Culturally Relevant Ethical Decision-Making in Counseling [Hardcover]

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.  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.   After tracing concepts and values from Western, eastern, and Southern hemisphere theories of ethics, they present case examples treating such ethical dilemmas as rational suicide, counselor competence, conflict between client worldview and the law and culturally appropriate assessment. The text includes discussion questions and Web resources. One of the book's strengths is the overview of various ethical perspectives, which extends beyond what is usually included in ethics books. The authors review a variety of theories, including Western conceptualizations, along with more standard approaches, and Eastern, Middle Eastern, and Southern Hemisphere approaches. The historical background of each theory is interesting and provides context for the theory. In addition, the authors describe the major concepts for each theory, which is helpful in explaining the basics of the perspectives. Finally, each chapter's list of additional readings is helpful. Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
SECTION I. WESTERN THEORIES OF ETHICS
2. Virtue Ethics and Counselor Decision-Making