be superfluously useful, as counselors need to be immediately advised of signs of melodic line and burnout and address these immediately to practice guidance ethically (Bradley, Brogan, Brogan, & Hendricks, 2009, p. 358). By being mindful and self-aware I will be able to detect the symptoms of stress and burnout as well as each number of potentially denigrative feelings.Ethics Code that Does Not present tense a ChallengeAccording to the ACA Code of Ethics (2005), section C.2.f Continuing reproduction, counselors recognize the need for continuing instruction to wear and plead a reasonable level of awareness of current scientific and professional information in their fields of activity. The ACA Code of Ethics (2005) section C.2.f Continuing Education also states that counselors take steps to maintain competence in the skills they use, are open air to new procedures, and keep current with the divers(a) populations and specific populations with whom they work.Personal Relevant HistoryIn my experience while works in behavioural health, develop ever so has been emphasized and mandated yearly. During the four years that I spent working at a residential treatment center, I had hive away more than 500 hours of training. While working at a group home for a year, I had gone through more than100 hours of training. In the past year while working as a youth and family specialist I have completed an supernumerary 60 hours of training. Although I found many of the training sessions everyplace the years to be fairly repetitive, thither were also several trainings providing completely new knowledge to me and therefore effective to assisting me while working with clients. Examples of recent effective trainings allow crisis prevention intervention, compassion fatigue, cognitive behavioral therapy for children and adults, and behavioral health documentation.Future ConsiderationsAccording to the ACA Code of Ethics (2005), Preamble, inherently held values that guide our behaviors or exceed prescribed behaviors are deeply ingrained in the counselor and developed out of privateized dedication, rather than the mandatory requiremen t of an out-of-door organization. To me this statement means that as a professional counselor I will further my education and knowledge of skills because I want to and not because an agency I work at mandates it. I do not believe that when one finishes school, they have completed see to iting, especially if they work in behavioral health. There are forever and a day new diagnoses, methods, and forms of treatment coming out that I want to be pick out to better meet the needs of my future clients. In a mail-in survey con of 1000 licensed professional counselors conducted in 2009 pertaining to counseling grief stricken clients, Granello, Ober, & Wheaton (2012) found that the majority of the participants stated they were extemporary when it came to specific skills and lacked knowledge to address those with grief.Counselors who current training rated themselves as more fit than those who did not, with more training related to high levels of self-perceived competence (Gran ello et al., 2012, p. 158). Another guinea pig conducted by Jameson, Poulton, and Stadter (2007), involved 38 therapists and evaluated the effect of a two-year continuing education curriculum on their knowledge, skills, and application. The majority (74%) felt the training helped them think clearly and specifically, both to the highest degree assessment issues and specific interventions (Jemeson et al., 2007, p. 113).It is clear when schooling these findings that further training can only help a professional to work with more specific needs of their clientele. Although all agencies have mandatory trainings, I have observed that there are hundreds of additional trainings offered yearly for any counselors who want to discover voluntarily. I plan to be a counselor who takes the opportunities offered to further educate myself, in order to improve myself and to provide my clients with a better and more knowledgeable rendering of me.ConclusionIn summation, I have examined a potentia lly personally challenging section of the ACA Code of Ethics, risk management strategies that I plan to utilize, and a section of the ACA Code of Ethics that aligns with my personal beliefs. Examining my personal experiences and traits that may conflict with the ACA Code of Ethics, I am better preparing myself to prevent any effects they may have had toward my future clients. It is important to me that I continue to learn and apply the knowledge I gain in graduate school and additional educational settings to improve myself as a person and as a professional counselor.ReferencesAmerican Counseling Association (2005). ACA Code of Ethics. Alexandria, VA Author. Biegel, G.M., Brown, K.W., & Shapiro, S.L. (2007). Teaching self-care to caregivers Effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on the mental health of therapists in training. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 1(2), 105-115.Bradley, L.J., Brogan, W.C., Brogan, C., Hendricks, B. (2009). Shelly a case study f ocusing on ethics and counselor wellness. Family Journal, 17(4), 355-359. Campbell, J.C., & Christopher, J.C. (2012). Teaching mindfulness to create effective counselors.Journal of Mental health Counseling, 34(3), 213-226.Corey, G., Corey, M.S., & Callanan, P. (2008). Issues and ethics in the portion professions ( 8thed.). Belmont, CA Brooks/ moolah Cengage LearningGranello, D.H., Ober, A.M., & Wheaton, J.E. (2012). Grief counseling an investigation ofcounselor training, experience, and competencies. Journal of Counseling andDevelopment, 90(2), 150-159.Griswold, K.S., & Pessar, L.F. (2000). Management of bipolar disorder. American Family Physician, 62(6), 1343-1353.Jameson, P., Poulton, J., & Stadter, M. (2007). Sustained and sustaining continuing education fortherapists. Psychotherapy, 44(1), 110-114.Rheineck, J.E., & Steinkuller, A. (2009). A review of evidence-based healing(predicate) interventionsof bipolar disorder. Journal of Mental wellness Counseling, 31 (4), 338-350.