NCE Professional Orientation and Ethics Prep

Which group has been most instrumental in opposing counselor licensure?

Psychologists

In the late 1970s, the AACD (ACA) began to focus heavily on professional credentialing. This led to the formation of the

NBCC

By passing the NCE, a counselor can attain _____, given via NBCC

NCC, a generic certification for counselors

Which choice would most likely violate the counseling ethic or law termed scope of practice?

A counselor who is conducting a strict Freudian psychoanalysis with the client

Ethical guidelines were first created for the helping professions in 1953 when the APA published its first code of ethics. The NASW created its code in 1960, and in 1961, the organization that is now ACA dopted ethics for counselors. Ethics always describe

Standards of conduct imposed by ACA and NBCC

Most ethical dilemmas are related to

Confidentiality

The landmark 1969 case, Tarasoff versus the Board of Regents of the University of California, illustrated

The duty to warn a client in imminent danger

A counselor reveals information that is extremely damaging to a client’s reputation. This counselor could be accused of

Defamation

State laws can govern title usage and practice, however, they don’t govern

Accreditation

An exception to confidentiality could occur when a client is suicidal. Suicidal warning signs includeding

All of the above

A statement of disclosure could include all except

A list of the courses the counselor took in graduate school

Privileged communication refers to the fact that anything said to a counselor by a client

Will not be divulged outside the counseling setting without the client’s permission

In regard to state law and privileged communication, counselors must be aware that

Laws are unclear and may vary from state to state

When counselors state that privileged communication is “qualified,” they actually mean that

Exceptions may exist

You are a counselor in a state that doesn’t legally support privileged communication. You refused to testify in court. In this situation

You could be held in contempt of court

An 11 year old child comes to your office with a black eye and tells you she can’t remember how she received it. You have reason to suspect abuse. You should

Call the child abuse/neglect hotline

During a counseling session, a 42 year old male client threatens suicide. You should

Contact his wife and advise her of possible suicide precautions

A 39 year old female secretary you are seeing in your assertiveness training group reveals that she is plotting to shoot her husband. Based on the Tarasoff case, you should

Warn the husband

You pass your exam and now have NCC status. During a staff meeting, a clinical director explains to you that, from an ethical standpoint, your primary duty is to the agency. Most experts in the field of counselor education would

Disagree inasmuch as professional ethics emphasize that your primary responsibility is to your clients

One impetus for cousenlor licensing was that

Psychology licensure bodies sought to restrict the practice of counselors so counselors couldn’t receive third party payments from insurance and managed care companies

A counselor who possesses a graduate degree wishes to become a licensed psychologist. Which statement most accurately depicts the current situation?

In nearly every case, individuals trained in counseling departments wouldn’t be allowed to sit for the EPPP and thus couldn’t become licensed psychologists

A woman who is in private practice mentions in her phone book advertisement that she is a licensed counseling psychologist. This generally menas that

She has a graduate degree from a psychology department

One major difference between the psychology versus the counseling movement seems to be that

The psychologists are working to eliminate practitioners with less than a doctorate, while the counselors aren’t

APA is to psychologists as ACA is to

Counselor

You have achieved the status of NCC. NBCC, nevertheless, feels you have violated professional ethics. NBCC can do any of the following except

Revoke your state counseling license

A counselor who is alcoholic and suffering from bunrout could best be described as

An impaired professional

Counselor certification

Recognizes that you have reached a given level of competence and thus are authorized to use a title

A woman comes to you for help with an eating disorder. You have no experience or training in this area. Ethically, you should

Refer this client to a colleague who is trained and experienced with this type of client

Virginia was the first state to license counselors in 1976. The APGA (now ACA) division that was initially the most instrumental in pushiing for licensing was the

American Counselor Education and Supervision

The problem with income sensitive or sliding fee scales is that

It’s difficult to administer them in a fair manner

One possible negative aspect of counselor licensure is that

Counselors may not be as creative during their graduate work and simply take courses aimed at fulfilling the requirements to take the licensure exam

A client wants their records sent to a psychiatrist they are seeing. You should

First, have the client sign a dated ROI that stipulates whether the information can be released once (or for what period of time it can be released) and then you can send the information

You are a licensed professional counselor in one state but will soon relocate to another state. The new state informs you that they will grant you reciprocity or so-called endorsement. You will thus

Be permitted to practice in the new state based on your current credentials without taking another exam

According to FERPA of 1974, also known as the Buckley Amendment

A parent can see their child’s middle school record and an 18 year old college student can view their own educational record

You are a school counselor who wishes to refer an orthopedically disabled student to a private therapist. In general, the best referral would be to

Certified rehabilitation counselor

A registry would be

A list of licensed psychologists in the state of Illinoise and a list of CRCs in the US

A counselor wins the lottery and closes her practice without telling her clients. This counselor’s course of action is best described as

Abandonment

You are counseling your first cousin for depression. This is

Generally unethical as it would constitute a dual or so-called multiple relationship

A counselor who sports NCC after their name

Will need a specified amount of continuing education contact hours before they can be rectified, or they will need to take the NCE again

You find yourself sexually attracted to a client. This is known as

Countertransference

Your sexual attraction toward your client is hindering the counseling process. You should

Explain this to the client and then refer the client to another provider

A malpractice or liability insurance company is least likely to defend you if

You are sexually involved with a client

Computers are now being used in various counseling settings. Counselors speak of Computer Assisted Counseling (CAC) and Computer Managed Counseling (CMC). An office that employs a computer to schedule clients would be an example of

CMC

A college student who suffers from panic disorder types his symptoms and concerns onto a PC screen and then waits for the computer program to respond or question him further. The student engages in this practice for one 40 minute session per week. This is an example of

CAC

As a professional counselor, you develop a self-help software package for use by the general public. Ethics indicate that

The package must be initially designed for stand-alone usage as opposed to modifying a package requiring counselor support

Which statement best describes the counseling profession’s reaction to computer assisted counseling and computer managed counseling?

CMC has been well received since it cuts down time on paperwork, scheduling, and record keeping, but there is a mixed reaction to CAC as some feel it depersonalizes counseling

You are a supervisor at a sexual abuse treatment agency. Sally is one of your counselors and you give her a performance rating on a yearly basis. Sally has been having panic attacks on a daily basis at home for almost a month and her physician feels that counseling rather than medicine is indicated. Now, for the first time, she has a terrible panic attack at work. If you don’t see her, the nearest counselor is 150 miles away. You should

Attempt to counsel her

A counseling journal article should use documentation that is based on

APA style

A 14 year old male threatens to blow up his parents’ garage because he has been grounded. You believe his threat is genuine. You should

Warn the parents that their property is in danger

A 16 year old girl threatens to kill herself and you fail to inform her parents. Your behavior as a counselor is best described as

An example of negligence, which is a failure to perform a duty, which in this instance, is an obligation to protect the client

NBCC has developed a Code of Ethics to help counselors behave in a professional manner. The code is divided into a preamble and seven sections. The first section warns against stereotyping and discrimination. All of the following would be examples of stereotyping and discrimination except

Advising a client to consider switching his college major based on your clinical judgment as well as the results from an extensive test battery

Section A, which is the general section of NBCC’s Code of Ethics, cautions counselors against sexual harassment, defined as “unwelcomed comments, gestures, or physical contacts of a sexual nature.” An example of an ethics violation in this respect would be

A female counselor who repeatedly tells a male client how sexy his hairy chest looks when he leaves his shirt unbuttoned

You are a well-known cognitive behavior therapist who heads up a private practice in New Jersey. For the next two years, you will be in Canada conducting a research project. Your practice has 6 other counselors. The practice is sending brochures to schools, agencies, and hospitals in an attempt to boost referrals. Your name appears on the front of the brochure as if you are available for referrals. This is

Unethical

A colleague of yours who isn’t a certified counselor behaves in an unethical manner. The ethical thing for you to do is

Attempt to rectify the condition via institutional channels, turning to NBCC procedures if this fails

A client asks you for classical psychoanalysis, yet you have no training whatsoever in this area. If you agree to analyze the client, you are

Unethical as this is misrepresentation

A client needs counseling but can afford only $5 per session. As a private practitioner, you charge $75 per hour. You should

Consider the client’s financial status and the locality and offer her a reduced rate

Dr. X recommends to his agency clients that he would rather counsel them in his private practice. Ethically speaking,

Dr. X is diverting agency clients to his practice and this is unethical

Section B of NBCC’s Code of Ethics deals with the counseling relationship. Thus, a counselor who uses a paradoxical strategy

Should explain the purpose of this technique to the client

A counselor is counseling an executive secretary. The counselor notes that he is writing a book and explains to the client that he will see her for free if she types the manuscript. This is

Known as bartering and unethical as described here

Ethics state that a counselor should ______ all clients for group counseling

Screen

You are a middle school counselor at a public school. A child is threatening to kill another student and admonishes you to keep it a secret. According to the ethical principle of minimal disclosure, the best course of action would be to

Inform the parents of the student in danger, inform the principal, and call the police immediately, discussing only material related to the threat

Your agency uses a collection agency when clients don’t pay their bills. You should

Inform the client of this before the counseling begins

You have just made a landmark discovery that you believe could literally change the entire field of counseling, so you write an article presenting your findings. The next step would be to

Submit the article to one publication at a time despite your conviction that the article must get published

Section F of NBCC’s Code of Ethics is concerned with ethics related to consulting. Consulting, or consultation, can best be defined as

A voluntary relationship between a professional helper and a help-needing individual, group, or social unit in which the consultant helps define or solve problems related to clients, the client system, or work-related issues

Section G of NBCC’s Code of Ethics describes ethical issues related to private practice. Which of these situations is clearly an ethics violation?

An executive director of a private practice who has his name listed in a Yellow Pages advertisement as a counseling provider despite the fact that he is out of the country and is engaged in a research project for the next two years

Nosology refers to a system of classification. Name the nosological system(s) utilized by professional counselors who diagnose clients

DSM and ICD

The DSM was created by the APA. The ICD was created by the WHO. Which counselor would most likely be required to utilize one of these guides to diagnose a client?

A counselor who wishes to secure insurance payments

Traditionally, ______ counseling has caused the most ethical concerns

Behavioral

Insurance payments are also called

Third-party payments

The DSM uses a multiaxial classification system with 5 axes. Diagnostic codes have ____ digits

5

Identify the DSM code

303.90

As you are reading the DSM, you see this code: 296.2X. In this case, the X refers to

Severity, and thus it will be replaced with a diagnostic number

In the DSM, the so-called V codes refer to conditions which are not attributable to a mental condition. An example of a V code would be

V62.82

An example of a V Code diagnosis would be

Uncomplicated Bereavement

Formal diagnosis, also known as nosology, is most closely related to the _____ model.

Medical

Which DSM diagnosis indicates the most serious pathology?

296.24

The type of mental health service provided to the client is coded via _____ and is generally required for insurance payments

The AMA’s Current Procedural Terminology (ex: CPT 90844)

You refer a client to Dr. Smith. Ethically, Dr. Smith

May not pay you a referral fee for sending her the client

You have written a very popular book on reality therapy. Now, you are teaching a graduate course on counseling at a local university. Ethically, you

May use the book as a textbook in your class

An elementary school counselor is giving a child a standardized test. On several occasions, the child says he doesn’t understand what the counselor has said. The counselor should

Repeat the question, but talk more slowly

The most popular paradigm of mental health consultation has been proposed by

Caplan

The doctor-patient consultation model relies on four distinct states: entry, diagnosis, implementation, and evaluation. In order for the doctor-patient structure to work, the consultee must accurately depict symptomatology, trust the consultatn’s diagnosis, and carry out the consultatn’s directives. This model is associated most closely with the work of

Schein

_____ is the leading cause of malpractice actions taken against counselors, therapists, and mental health providers

Sexual misconduct

Your client was seeing Dr. Doyle for counseling for 3 years. The client has now stopped seeing Dr. Doyle and has an appointment to see you. You should

Counsel the client

You are treating a man who suffers from panic disorder. His panic attacks are so severe that he can’t drive to work. After just 3 sessions, he is not only driving to work, but has taken up sky diving to demonstrate his progress over his fear. You would love to put his testimonial on your brochure to show how adept you are at treating this affliction. You should

Not ask him for a testimonial since it would constitute an ethics violation

Ethical dilemmas rarely have clear-cut answers. Thus, when a complex ethical situation manifests itself, it’s best to

Consult with colleagues as well as ethical codes inasmuch as legal standards are very often based on the methods of fellow professionals in analogous situations

You have attempted to help a client for over two years with little or no success. You should

Terminate the relationship and initiate an appropriate referral

Assume that you have decided to refer a client elsewhere because you were unable to help her. The client insists upon seeing you. Ethics guidelines would dictate that

You aren’t obligated to continue the relationship

Counseling is a relatively new profession. The first counselors in the US weren’t called counselors. They were

Deans and advisors employed after the Civil War in college settings to watch over young women

Historically speaking, the first psychology laboratory was set up by

Wilhelm Wundt in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany

Counseling became popular after the 1931 publication of

Workbook in Vocations by Proctor, Benefield, and Wrenn

PL94-142 (the Education Act for All Handicapped Children) states that

All of the above

The major trend that impacted upon the counseling movement in the 1980s

Included an emphasis on professionalism, certification, and licensing

The APGA and APA had joint ethics guidelines for counselors and psychologists. This changed during the 1970s when

The APA didn’t wish to credential master’s leve counselors or psychologists

The 1950s was the age of tremendous strides in

Developmental psychology

The _____ movement began in the late 1960s

Group

In the 1960s, Gilbert Wrenn’s book, The Counselor in a Changing World, urged counselors to

Emphasize developmental concerns rather than merely focusing on crises and curing emotional illness

One of the primary problems of counseling in the early 1960s was that it wrongly emphasized

Intrapsychic processes

The significance of the 1958 National Defense Education Act was that it

All of the above

A man has a rare, highly contagious disease that is fatal. He is keeping it a secret and insists that he will never tell his wife. You should

Break confidentiality and tell his wife