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Counseling Ethics for the 21st Century
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Counseling Ethics for the 21st Century
A Case-Based Guide to Virtuous Practice



April 2018 | 272 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc

Counseling Ethics for the 21st Century prepares students to address ethical issues arising in contemporary counseling practice. Drawing on their own clinical and practical experiences, authors Elliot D. Cohen and Gale Spieler Cohen present detailed, realistic, and engaging clinical case studies along with a comprehensive five-step model that can be used to manage the complex ethical problems raised throughout the book. Each chapter focuses on particular virtues in the context of examining a particular counseling issue, including online counseling, digital record keeping, and social media. Students will be empowered to define problems, identify relevant facts, conduct ethical analyses, and make the best decisions for their clients.

 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
Introduction
 
PART I. Becoming a Virtuous Therapist
 
Chapter 1: Building Character: Virtues of Excellent Practitioners
 
Chapter 2: Being Trustworthy
Case Studies: Two Resistant Clients

 
 
PART II. RESOLVING ETHICAL ISSUES
 
Chapter 3: Applying Ethical Standards
Case Study: A Clash of Values Inside a Fundamentalist Christian Family

 
 
Chapter 4: Using an Ethical Decision-Making Process
Case Study: A Hateful Client

 
 
PART III. NAVIGATING KEY CONCEPTS: CONFIDENTIALITY AND INFORMED CONSENT
 
Chapter 5: Exercising Discretion
Case Study: A Dangerous Client

 
 
Chapter 6: Being Candid and Honest
Case Study: Withholding Information From a Depressed Client

 
 
PART IV. EMPOWERING AND ADVOCATING FOR VULNERABLE POPULATIONS
 
Chapter 7: Empowering Adult Victims of Domestic Abuse
Case Studies: Physical and Emotional Abuse

 
 
Chapter 8: Exercising Courage in Protecting Children
Case Study: Child Sexual Abuse

 
 
PART V. COUNSELING ACROSS MULTIPLE ROLES AND CULTURES
 
Chapter 9: Being Loyal and Fair to Clients
Case Study: Sex with a Former Client

 
 
Chapter 10: Being Respectful Across Diverse Cultures
Case Study: Supervising a Supervisee Doing Cross-Cultural Counseling

 
 
PART VI. COUNSELING IN CYBERSPACE
 
Chapter 11: Being Diligent in the Digital Age
Case Study: A Case of Record Hacking

 
 
Chapter 12: Providing Competent Online Counseling Services
Case Study: A Suicidal Client

 
 
PART VII. DEFINING LIMITS OF CONFIDENTIALITY
 
Chapter 13: Being Benevolent
Case Study: A Terminally Ill Client Contemplating Suicide

 
 
Chapter 14: Being Nonmalevolent
Case Study: A Sexually Active Client With HIV

 
 
Index
 
About the Authors

"The authors have provided an up to date, thought provoking, clearly written, state of the art resource for seasoned professionals as well as neophyte counselors and therapists. They present ethics, not merely as minimal prescriptions but as choices that are maximally or virtuously ethical. Professional mental health workers with a wide variety of training and licenses can benefit from the insights and challenges presented by Elliot and Gale Cohen. The various levels of ethical practice that professional mental health workers face and deal with on a regular basis are explained. The authors allow for a variety of possible ethical resolutions when it is appropriate. I most enthusiastically recommend this book for professionals who function in the ever changing world in which they live and who wish to provide high quality service to their clients."

Robert Wubbolding, Ed.D.
Center for Reality Therapy

"As one of the founders of the philosophical counseling movement and inventor of Logic-Based Therapy, Elliot D. Cohen has once again made an enormous contribution to the literature in his new book co-authored with Gale Spieler Cohen.  In Counseling Ethics for the 21stCentury, the Cohens provide an original analysis of the morality of counseling by examining many ethical challenges that beset all types of professional therapists and mental health practitioners.  They argue for what a virtuous therapist should be like while helping others and address many facets of practice including cultivating good character, applying ethical standards, being mindful of the issue of confidentiality and privacy, internet based-interventions, record keeping, working with vulnerable and abused populations, as well as respecting and working with diversity issues.  The authors’ introduce the technical principles of applying a step-based approach to ethical decision making peppered with lengthy case examples in a wide array of counseling situations that give the reader a real feel for what it is like to be in the consulting room. This is an ideal text for graduate students first being introduced to the counseling process."

Jon Mills
Adler Graduate Professional School, Toronto

“The orientation of this text around case studies makes it much more understandable and usable for master’s-level students in their quest for excellence in counseling.”

Anna M. Viviani
Indiana State University

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