The Counselling Relationship

5.1 Safety
(a) Counsellors shall take all reasonable steps to protect clients from harm.
(b) Counsellors shall, in their professional practice, take responsible action to challenge violence and abuse of power.
(c) Counsellors shall take all reasonable steps to protect themselves from actual or potential danger.
(d) Counsellors shall warn third parties and appropriate authorities in the event of an imminent threat of serious harm to that third party from the client

5.2 Respecting Diversity and Promoting Social Justice
(a) Counsellors shall take account of their own cultural identity and biases, and seek to limit any harmful impact of these in their work with clients.
(b) Counsellors should work towards bi-cultural competence.
(c) Counsellors shall learn about and take account of the diverse cultural contexts and practices of the clients with whom they work.
(d) Counsellors shall avoid discriminating against clients on the basis of their race, colour, disability, ethnic group, culture, gender, sexual orientation, social class, age, religious or political beliefs or on any other basis.
(e) Counsellors shall work with clients in ways that are meaningful in the context of, and respectful towards, the clients’ cultural communities.
(f) Counsellors shall support their clients to challenge the injustices they experience.
(g) Counsellors shall be committed to the equitable provision of counselling services to all individuals and social groups.
(h) Counsellors shall promote social justice through advocacy and empowerment.

5.3 Appropriateness/Suitability of Counsellor
(a) Counsellors shall determine, in consultation with the client, whether they are appropriate to provide the counselling. Where necessary and feasible, counsellors shall refer clients to other counsellors who would be more appropriate by reason of their skills, gender or culture or for any other reason indicated by the clients’ needs.

5.4 Clear Contracts
(a) The terms on which counselling is provided shall be clear and reasonable. Contracts negotiated between counsellors and clients may include matters to do with availability, fees, cancelled appointments, the degree of confidentiality offered, handling of documentation, complaint procedures and other significant matters.
(b) Counsellors shall establish with clients the aims or purposes of counselling and renegotiate them as necessary.

5.5 Informed Consent
(a) Counsellors shall provide services to clients in the context of free and informed consent. Informed implies understanding and free consent implies a lack of pressure. Counsellors shall respect clients’ rights to refuse or withdraw consent at any time.
(b) Counsellors shall use clear and understandable language to discuss with clients the purposes, risks, limits and costs of the counselling.
(c) Counsellors shall take all reasonable steps to safeguard the interests and rights of clients with limited or diminished capacity to give informed consent. Where relevant, this needs to be done in partnership with caregivers.
(d) Counsellors should respect the rights of children: to receive age appropriate information and to give consent on their own behalf, commensurate with their capacity to do so.
(e) Counsellors shall inform clients, where relevant, of the availability of government funding for counselling services.

5.6 Fees
(a) Counsellors shall clarify fees and methods of payments with clients at the beginning of a counselling relationship.
(b) Counsellors shall ensure that fees are reasonable and commensurate with the service provided.
(c) Counsellors should be cautious about accepting goods or services from clients in lieu of payment. Counsellors who do accept goods or services from clients as payment for professional services are responsible for demonstrating that this arrangement will not be detrimental to the client or to the professional relationship.

5.7 Documentation of Counselling
“Documentation” in this code refers to all material about the client or about the counselling, recorded in any form (electronic, audio, visual and text). Documentation includes material collected for the purposes of: enhancing counselling practice; and meeting the requirements of research, accountability, appraisal, audit and evaluation.
(a) Counsellors shall maintain records in sufficient detail to track the sequence and nature of professional services provided. Such records shall be maintained in a manner consistent with ethical practice taking into account statutory, regulatory, agency or institutional requirements.
(b) Counsellors shall obtain informed consent from clients when writing reports for third parties.
(c) Counsellors shall keep records and notes secure. They shall create, maintain, transfer and arrange to destroy them in a manner compliant with the requirements of the confidentiality sections of this code.
(d) Counsellors shall inform clients of their right to access their documentation, to know how this information is being kept and to know who has access to it.
(e) Counsellors shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that documentation remains retrievable as long as is professionally prudent, or as is required by law.
(f) Counsellors are encouraged to ensure policies are in place for the safe and confidential storage and eventual destruction of client notes, in the event of the counsellor ceasing to practice, leaving the employing agency, or the counsellor dying.

5.8 Respectful Language
(a) Counsellors shall use appropriate and respectful language in all communications, verbal and written, to and about clients.
(b) Counsellors should avoid using diagnostic labelling in any way which is likely to cause harm to their clients.

5.9 Maintaining Competent Practice
(a) Counsellors shall maintain their competence through regular supervision.
(b) Counsellors shall undertake appropriate professional development activities.
(c) Counsellors shall work within the limits of their knowledge, training and experience.

5.10 Fitness to Practice
(a) Counsellors, together with their supervisors, shall monitor and maintain their fitness to practice at a level that enables them to provide an effective service.
(b) Counsellors shall withdraw from part or all of their counselling practice while their emotional, mental or physical health is significantly impaired.

5.11 Multiple Relationships
(a) Counsellors assume full responsibility for setting and monitoring the boundaries between a counselling relationship with a client and any other kind of relationship with that client and for making such boundaries as clear as possible to the client.
(b) Counsellors should consult with their supervisor(s) when dual or multiple relationships arise.
(c) When dealing with more than one party, counsellors should be even handed when responding to the needs, concerns and interests of each party.
(d) When counsellors agree to provide counselling to two or more persons who have a relationship, counsellors shall clarify which person or persons are clients and the nature of the relationship the counsellors will have with each person.
(e) Counsellors should declare any previous acquaintance with a client or any other circumstances that may prejudice the counselling.
(f) If conflicting roles with clients emerge during counselling, counsellors must clarify, adjust or withdraw from these roles by an appropriate process.

5.12 Exploitation
(a) Counsellors shall not exploit clients for purposes of personal, professional, political, or financial gain.
(b) Counsellors shall not solicit testimonials from current or former clients.

5.13 Sexual Relationships With Clients
(a) Counsellors shall not engage in sexual or romantic activity with their clients.
(b) Counsellors shall not exploit the potential for intimacy made possible in the counselling relationship, even after the counselling has ended.
(c) Counsellors shall not sexually harass their clients.
(d) Counsellors shall not provide counselling to persons with whom they have had a sexual or romantic relationship.

5.14 Referral
(a) Counsellors shall refer clients on, where possible, when other specialised knowledge is needed, or when the counselling is not being useful.
(b) Counsellors shall obtain clients’ consent before making referrals to colleagues and other services and before disclosing information to accompany such referrals.
(c) Counsellors shall be responsible, as far as possible, for verifying the competence and integrity of persons to whom clients are referred.
(d) Counsellors shall not ask for or accept referral fees.

5.15 Interruption of Services
(a) Counsellors should make reasonable efforts to plan for alternative care in the event that counselling services are interrupted by a significant change in circumstances, such as the counsellor becoming unavailable, ill or dying.

5.16 Ending Counselling
(a) Counsellors shall work with clients to end counselling when clients have received the help they sought, or when it is apparent that counselling is no longer helpful.