Ethical and Legal Issues in Counseling: A Conventional Content Analysis

One constant in the counseling profession is that counselors encounter ethical and legal issues in their work with clients. Training programs strive to equip future counselors with the needed knowledge and decision-making skills, and counseling organizations offer codes of ethics and professional development to help practitioners. However, limited research is available on the types of ethical and legal issues counselors face and which ones are the most challenging. We obtained narrative data from 369 counselors through an electronic survey. Respondents shared the most common and difficult ethical and legal issues they faced over the preceding 12 months. The findings highlight a broad array of ethical and legal topics that we articulate through 11 categories. We describe these findings and provide implications for practice and training, along with some recommendations for future research.