Ethical Practice with Special Populations

Course overview

Clinical work has become more complex over the years as clients present with numerous issues and more treatment approaches have been developed. In addition to gaining competency with more complex clinical populations, counselors also need the knowledge and ability in ethical decision making with these populations. Codes of ethics, laws and credential regulations are developed as general, minimal guidelines for practice. Therefore they do not typically offer ethical guidelines for resolving the dilemmas encountered in treating some of these special populations. For the purposes of this course, we will focus on four special populations: clients from the non-dominant culture; clients from criminal justice systems; adolescent clients, and clients with co-occurring issues. Why is a course needed on ethical practice with these populations?