Culturally Relevant Ethical Decision-Making In Counseling

Culturally Relevant Ethical Decision-Making in Counseling presents a hermeneutic orientation and framework to address contextual issues in ethical decision-making in counseling and psychotherapy. Authors Rick Houser, Felicia L. Wilczenski, and Mary Anna Ham incorporate broad perspectives of ethical theories which are grounded in various worldviews and sensitive to cultural issues.

Key Features:

• Introduces a wide range of ethical theories: Important to the foundation of ethical decision-making is an in-depth understanding of general culturally relevant ethical theories that represent most world philosophical views. In addition to covering mainstream theories, this book introduces a wide range of ethical theories from Western, Eastern, Middle Eastern, Pan African, Native American, and Latino ethical perspectives.
• Offers numerous examples: Case studies are provided throughout the text to show how to apply diverse ethical theories to clinical practice. The authors also discuss how to negotiate between an enhanced ethical perspective based on diversity and professional standards codified and mandated in this country.
• Provides a systematic ethical decision-making model: Ethical decision-making has become a critical part of the training and practice of professional counselors and they can benefit immensely from systematic training in this area. The model in this book provides practitioners with a broad based approach to ethical decision-making, and ultimately improves the ethical decision-making process for counselors.

Intended Audience: This is an ideal textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on professional standards and ethics in the fields of Counseling, Psychotherapy, and Psychology.

Felicia L. Wilczenski, Ed.D. received a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is an Associate Professor and Director of the School Counseling Program in the Department of Counseling and School Psychology in the Graduate College of Education at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She is a member of the American School Counselor Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the American Psychological Association. Dr. Wilczenski is interested in service learning applications in school-based mental health programs. Her work focuses on creating sustainable systemic approaches to character education and social-emotional education that integrate service learning.  She is author of numerous articles addressing social and emotional interventions in K-12 settings. Dr. Wilczenski also teaches ethics courses in school counseling and school psychology and is interested in ethics education and professional development. 

MaryAnna Ham, Ed.D. is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She received her doctorate from the University of Rochester. She developed the ethics curriculum at the University of Massachusetts Boston and she has taught ethics to graduate level counseling students for over ten years. Dr. Ham was the former Director and founder of the Family Therapy Program at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She has focused much of her scholarship on diversity issues and counseling. Dr. Ham has co-authored several books addressing counseling with Asian populations and the role of group affiliation and power. Dr. Ham is a licensed psychologist and licensed family therapy.