Ethical and Legal Challenges in Professional Practice Essay

The American Counseling Association (ACA) cipher of moral philosophy is available to clarify the h hotshotst responsibilities for pro pleaders and future professional counselors. According to the ACA (2005), the code serves as an respectable guide designed to embolden members in constructing a professional run-in of action that best serves those utilizing counsellor services and best promotes the values of the steering profession. As a graduate student striving to achieve a Masters Degree in Counseling, it is crucial, not only to enjoy and understand the ACA computer code of morals, but also to understand any challenges that I whitethorn afford in upholding them as well as shipway to address these challenges powerfully. In this paper I examine a element of the ACA inscribe of Ethics that I find personally challenging, risk circumspection strategies physical exercised to resolve this potential ethical conflict, and a air division of the ACA Code of Ethics that wi ll not present a challenge.Personally contest Ethics CodeAccording to the ACA Code of Ethics (2005), contribution C.2.g disadvantage, counselors ar alert to the signs of impairment from their sustain physical, mental, or emotional problems and refrain from crack or providing professional services when such impairment is desirely to impairment a client or others. The ACA Code of Ethics (2005) section C.2.g Impairment also states that counselors seek assistance for problems that reach the level of professional impairment, and, if necessary, they limit, stop dead, or terminate their professional responsibilities until such time it is determined that they may safely resume their work.Personal Relevant HistoryIn 2005, during my senior social class of undergraduate aim at The University ofArizona, I was on the fast running play to law school. I was on a full scholarship, earning a 4.0 figure point average, a resident assistant for the dorms, and a member of a co-ed pre-law f raternity. I had average ideal my internship operative for senator John McCain and had faultless the scary LSAT. This is what my friends and family saw. In the background, I was struggling. During the weekends I was hosting parties, or earlier great deal would just show up and throw their own parties at my residence. I was struggling to get go forth of bed in the morning and oft came back home to take naps and miss my next few classes of the day. My grades were slipping and so was my ambition.I took it upon myself to see a psychiatrist and was prescribed anti-depressants. This medication changed my life for the worst. I did not even notice that things were spinning out of control as I maxed out my credit cards (I would just get new cards later) and making impulsive and risky decisions. I was losing sleep as I was either out socializing or home cleaning like a madwoman, and often had bouts of irritability. My boyfriend at the time (my on-line(prenominal) husband) called my parents and asked that I come home to Phoenix and fulfill help.So I had a medical withdrawal from school, returned home, and was housed with psychiatric help. I was diagnosed with bipolar derangement and informed that by taking antidepressants I was experiencing a manic occurrence. As stated by Griswold and Pessar (2000, p. 1347) enchantment referring to bipolar disorder, the use of tricyclic antidepressants should be avoided because of the possibility of inducing rapid cycling of symptoms. So with a new diagnosis the process of trial and error with mind-altering and pettishness stabilizing medications and their unavoidable side effects began. Once I was on a stable medication and dosage, I felt like myself again. I got a job at a residential word center to work with adolescents that have caprice disorders and had gotten into trouble with the law. I prepare my passion. It was a few years before I could return to school with a purpose. I was graduated from Arizona State Un iversity with a unmarried mans of Science degree in Family Studies and Human Development in May 2011 and the future goal of becoming a therapist.Future Considerations and bump ManagementStrategiesI believe that under the Impairment ethics code, mood disorders are considered a mental or emotional problem that may impair the counselor reaching the way in which a counselor provides treatment to clients. Bipolar disorder does not disappear once one takes the necessary medication. Medication alone is often inadequate to restore and economize physical health and quality of life (Rheineck & Steinkuller, 2009, p. 339). Rheineck and Steinkuller (2009) recommend that those with bipolar disorder figure in therapy in conjunction with taking their effective medication. It would be myopic of me to assume that bipolar disorder will never affect me as a therapist. If I am not aware of my moods while I am having either a depressive or manic episode I may become irritable with or place my own p erceptions onto a client. Ethically, to manage the risks involved with being a therapist who has bipolar disorder, I need to do more than take medication and participate in therapy.According to Biegel, Brown, & Shapiro (2007), a therapist should practice self-care, including self-awareness and self-regulation or coping. I conceptualise 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 inner fuck and behavior, self-awareness could also serve as an alarm to prognosticate that I need 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 likely to interrupt the progress of their clients as the focus 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. Mindfulness, as defined 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 ongoingly practice various mindfulness exercises in therapy to assist with my mood disorder and coping strategies.To be a positive and healthy professional counselor I will continue with mindfulness exercises throughout my vocation and my life. I plan on practicing this daily, on my own time, so that I will be able to recognize when I am having moods or episodes that need to be addressed.Mindfulness will be additively useful, as counselors need to be straight cognizant of signs of stress and burnout and address these immediately to practice counseling ethically (Bradley, Brogan, Brogan, & Hendricks, 2009, p. 358). By being mindful and self-aware I will be able to identify the symptoms of stress and burnout as well as any number of potentially harmful feelings.Et hics Code that Does Not Present a ChallengeAccording to the ACA Code of Ethics (2005), section C.2.f Continuing Education, counselors recognize the need for go along preparation to acquire and control 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 to new procedures, and keep current with the diverse populations and detail populations with whom they work.Personal Relevant HistoryIn my experience while working in behavioural health, reproduction unendingly has been emphasise and mandated each year. During the four years that I spent working at a residential treatment center, I had accumulated more than 500 hours of training. plot of ground 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 additional 60 hours of training. Although I found many of the training sessions over the years to be fairly repetitive, there were also some(prenominal) trainings providing completely new intimacy to me and therefore effective to assisting me while working with clients. Examples of recent effective trainings include 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 late ingrained in the counselor and developed out of personal dedication, rather than the authorization requirement of an external organization. To me this statement means that as a professional counselor I will further my educationand 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 learning, especially if they work in behavioral health. There are always new diagnoses, methods, and forms of treatment coming out that I want to be learn to better meet the needs of my future clients. In a mail-in survey oeuvre 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 unprepared when it came to specific skills and lacked knowledge to address those with grief.Counselors who received training rated themselves as more equal than those who did not, with more training related to higher levels of self-perceived competence (Granello et al., 2012, p. 158). Another study conducted by Jameson, Poulton, and Stadter (2007), involved 38 therapists and evaluated the effect of a two-year continuing education program on their knowledge, skills, and application. The maj ority (74%) felt the training helped them think clearly and specifically, both about assessment issues and specific interventions (Jemeson et al., 2007, p. 113).It is clear when study 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 attend 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 version of me.ConclusionIn summation, I have examined a potentially 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 o f 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 personal effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on the mental health of therapists in training. didactics and Education in Professional Psychology, 1(2), 105-115.Bradley, L.J., Brogan, W.C., Brogan, C., Hendricks, B. (2009). Shelly a case study rivet on ethics and counselor wellness. Family diary, 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 helping professions ( eighthed.). Belmont, CA Brooks/Cole Cengage LearningGranello, D.H., Ober, A.M., & Wheaton, J.E. (2012). Grief counseling an probe 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). bear on and sustaining continuing education fortherapists. Psychotherapy, 44(1), 110-114.Rheineck, J.E., & Steinkuller, A. (2009). A review of evidence-based therapeutic interventionsof bipolar disorder. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 31(4), 338-350.