More people than ever are choosing to seek counselling in the UK. A recent report has shown that in total, 1.46 million referrals to talking therapies were made in 2020-21 via the NHS. Many more clients will choose to access counselling or therapy privately, so the number of people in the UK accessing counselling services is likely to be much larger than this.
To protect both their clients and their own interests, it is important that counsellors in the UK follow ethical frameworks and guidelines to assist them in their treatment of patients. These guidelines will help to ensure that those 1.46 million patients receive consistency in their care. But what are ethical frameworks in counselling? Are they the same for every counsellor in the UK? And how can these be applied? Here’s everything you need to know:
What is an Ethical Framework?
An ethical framework is a clear set of actions that are designed to ensure that the choices and actions of an organisation or company reflect and uphold its ethics. In counselling terms, ethical frameworks can be seen as a code of ethics, or a moral code, that counsellors are expected to adhere to in order to best protect their clients, and to serve them in a way that is both safe and professional. Rather than restricting counsellors to step-by-step processes, and asking them to follow specific models, ethical frameworks give counsellors the freedom to use their own professional judgement. Frameworks will outline the key aspects of ethical solutions to routine problems but will not tell counsellors exactly what they should do in any given situation.
Frameworks are tools used by those in positions of power or authority that enable them to make ethical decisions that are driven and supported by their own moral compass.
Why are Ethical Frameworks Needed in Counselling?
Counselling is a sector in which an established ethical framework is particularly important. Ethical issues in counselling generally fall on the therapist. This means that it is the therapist’s responsibility to avoid unethical interactions with clients.
Not only does having ethical frameworks in place protect the client who is receiving counselling, but it also protects the counsellor by clearly outlining to all of the parties involved in the professional relationship what behaviours are appropriate and what behaviours are not. The reason why it is so important to establish a clear ethical framework within the counselling sector is that clients often share difficult, sensitive, and above all, private information with their counsellors. This leaves those clients in a vulnerable position, and the counsellor has a duty of care to both keep their information confidential and to act in the best interest of their clients. It is for this reason that ethical frameworks are so important within the counselling profession.
The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) has established a highly regarded and accepted ethical framework for counselling professionals. In fact, you cannot be a member of the BACP unless you agree to work in accordance with their ethical framework. The three main sections of this framework are a commitment to clients, ethics and values, and a code of good practice. The basics of these elements include:
- Commitment to clients. This involves allowing clients to participate freely in their counselling sessions without fear of judgement, or of their personal information being shared with third parties. Clients need to be able to trust their counsellors with their well-being and feel confident that their practitioner will work to high professional standards, place value on their relationship, and build an appropriate professional working relationship. It is important that both clients and counsellors respect the boundaries between their work with clients and what lies outside that work. The private life of the counsellor, for example, should not be a part of the sessions, and that boundary between professional and private should not be crossed.
- Ethics. What some counsellors refer to as ethics, others may refer to as values, but the two terms mean the same thing: respecting clients and treating them with dignity. Many clients will seek counselling because they are experiencing personal distress and suffering, and the role of a counsellor is to use their skills and knowledge to help alleviate that suffering. The distress and suffering of others, or their vulnerability, should not be used to your own advantage. The role of the counsellor is to protect the safety of their clients, respect their culture and their unique human experience, and provide services that are fair, valuable, and delivered to a high standard.
- Good practice. Advancing and developing good practice within the counselling arena is one of the driving forces of the BACP, which is why this is overtly included within their ethical framework. Good practice includes providing therapeutically-informed services, undergoing regular training to ensure your skills and qualifications are up to date, and being openly accountable and willing to explain how you have implemented your ethical framework when asked.
How to Build an Ethical Framework
Whilst many counsellors will use the BACP ethical framework to guide their work, it is important that you establish and build your own ethical framework that you will use as the basis of your work with your patients.
Some of the personal qualities that a good counsellor should aspire to possess and that you might wish to consider focusing on within your personal ethical framework include:
- Being Open. It’s important for a counsellor to be open with their clients about behaviours or actions that could either cause them harm or place them at risk of harm, encouraging them to focus on their own well-being and providing the tools they need to do so.
- Caring. This is one of the main personality traits of a good counsellor: They care for others and have the competence needed to be attentive to their needs and to understand their well-being requirements. The ability to use empathy to communicate with others and to view the world from their perspective is also vital to be a successful counsellor.
- Hard-working. Being a successful counsellor is not easy. To succeed in this career path, you will need to be hard-working, conscientious and knowledgeable about the benefits of counselling, whilst also possessing the qualifications required to work in this arena.
- Firm but Fair. As a counsellor, it is important that you remain impartial whilst also standing by your own principles. You will apply this to your decisions and actions that concern both yourself and others, focusing on equality, concern for others, and fairness in your actions. As well as being firm but fair with others, you should also apply these values to yourself: a good counsellor has the ability to accurately assess their own strengths and weaknesses and acknowledge when they make mistakes, whilst working to rectify them.
- Respect and Integrity. Finally, it is important to apply moral values and integrity to all professional situations, dealing with your clients with honesty, respect and coherence. By showing respect to your clients, you are simultaneously encouraging them to show respect for themselves.
When establishing your own ethical framework you should consider factors such as your own moral and ethical compass and beliefs, and apply any relevant laws and regulations (counselling and therapy are highly regulated industries, so it is likely that some essential rules will apply here), and consider likely actions you may take, as well as what the consequences of those actions might be. As a counsellor, you will make decisions every day, and often these decisions won’t be easy. Your ethical framework is designed to support you in that decision-making process, and guide you to make the choices that are right both for you and for your clients.
Fundamentals of Ethics
In ethical terms, the fundamental ideals or guidelines that everyone should follow, regardless of the sector they are working in are: respect for autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, justice, and veracity. In layman’s terms, this means that counsellors must respect that their clients have their own autonomy and are free to make their own decisions. The role of the counsellor is to support and guide decision-making where needed, but a counsellor should never make decisions on behalf of their clients. The term nonmaleficence means that counsellors are obliged not to inflict harm on others: this refers to any harm or injury to their mental health, as well as any physical harm. Effectively, your intentions should be good: your focus should be on the well-being of your patients and on making them feel better, improving their mental health, above all things. Within their sessions, your client’s needs should always be put first.
The ability to focus on the needs of others in this way is an admirable quality, and not one that everyone can possess: counsellors need to be empathetic and selfless in many ways, and not everyone is cut out for the intensity of the profession.
Ethical Concerns in Counselling
Having a robust ethical framework is the most effective way to combat any ethical concerns in counselling. Some of the ethical concerns that commonly arise in counselling include:
- Maintaining boundaries. This is the largest, and most commonly addressed, ethical concern within counselling and other mental health professionals. Whilst your role is to support and empathise with your clients, it is important to ensure that you don’t develop a personal relationship with your clients. This is a line that can often become blurred for some clients: They are sharing their personal information with you, and therefore they may come to view you as a friend, rather than as a therapist. It is important for counsellors to maintain a professional relationship at all times, and if necessary to re-establish boundaries for their clients. Because maintaining professional boundaries is so important, counsellors should never work with anyone they have a personal relationship with, even if that personal relationship is a distant one (for example, the child of a friend). This is outside the professional and ethical framework of the industry, as it may blur the lines and make it harder to provide an unbiased and objective treatment to your client.
- Lack of Ability. To work as a counsellor or therapist, you must be trained in certain areas of therapeutic treatment. Not undergoing the relevant qualifications to provide treatment, or failing to undertake continued professional development to ensure that your knowledge base is up to date may be considered an ethical concern. If a client requires a type of treatment or counselling that you are not trained to provide then it is your ethical responsibility to help that client find an alternative, better-suited, counsellor.
- Separating personal and private lives. Just like everyone else, counsellors can sometimes have personal problems that dominate their lives and impact their well-being. But it is an ethical concern if these personal problems overlap in the workplace. If personal issues prevent you from being an effective and impartial counsellor, then you should remove yourself from situations you cannot bring your best to. Therapists going through a bereavement may struggle to counsel clients that are also experiencing a bereavement, for example. If this is the case, the therapist should refer these clients elsewhere and consider seeking therapy or counselling for themselves.
- Impartiality. As a counsellor your role is to guide your clients to make important decisions for themselves: your role is not to make those decisions for them. These decisions should be based on their morals and beliefs, not on yours. It would pose an ethical concern if you were unable to remain impartial in this way.
- Client Confidentiality. Client confidentiality is integral to counselling, and for all medical professionals. You are responsible for keeping your client’s personal information private: this includes not only not sharing anything that is told to you in sessions, but also any client notes, contact information or other paperwork. One rare exception to this is if you believe that a client may cause harm to themselves or others: in this circumstance, you are able to break confidentiality to get the relevant authorities involved.
Confidentiality
As we have briefly outlined above, confidentiality is a key element of the ethical framework of counselling. Confidentiality in counselling creates a space where the client can explore sensitive subjects and share their innermost thoughts in the knowledge that the counsellor will not repeat this information to anyone else. Many clients are only able to relax and share vital information with you because they know that their sessions are confidential: many will choose not to tell their family or friends that they are visiting a counsellor, so your discretion is essential, and should be included within your own ethical framework. Confidentiality also refers to the way in which you handle other personal information: your clients’ names and addresses, for example, should also be treated as confidential. This means that they should be filed privately, and stored in a way that would be difficult for other clients, or members of the general public, to access. Confidentiality is key to the ethics of counselling, and it is therefore important that this is something all counsellors take very seriously.
