Ethics Class Journal: Dan Blumhardt Journal March 30 We discussed philosophical foundations and ethical principles.

One of the concepts I find the most difficult related to effective practice is how I can navigate all of the potential land mines in this field. Some of the philosophical foundations and ethical principles do not necessarily provide easy answers all of the time. Additionally, there are ways that biases impact the practices of a counselor, depending on what one believes regarding the different philosophical foundations such as utilitarianism and deontology. It is this mushy middle that leaves me the most uneasy. The ethical principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence of doing good and bringing no harm are obviously important in this field, as with any helping profession. However, even after carefully following clear ethical and legal guidelines, there remains at least some ambiguity and bias that each counselor brings to his or her practice. Specifically, what a counselor believes is good and what is harmful is, at times, subjective depending on the counselor beliefs about what is healthy and what isnt. Culture, as well as personal values from ones own background, play some part in this, but even this can be problematic as one still has to rely on some compass to guide them. Hopefully, I can be self-aware enough to recognize how many of my beliefs are culture-bound and avoid imposing values. April 6 We learned about the different models used in the diagnoses of mental health, including the medical model, social construction, and harmful dysfunction. I tend to think that they each have their own merits, and ultimately the harmful dysfunction is the best as it effectively brings together the social and medical model concepts to form a very logical conceptual way of diagnosing mental health. I find this topic to be very interesting because it is so foundational to what we do, and provides us with guidance in our practice. It is very interesting to look across cultures and see different understanding of what is healthy and what is not. An interesting study would be to study world cultures to bring together a universal common factors in regards to what is considered healthy and what is not on a global level. What would be and would not be on the lists would likely bear out surprises for some. Depression is one example that our culture readily accepts as unhealthy. I could come up with some reasons why depression has some merit as a good thing up to a point. Our culture values self-sufficiency, but Ive known depression to have a profound impact on the lives of some around me who have learned and benefited from a stronger sense of interdependence that resulted from the humility depression brought. In this regard, it might be said there are many things that dont have to be completely good or completely bad.

April 20 Part of the class dealt with boundaries. The issue of imposing values was brought up. Obviously, the ethical thing is "DON'T DO IT!" I have found that this to be a somewhat difficult dynamic to maneuver due to some specific reasons. As with an earlier journal, I did not question that this is something to be avoided, however, I do this is a difficult issue that merits careful thought on the part of counselor. First, theoretical orientation centers much around the values and beliefs of the counselor. Second, values are very culture bound. This includes not only the ethnic heritage, but also country of origin as well as the values of the family of origin. Lastly, values can sometimes determine what one deems healthy or unhealthy. A counselor should have the goal to "do no harm", so values play into that at least to some degree. Those three factors seem to indicate to me that it simply isn't honest for a counselor to claim they are not imposing values to some extent. Furthermore, while not my approach, my impression is that even though strongly directive approaches are not considered good, there are counselors and clients that prefer it. Nonetheless, I hope that I can be effective at minimizing as much as possible the ways my values might unknowingly be imposed upon my clients, which requires significant self-awareness and skill. April 27 We discussed suicide in this class and hit on some interesting and important topics of note. This is a troubling topic to think about, but one that each counselor has to be prepared to respond to just as a paramedic has to be prepared to do specific things to prevent the death of a patient while on the way to the hospital. Like paramedics, we are the intermediary person to ensure the person gets help before it is too late, and may have the same type of urgency. I like the concepts Joiner puts forth regarding learning fearlessness, burdensomeness, and alienation. The issue of burdensomeness strikes me as the most deadly only because of the direct emotional impact of the thoughts a person like this might have. Clearly, there is a significant leap from feeling like a burden to committing suicide, but those same feelings can have collateral damage, including alienation, which he provides as one of the contributing factors. I am not one to say the world is getting better or worse than it used to be, but I do believe that the current generation of young people represent a strongly impacted population that will bring about increased risk of suicide. This is merely my take, and would love to see more data on suicide based on different generations and populations. May 4 It was mentioned in class that termination is appropriate if it is done or no longer helping. In my experience as a client, I have found this to be one of my primary pet peeves. When I first started seeing a counselor, I thought things started to get stale after a while. I didn't sense the counselor had clear objectives for our

time, and that there really wasn't much interest in deciding together on what those would be. Overall, I got the sense the counselor was content to just "go with the flow" and not be too intentional. This left me wondering if the counselor was fully acting in my best interest due to this being a source of income. This was my experience with my second counselor, who also didn't show a lot intentionality towards the short & long term goals of our time. To me, this didn't show respect for the significant financial & time commitment I was making to the process. In my practice, I hope that I can demonstrate respect in that regard by making sure clients and I are on the same page as to what are real focus and goals are for our time together. May 11 In class we discussed the issue of touching clients non-sexually. I have always found this topic to be interesting because it seems so counter-intuitive for me to simply have such a limited range of touch be acceptable. I am not a touch-feely kind of person, but I find it to be a very meaningful part of relationships. I completely understand the importance of erring strongly on the side of caution. However, I think something is lost in the counselor-client relationship when touch is seen as so taboo that it is rarely, if ever, allowed. There is an issue of treating each client the same, but I dont believe this should prevent a counselor if he or she believes this would be beneficial to the client, and the counseling process. I would personally consider these to be good factors to consider: First, in light of the fact that the relationship itself is therapeutic, touch should be considered as a legitimate part of the relationship (within ethical, legal, and moral limits). The counselor ought to consider what, if any, is going to be beneficial and not harmful to the process. Second, since no client is the same, the counselor should be sensitive to both the perception of the client, as well as to the appropriateness regardless of the client. This appropriate measure is intuitive, but acknowledges that some clients can and should benefit from a firm handshake, for example. Lastly, a counselor should have a clear policy that the client understands regarding touch that any touch such as hand on the shoulder, handshake, etc. is understood to be 100% non-sexual in nature, and should set up the client to know what is and isnt ok. Overall, the client shouldnt feel like they are toxic and dangerous as if they had leprosy because of fears of misunderstanding. In the end, I advocate for a warmth, personal, relational approach that may or may not include appropriate forms of touch, that are clearly understood beforehand. May 18 We watched a documentary about the Stanford Prison experiment, which set up a mock prison with inmates. It was interesting to see how the individuals in the experiment bought into the scenario and got carried away. Fortunately, these types of experiments are no longer allowed due to the impact they can have on others. I thought the guy that headed up the experiment was way off base

because it was obvious that it was going against the grain of common sense and concern for well-being of the participants. There shouldn't have to be a law about it, but that in of itself speaks to potential evil of human nature at it's worst. Overall, the professor meant to use the experiment to see how far the participants would go before speaking up, but in the end, the joke was on him and how far he would go before someone had to speak up to him to stop it. On a personal note, I felt he may have been the most dysfunctional person involved in the experiment. A lot of negative attention was put onto the one guard, while in contrast, the man who set it up and obsessively kept it running was given opportunity to interview with a big smile on his face and revel in his continued popularity today. May 25 In our class on May 25, we discussed methods of individual practice assessment. I liked the method of using pre & post assessment methods so that there can be objective measures of how I am doing. Additionally, those "objective" methods aren't perfect, so there needs to be multiple avenues. I like to think the subjective reports from clients can provide a closer idea as to how effective one is. It is mentioned in the book that was referred to in class that the clients are best judges of what works, and I think wed all be wise to take heed of this. Overall, I think a counselor has to accept that there is no perfect measure. The best a counselor can do is use the best practices available to them in order to be responsible. A good start would be to spend significant time attempting to learn and understand the known common factors, and adapt his or her practice to account for these important elements of effective counseling. With the mountain of assessments out there, there really is no reason to ignore the possibilities they can offer for improving assessment of client change and counselor effectiveness. June 1 In todays class, we covered some specific topics that I found especially helpful. The ethical decision making model seemed to be a well-thought out, useful tool that counselors should utilize. One of the best parts is to really remember to lean on colleagues when things are not so clear because intuition can easily go down the wrong path. The other part I liked was the how to forgive. I believe this is an important part of personal health due to the effect it can have on people to carry around the anger associated with it. This can release people from their own prison and stop the client from having to be victimized time and time again due to a past offense of another in the past. My favorite part was related to saying hard things. I really feel like this is an excellent way to approach difficult conversations that need to happen. The parts that I think get left out the most are first affirming the relationship as a backdrop to the difficult conversation; the second being willing to ask for understanding. Both of these communicate respect and humility, which are important elements of all lasting relationships.