The Ethics of Imposition of Values
Ethics of imposition of values
The American Counselling Association (1995) states, “Counsellors are aware of their own values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and how these apply in a diverse society, and avoid imposing their values on clients”.
For a client to become healthy the counsellor must possess some basic values. These include: • Self determination. • Developing effective strategy to deal with stress. • Ability to give and receive affection. • Ability to be empathic towards client. • Self control. • Genuine and honest. • Having a sense of purpose for living. • Being skilled in interpersonal skills
Counselling is a value laden process which all counsellors, to some extent, communicate their values on to clients. Research has shown that clients tend to change behavior in the direction of the value systems of the counsellor and sometimes clients even adopt the counsellor’s values and attitudes. It is difficult not to pass on your values to your client, even if you do not explicitly state them. What the counsellor pays attention to in the therapy sessions will direct what the client chooses to explore. The methods used will give the client clues as to what the counsellor value or does not value.
Your non verbal behavior and body language will also be clues of how you are affected by certain situations. If your client needs your approval, he/she may act in a way that he/she believes will meet with the counsellor’s aopproval. For example, if a child gets the impression from the counsellor that his teacher has a negative way of dealing with disciplinary problems in class, then the child might adopt this same view of his classroom
The American Counselling Association (1995) states, “Counsellors are aware of their own values, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and how these apply in a diverse society, and avoid imposing their values on clients”.
For a client to become healthy the counsellor must possess some basic values. These include: • Self determination. • Developing effective strategy to deal with stress. • Ability to give and receive affection. • Ability to be empathic towards client. • Self control. • Genuine and honest. • Having a sense of purpose for living. • Being skilled in interpersonal skills
Counselling is a value laden process which all counsellors, to some extent, communicate their values on to clients. Research has shown that clients tend to change behavior in the direction of the value systems of the counsellor and sometimes clients even adopt the counsellor’s values and attitudes. It is difficult not to pass on your values to your client, even if you do not explicitly state them. What the counsellor pays attention to in the therapy sessions will direct what the client chooses to explore. The methods used will give the client clues as to what the counsellor value or does not value.
Your non verbal behavior and body language will also be clues of how you are affected by certain situations. If your client needs your approval, he/she may act in a way that he/she believes will meet with the counsellor’s aopproval. For example, if a child gets the impression from the counsellor that his teacher has a negative way of dealing with disciplinary problems in class, then the child might adopt this same view of his classroom