Ethical and Legal Issues in Consultation
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Ethical and Legal Issues in Consultation According to Dougherty (2009), consultants work with individual consultees or small groups of consultees in different settings including schools, business organizations, and government agencies among other client systems. In their practice, consultants find it necessary to collaborate with other helping professionals in order to help their clients to solve current and future problems. However, due to the complexity of the consultation process, consultants often face a great deal of ethical and legal dilemmas. These dilemmas can be divided into the following categories: 1. Value conflicts in …show more content…

Therefore, consultants must agree with their clients on matters of limits of confidentiality and access to the consultant’s findings. 6. Group Consultation A consultant may decide to work with a group of consultees as an effective approach toward problem-solving. However, consultants face many ethical issues when consulting with a group of consultees with regards to the right of consultees to understand what is expected of them in a group consultation. Therefore, the consultant should take responsibility in informing the consultees about what is expected in a group consultation in relation to self-disclosure, privacy, and confidentiality (Dougherty, 2009).
A Reflection from the Field In reference to the story from the field involving consultation with a military colonel and his junior officer, it is evident that one of the major areas of ethical concern entails defining the rights of the consultees in relation to the limits of confidentiality and the consultee’s freedom of choice. As a consultant in this case, I will be faced with the ethical challenge of respecting the junior officer’s right to confidentiality and freedom of choice, and letting the colonel understand his influence on the officer’s problems. Here, it is unethical to inform