Ethical, Legal, and Professional Issues in Counseling

by Theodore P. Remley Jr., Barbara Herlihy

"We are pleased that this text is now in its seventh edition and has been adopted for master's and doctoral courses in ethics in so many counseling graduate programs throughout the United States and abroad. We set out to write a text on ethics, law, and professional issues in counseling that would provide basic information for graduate students in these areas and would offer sound practical advice for counseling practitioners. Faculty members and students who have used this text in their teaching and learning have told us they find it to be comprehensive, rich with examples, and written in a style that makes complex material accessible.We think you will find it useful to know something about us, the co-authors, and how we came to write this text. From 1997 to 2006, we were both professors in the counseling graduate program at the University of New Orleans. Ted Remley is an attorney with several years of legal experience and also has been a school and community college counselor. Barbara Herlihy has worked as a school counselor and a licensed professional counselor in private practice and community agency settings. She currently is a counselor educator with special interests in counselor ethics and social justice. Before we became colleagues at the same institution, we worked together over many years, co-authoring articles and presenting numerous workshops on law and ethics in counseling. It was through these workshops that the idea for this text was born. The counselors who attended our workshops had much in common, although they practiced in a variety of settings with diverse clientele. They shared a deep and abiding commitment to the welfare of their clients, a desire to stay current with the ethical standards of their profession, and a need to feel competent in dealing with legal issues that arose in their work. At the same time, they sometimes felt overwhelmed by the complex and conflicting demands of situations they encountered. They frequently had difficulty distinguishing between legal and ethical issues. As we worked together in our presentations to these counselors, we found that we very rarely disagreed with each other, but we did bring differing perspectives. Barbara's ethics orientation led her to focus on client welfare and to emphasize protecting the client. Ted's legal orientation helped us to consider. We believe both perspectives are important. Because both of us regularly teach graduate courses in professional orientation and ethics, we found ourselves discussing the need for a text written specifically for counselors that would address ethical, legal, and professional issues. Thus, out of our backgrounds and shared interests was conceived a text that is unique in that it approaches each professional issue in counseling from both an ethical perspective and a legal viewpoint. We believe you will find this integrated approach particularly helpful as you grapple with the complexities inherent in the work of the counselor. We also believe that the best learning is active rather than passive, and personalized rather than abstract. We hope that you will actively discuss and even argue about the issues that are raised throughout the text and that you will work to develop your own personal stance on these issues"--

Genres: Counselling, School, Psychology, Nonfiction, Education, Grad School, Textbooks

592 pages, Paperback

First published July 25, 2000

Reviews

[Lolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as text books go this one ranks highly. Very well organized and easy to follow. A lot of the information I already knew or was common sense but the outline of the book was well done. There were real - practical examples and the author made a dry subject quite readable. I also found the index excellent when reviewing for my exam. I did not real ALL of this book but I am giving myself credit because it's a textbook, and skimming counts...right?

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for class. This was very very dry and difficult to work through more than 10-15 pages at a time. But I think it is more the subject matter than writing. It's simply the detailed things one has to know about legality, ethics, and orientation in clinical psych.

[Dana Libhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of bases are covered in this textbook and I will be hanging onto it as a reference tool for my future practice. This book was easy to read and straightforward. Provides great insight on many different ethical and legal dilemmas in the field of clinical counseling and provides plenty of hypotheticals for better understanding.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reflect on your own values.
Consult.
Those are the basics!

[Kim Schellin-Rog · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok so this was a textbook but there were lots of places where things were repeated almost verbatim from earlier in the textbook. And OMG the number of times Covid 19 was mentioned in this textbook was nauseating. I realize it was written post Covid but I don’t think it needed to be mentioned as often as it was. I’m going to do a search of the ebook and see if it gives a total number of time it was mentioned.

[Alex Byerly · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I had to read 436 pages, it definitely counts towards GoodReads! It got redundant at times and was poorly organized. When looking for information on a specific dilemma, the information is spread throughout the whole book.

[Jolee B · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have to read a text book about ethical and legal issues in counseling, this isn’t a bad one. 😂 I learned a ton and it kept my interest the whole time. It may be the first college text book I’ve ever finished. But that may be more due to my age than to the content. Still, a solid 4 stars.

[Camryn Douglas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very good material but not fun to read :(

[Patty Wood]

I mean it's not fun to read... because... how could it be?! But they did a good job with it. Important and valuable.

[Allie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the subject matter, this is a good text book. It provides thorough and well-organized information with realistic and understandable examples for those studying counseling.

[Ellis Deal · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty good content and informative as that is its nature. probably wouldn’t read again because i have access to the code of ethics. but i can’t say i didn’t learn anything!

[Clauds · Rating 2 out of 5]

I mean dry asf but its ethics what do you expect. Useful and not too difficult to read as textbooks go.

[Adyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took an ethics graduate class and ATE through this textbook. Pretty good honestly

[Melissa Yael Winston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Believe it or not, I DID read the entire thing for my Ethics class. There is not a lot of content for all those pages. Key points to remember:

1. Don't get romantically involved with clients.

2. Seek out an attorney for legal issues.

3. Don't break confidentiality unless a client is suicidal, harmful to others, a minor whose parents demand information, a child abuser, or a court orders you to. Got that?

4. It is unethical not to act in the best interests of the client unless to do so would break the law.

5. Avoid dual relationships for the most part.

All in all, good things to know, but not worthy of an entire text book that throws in a whole bunch of extraneous information and repeats itself.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considering the subject, it was easy and not boring, and given these types of books that's saying something. Practical? yes. Informative? yes. Good read? yes. It takes important issues and demystified the topics and questions a counselor might have and lays them out in a simple manner. Major take away: you're only a counselor don't play lawyer.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read chapters 1-6, 9, and 10 plus all of the appendices for my Ethics course. I look forward to reading the other chapters as I continue my journey in grad school and revisiting them in the counseling field. Easy to read, thorough, and peppered with case studies, I have enjoyed this book. And I absolutely did not expect to.

[Deidre · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read as much as required...which wasn't much.

[Scott Whitney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of a long winded read, but I did learn a lot about ethics in the field of professional counseling. The case studies helped illustrate the point the book was trying to make.

[Rose Boyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sure I will read this book more than once. So much to take in.

[Candace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for graduate program Counseling and Art Therapy.