6.5 Conclusion

Values strongly influence the counseling and ethical decision-making process, and appropriate management and awareness of one’s values are essential to ethical and professional practice. Though counselors and clients are entitled to their own beliefs and values, professional ethics codes require counselors to bracket their personal values’ influence on the counseling process across all domains, including termination and referral. The present chapter has provided a basic overview of value awareness and the ethical bracketing process in counseling, in addition to applied analyses of the impact values can exert when addressing topics such as religion, politics, and prejudice in counseling. Values, both personal and professional, influence all aspects of professional practice. Thus, the content of this chapter is meant to serve as an initial introduction to relevant concepts throughout the rest of this text and your professional development as a counselor.