CCA Ethics & Professional Standards in Career Counseling 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A career counselor is asked to serve as an expert witness in a wrongful termination lawsuit involving a former client. The most significant ethical concern is:
- Exceeding the scope of career counseling practice
- Violating client confidentiality without a valid release or court order (Correct answer)
- Charging a fee for non-counseling services
- Creating the appearance of bias toward the plaintiff
Correct answer: Violating client confidentiality without a valid release or court order
Testifying about a former client's information without proper authorization or a court order violates confidentiality.
Question 2: When counseling clients from cultures with collectivist values, ethical multicultural practice requires the counselor to:
- Encourage individualistic career decision-making to promote autonomy
- Recognize that family and community input may be central to the client's career decisions (Correct answer)
- Apply standard Western career development theories without modification
- Refer the client to a counselor from the same cultural background
Correct answer: Recognize that family and community input may be central to the client's career decisions
Culturally responsive practice acknowledges that collectivist clients may legitimately involve family and community in career decisions.
Question 3: Which ethical principle is most directly at stake when a career counselor continues to see a client beyond their area of competence rather than making a referral?
- Justice
- Nonmaleficence (Correct answer)
- Autonomy
- Fidelity
Correct answer: Nonmaleficence
Nonmaleficence—do no harm—is violated when a counselor provides services outside their competence, risking client harm.
Question 4: A career counselor maintains a blog where they post case vignettes to illustrate career development concepts. Ethically, these vignettes must:
- Include a disclaimer that all characters are fictional
- Be sufficiently disguised so clients cannot be identified, even with written consent obtained (Correct answer)
- Receive IRB approval before publication
- Only describe successful client outcomes to avoid reputational harm
Correct answer: Be sufficiently disguised so clients cannot be identified, even with written consent obtained
Disguising identifying details protects client confidentiality even in educational or illustrative contexts.
Question 5: Under the NCDA Code of Ethics, how long must career counselors typically retain client records after termination of services?
- One year
- Three years
- Five years
- Dependent on applicable state law and agency policy (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Dependent on applicable state law and agency policy
Record retention requirements are governed by state laws and institutional policies, which the NCDA code requires counselors to follow.
Question 6: A career counselor receives a LinkedIn connection request from a current client. The most ethical course of action is to:
- Accept the request to maintain rapport outside sessions
- Decline and address the request in session as a potential boundary issue (Correct answer)
- Block the client on all social media to prevent future incidents
- Accept only after the counseling relationship ends
Correct answer: Decline and address the request in session as a potential boundary issue
Social media connections with current clients can blur professional boundaries and should be declined and discussed therapeutically.
Question 7: The ethical duty of 'veracity' in career counseling primarily obligates the counselor to:
- Verify all information clients provide about their work history
- Be truthful with clients even when the truth is uncomfortable (Correct answer)
- Document every session with verbatim accuracy
- Obtain factual references before endorsing a client's qualifications
Correct answer: Be truthful with clients even when the truth is uncomfortable
Veracity is the ethical obligation to be honest and truthful with clients in all professional communications.
CCA Ethics & Professional Standards in Career Counseling 3
A career counselor is asked to serve as an expert witness in a wrongful termination lawsuit involving a former client.
The most significant ethical concern is: