There are three major topics which are essential to define in the scope of the discussion the children counselling. Privacy is the client’s right to “choose who has access to information” (Sori & Hecker, 2015, p. 451). At the same time, confidentiality is the category of ethical obligation which implies the need to ensure that the to keep information gained about the patient is private. Privilege counselling is the legal right of the client for privacy and confidentiality. In order to ensure the legal representation of the interest of the clients, the therapeutics should develop a unique approach to each child based on developmental issues and confidentiality issues.
The information sharing with parents depends on the confidentiality laws established in a particular county. However, several aspects must be shared, specifically harmful to children. These include harm to self or others or abuse (Sori & Hecker, 2015). The same rules are applied to adult clients: if the person acts potentially dangerous, the counsellor should address it through third parties. Any problems in child behaviour that the counsellor should deal with result from difficulties in the development process. Learning about the different factors that could affect the child helps establish better communication. Moreover, a counsellor’s knowledge of child development can help to choose the more suitable counselling approach, which improves the competencies of a specialist.
As a personality, tolerance is the most critical ethical aspect. That is why the most challenging aspect of children and adolescents counselling is working with clients affected by race biases. Clinical experience shows that such children are the most traumatised (Himmelstein et al., 2016). Being tortured by society, they accepted that their lives were worth nothing, resulting in many mental issues. The impact of cultural peculiarities is noted by the children from the early stages of their development (Lingras, 2021). The general mechanisms of racism biases are similar, which can help the counsellor more effectively help young clients.
In conclusion, as mentioned above, racial and cultural issues affect counselling directly. As the researchers show, for example, understanding racism biases helps the counsellor to design an individual proactive strategy to help the children cope with mental issues (Dooley et al., 2019). Therefore, the professional counsellor can form an effective counselling approach by following the ethical and developmental insights which should be chosen individually for each client’s experience.
References
Dooley, D., Douge, J., & Trent, M. (2019). The impact of racism on child and adolescent health. Pediatrics, 144(2). Web.
Himmelstein, D., Marrast, L., & Woolhandler, S. (2016). Black, Hispanic children, youth rarely get help for mental health problems. International Journal of Health Service, 46(4), 810–824. Web.
Lingras, K. (2021). Talking with children about race and racism. Journal of Health Service Psychology, 47, 9–16. Web.
Sori, C, & Hecker, L. (2015). Ethical and legal considerations when counselling children and families. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 36(4), 450–464. Web.