Values and the Helping Relationship

• Managing personal values so that they do not unduly influence the counseling process is referred to as “ethical bracketing.”
• Personal therapy provides an opportunity to examine your beliefs and values and to explore your motivations for wanting to share or impose your belief system.
• Examine goals before adoption to ensure they are in the best interest of the client
• Ensure that goals are mutually consistent
• Justify the pursuit of end goals and the means to attain these goals
• Assess all causal and contributory factors that pertain to the goals
• Inform the client of their values, especially if the values are likely to influence the clients choice of goals
• Avoid or correct errors in clinical judgment
• Assess the risks that the client’s goals might pose to the client or to others
• Consider how the clients goals may affect others
• Avoid deceiving clients
• Honor any promises made to the client
• Value Imposition 


  The imposition of values by the counselor is an ethical issue in counseling individuals, couples, families, and groups.

  Value imposition refers to counselors directly attempting to influence a client to adopt their values, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
• Referral should only be considered when necessary skills are lacking, not merely due to discomfort with client beliefs. This may constitute an act of discrimination.
• Clients have been found to change in ways that are consistent with the values of the therapist and clients adopt the values of their counselors
• When faced with a topic you know little about, good first steps are to educate yourself, seek supervision, and obtain further training.
• Merely having a value conflict with the client does not require a referral, it is possible to work through the conflict successfully. Referral is the last resort.
• Before making a referral, seek consultation.
• Ensure the referral is explained in such a way that it is made clear to the client that it is your problem and not the client’s.
• Value statement informs students about expected competencies.
• Supervision helps counselors manage their values and avoid influencing clients inappropriately
• Counselors need not have experienced all client struggles to be effective. Connecting with clients can transcend cultural and age differences.
• Ignoring talk of sexuality with clients can lead to unintended harm and negative outcomes.
• Counselors must address sexuality issues sensitively.
• Incorporating spirituality and religion in therapy is important for many clients.
• Therapists must respect nonreligious beliefs and provide competent treatment.
• Rational suicide


  a person decides to end his or her life because of extreme suffering involved with a terminal illness.
• Aid-in-dying


  a person self-administers a death-causing agent, a lethal dose of legal medication, provided by another person.
• Hastened death


  ending one’s life earlier than would have happened without intervention by withholding or withdrawing treatment or life support.
• Advanced directives


  a written document containing decisions people make about end-of-life care that are designed to protect their self-determination
• Criteria for determining the rationality of a decision to end one's life:
• The person has an unremitting and hopeless condition
• The person is acting under his free will
• The person has engaged in a sound decision-making process, which includes:

  • Consultation with a mental health professional who can assess mental competence
  • Exploration of the person's values regarding suicide
  • Consideration of the impact on significant others
  • Discussion with objective others like medical and religious professionals and with significant others