The Importance Of Confidentiality In School Counseling

While training in the profession, counselors have been taught the importance of confidentially between homeless and their clients. Although this ethics standard is very important, there are limitations in which counselors have to disclose information. There are various ethical dimmers where counselors will be faced with the difficult discos of whether to disclose information or maintain confidentiality. Younggren and Harris (2008) states that confidentiality is the key to most models of effective psychotherapy. Confidentiality involves establishing and maintaining a therapeutic relationship, facilitating trust, empathy, and a professional working alliance. Written in the American Psychological Association ethics code, professionals in

During ethical dilemmas, counselors compliance with the codes on confidentiality of minors may not always be followed. The purpose of Lazovsky (2008) was to examine the limitations of confidentiality in school counseling and counselor’s reasoning on breaching confidentiality. A modified version of the Minors Confidentiality Questionnaire was voluntarily and anonymously completed be school counselors. The first section of the questionnaire consisted of 18 scenarios representing ethical dilemmas in school counseling. The counselors were asked to respond to two questions regarding the dilemmas. They were asked “Would you breach confidentiality?” and “What are the reasons for your decision?”. Section two of the questionnaire consisted of items relating to the demographic and professional background of the school counselors. The dilemmas were divided into three major domains. The first domain pertains to dangerous behaviors or situations. The second domain pertained to unlawful behaviors. Lastly, the third domain pertained to personal and family information. Responses described the counselor's decision and then was categorized into meaning units. Responses were also divided into these units to identify the meaningful features while minimizing researcher

The decisions of the counselors partly influenced by the context of the dilemma. Lazovsky (2008) results are consistent with results of a similar study conducted. It was found that the highest likelihood that counselors would break confidentiality were in dilemmas in the domain of dangerous behaviors or situations. The second likelihood of breaking confidentiality pertained to the dilemmas of unlawful behaviors domain. This leaves the domain of personal and family information to be the last likelihood of breaching confidentiality. The author notes that when counselors were presented with the dilemmas, their decision was based on an external authority for example the consequences of disclosing inforation. On the other hand, when counselors reported that they would apply counseling interventions instead of reporting, their decision was based on their professional and personal values. All in all () concluded that school counselors do not completely follow ethical and legal guidelines instead they follow their own professional