Ethics and Cultural Diversity for Counsellors

This unit teaches students to apply established codes of ethical principles and standards to their work as counsellors. Students should be able to confidently apply an ethical decision making model to ethical and professional dilemmas that might arise in a counselling context. Cultural diversity issues relevant to counsellors working with individuals, couples and families will be explored. Particular attention will be given to the PACFA and APS codes of ethics, and how they might apply to a variety of case vignettes that demonstrate real-world practice issues faced by counsellors working in human services, couple counselling or forensic contexts.


Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
1. Identify and describe key ethical and professional issues relevant to counselling individuals, couples and families in a cross-cultural context.
2. Apply established ethical standards and procedures to a range of ethical dilemmas in a human services, couple counselling or forensic context.
3. Make professional decisions that reflect established ethical principles and standards by utilising a standard nine-step ethical decision making model.