What are the ethical responsibilities of counselors?

Question

Can you please provide your sources too. Thanks! =D

Answer 1

I am sure that every profession that provides therapy or counseling has an organization that defines what the ethical parameters of that profession are. Psychologists have an ethical code that can be found in the APA web site.
Basically, these ethical principles are that you will not divulge information about a specific person that you are seeing such that that person can be identified. You do not have to tell the authorities about a person unless you have knowledge and feel that the person will harm himself or others.
Ethical principles define the kind of relationship you can have with a person you are seeing and how long you have to wait after therapy before you have any relationship with them. That includes not only a personal interpersonal relationship, but also a business relationship. You should not be providing therapy for people with whom you have a personal relationship, but you can give them advice on what they can do.
You also have to take notes and that sort of thing. And you have to provide to protect the information about your patients.
I am sure I have not covered everything, but you can read the whole thing from documentation from various web sites.
Take care.

Answer 2

Counsellors should respect humanity and dignity of people they are counselling. They should recognise and respect diversity among people and avoid discrimination. They need to respect the privacy of their clients and confidentiality of information divulged. They must protect the rights of their clients and abide by laws of society in which they practice. They have a responsibility to their client and should refer to other professionals if faced with issues that extend the boundary of their experience. They must maintain a professional relationship with client and should not exploit their client in any way.