Ethical Issues in School Counseling

Running Head: BUSINESS AND CORPORATION LAW
0
Psychology
Counselling
12/28/2019
Student’s Name

Psychology
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In daily life, people encounter many issues related to their personal as well as professional life
and need advice/opinions of others. Such advice can be taken from any family member, friend or
other social member or even from a professionally qualified person. Here the role of counseling
comes into light. Counseling can be understood as a process to provide advice on social or
personal issues by a professional (Guindon, 2011). Such a professional is known as a counselor
who engages in the resolution of different issues, by the study and utilization of the different
approaches to understand and solve an issue of his/her client. The main objective of counseling is
to provide a different viewpoint of a situation which helps a client to see a situation more
efficiently. For clients of different age groups, different approaches are applicable as the
individuals of different ages have different senses, thinking capabilities, and opinions. The
objective of the report is to understand the difference between counseling of young people and
that of the adults. To meet this objective, discussion related to issues of young adolescent’s and
adult's approaches to these issues will be carried out. In addition to this, the moral and ethical
challenges for counselors and teachers in providing support and advice would be studied.
Starting the discussion over the difference between counseling of young people and adults, this is
to state that the lead difference is related to the area of focus. While in the counseling of young
adolescents, counselors are required to focus on the age of the clients as it affects the substantial
stage of their brain development, whereas age is not as relevant as in the case of adults.
Similarly, during the counseling of young adolescent, a counselor need to develop a relationship
of trust so that client is able to share all the issues and concern with him/her, whereas in the case
of adults, clients already know that counselor is there to help them and therefore they need to
share their issues clearly. In addition to these differences, another issue is also there which is
building rapport and trust with parents. In general, young people and adolescents are motivated

Psychology
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to pursue counseling by their parents and attend the counseling sessions with them. In such a
situation, it becomes important for the counselor to consider the wellbeing of the adolescent as
well as building and maintaining trust with his/her parent. It sometimes makes the working of the
counselor crucial, because in addition to the adolescent, he/she also needs to make good
coordination with parents. Such issues usually do not exist in the case of adult counseling and
therefore professionals find it easier in the adult counseling in comparison to counseling of a
child or an adolescent.
Another difference between counseling of young adolescents and adults can also be stated based
on the type of issues. People of different ages encounter different issues that further lead to
different methods and approaches to counseling. Substance abuse issues are very common in the
case of young adolescents. Drug and alcohol use is one of the major problems among adolescents
that require counseling to overcome. In their teenage, people cannot understand the adverse
consequences of such use and more often go with counseling after the suggestion of their
parents. It means young adolescents do not want to get rid of this habit, as they do not consider it
as an issue for them. However, in the case of adults, the situation is not the same. In their
adulthood people start understating that substance and drug use are not good for them and they
want to overcome this habit on their own. Thus, most of the clients who visit counselors due to
substance or drug use are young adolescents.
Another issue is related to bullying which is also very common among adolescents. It can take
place in many forms such as bullying at school, bullying by social members or cyber bullying. In
teenage, one is likely exposed to be physically as well as mentally bullied in various educational
and professional institutions. Similar to substance abuse, the issue of bullying also seems to be
present more widely in the adolescents (Midgett, 2016). Adolescents engage more in social