Real life is complex. Too often ministers and counselors find themselves caught in situations where it appears that in order to comply with a valid professional ethical principle, they must violate another valid professional ethical principle. At other times, our personal values appear to conflict with legal or societal requirements of our profession. Professional Ethics 2 focuses on the application of major ethical principles found in the codes of ethics of major professional mental health organizations (AAMFT, CAMFT, APA, ACA, CAPS) to address these dilemmas.

This course will focus on identifying and resolving ethical dilemmas, the relationship of religious and personal values with ethical practice, and the philosophical and theological foundations of ethical practice.

While this course is designed to contribute to meeting the California BBS curricular requirements for essential knowledge about ethics in professional counseling, general knowledge of professional ethics is assumed. Therefore, Professional Ethics 1 (COUN 720) is a prerequisite for this course. Students who did not complete COUN 720 may attend only with permission of the instructor and will be expected to complete all of the exercises in Corey, Corey, and Haynes (2003) or similar professional ethics program before the course begins.

CEU: 16 hours available