Editor Randolph K. Sanders assembles a team of scholar-practitioners to forge a comprehensive ethical approach to Christian counseling. Christian psychotherapists, pastors and others in the counseling profession will find here a ready resource for a whole array of contemporary clinical scenarios.
A client raises spiritual questions. Can a Christian therapist working in a government agency talk with a client about faith? A young couple with two children asks a Christian counselor to help them negotiate an end to their marriage. What responsibility does the counselor have to try to repair the relationship? A youth group member confidentially reveals to the pastor that he is taking drugs. Should the pastor tell the boy's parents? A counselor who teaches a college course has a client show up for class. What should she do? These are just a few of the complex dilemmas that therapists, counselors and pastors face nearly every day. Handling these situations appropriately is critical for both the client's progress and the professional's personal credibility and protection from liability. State and federal codes, professional association statements and denominational guidelines have been drawn up to address ethical issues like competence, confidentiality, multiple relationships, public statements, third parties and documentation. In this book you'll find them all compiled and interpreted in light of Christian faith and practice. Written by qualified professional counselors and respected academic instructors, this book is an indispensable resource for understanding and applying ethics in Christian counseling today.
In the concluding volume in the Resources for Christian Counseling series, general editor Gary Collins addresses professional issues of concern to Christian counselors, including standards, ethics, liabilities, and future directions.
Many counselors learn about ethics in graduate school by applying formal, step-by-step ethical decision-making models that require counselors to be aware of their values and refrain from imposing personal values that might harm clients. However, in the real world, counselors often make split-second ethical decisions based upon personal values. Values and Ethics in Counseling illustrates the ways in which ethical decisions are values—but more than that, it guides counselors through the process of examining their own values and analyzing how these values impact ethical decision making. Each chapter presents ethical decision making as what it is: a very personal, values-laden process, one that is most effectively illustrated through the real-life stories of counselors at various stages of professional development—from interns to seasoned clinicians—who made value-based decisions. Each story is followed by commentary from the author as well as analysis from the editors to contextualize the material and encourage reflection.
Robin W. Lovin achieves a balance between the questions and issues which form the core of the study of ethics, and the life situations from which those questions arise.
Raymond Vath's book on counseling those with eating disorders is part of the Resources for Christian Counseling series, a series that combines the best of current psychological theory with a strict adherence to scriptural truth.
Editor Randolph K. Sanders assembles a team of scholar-practitioners to forge a comprehensive ethical approach to Christian counseling. Christian psychotherapists, pastors and others in the counseling profession will find here a ready resource for a wide array of contemporary clinical scenarios.