So, If You're A Christian, You're Then Unfit To Become A Professional Counselor?

It only took seven pages of back and forth before we arrived at a proper and relevant response as to why this it is appropriate to give this student the boot.

There's a significant gap between Christian and bigot, much as there is a gap between counselor and potential danger to society.

As someone who graduated with an MS.Ed in Counselor Education (the same masters the ASU student was going for), if you can't move beyond your personal beliefs, you can't counsel. My program had the same accreditation as the ASU program, NCATE for the school of education and CACREP for the counseling program. Ethical issues come up as a topic in every class you take, and there are a couple of big ones here.

The first is that your personal beliefs and views shouldn't impact your counseling, and your counseling should not turn into preaching. If Ms. Keeton ended up with a client who was homosexual, she could either help them work through the presenting issues, or refer them out to someone with more compatible views.

The second, and this is big one, is that the American Counseling Association Code of Ethics can be summarized in a simple sentence: Do no harm. If Ms. Keeton is exposing the virtues of conversion therapy for homosexuals, she's in direct violation of the ACA Code of Ethics according to this statement released in May 2006. To summarize, studies of conversion therapy show zero effectiveness and actually show that it is harmful to clients engaging in it. Furthermore, ethical counselors would only engage in practices that are within the scope of their training and experience. Since ACA does not recognize any conversion therapy training program, anyone using such counseling would be working outside the scope of their training. Additionally, ACA does not recognize homosexuality as a disorder (they stopped in 1973), which means that there is no issue present to be treated, putting a conversion therapist outside of the Code of Ethics.

To summarize, the doctor analogy that someone posted a few pages back is quite relevant. A doctor practicing junk science or performing treatments on ailments that don't exist would be torn a new one, if you catch my drift. Ms. Keeton as a counselor is no different.

 

Thanks for your well crafted response but, in all due respect, who said she can't? For that matter, what does moving beyond personal beliefs (whatever those might be) even mean in this context? Are you implying that, simply because she is a Christian, then she has no business ever becoming a counselor?

 

OK, so just because she won't affirm the propriety of behaviors she believes are immoral, then she will be dismissed. Sounds an awful lot like an invasion of constitutional rights to me. I'll be extremely curious to see how this lawsuit pans out.

 

Where does "having" personal convictions equate to "pushing" said convictions on others. Ms. Keeton contends (via the lawsuit) that she prescribes to "the dignity and respect owing to all persons due to their ontological status as created in the image of God."

To me, that says nothing about the pushing of religion.

 

This is about a a person who's constitutional rights are being violated and she is being forced to go thru a faith "retaining" (ie, brainwashing) program and if it is legal for a school to violate those civil rights. I say it against the law to violate her right of freedom of religion, and some here say the school can do so selectively. A lawsuit has been filed and we will see if the school has such a right, or if indeed they are violating her rights of freedom of religion.

Also, there's this. While in general I agree with agoo's post (although he missed the entire point of the thread), studies I have read show that take a school kid to 20 different counselors and they will get 20 slightly different sessions. Why? because studies have shown that despite all the training a counselor still views it thru their life and core values. A homosexual thru the views of a homosexual, an atheist thru the eyes of an artiest, a Christian thru the eyes of a Christian, a Muslim thru the eyes of a Muslim... So to single out the Christian and say "your way is the one and only evil way" is simply not right.

 

Uh, reread the bold line.

I'll go so far as to directly answer the question in the thread title.

IMO, if you are a Christian, or for any other reason actually believe in mythical super-beings and allow yourself and your actions to be controlled by the supposed desires of said mythical super-beings, then you are beyond any doubt unqualified to counsel anyone professionally or otherwise.

Get a grip on basic reality before you offer advice to others.

Furthermore, I'd rather religious persons not be allowed to hold any government jobs, especially positions of authority as most of them feel a higher duty to mythical super-beings than they do to the citizens they serve, and therefore cannot be trusted to faithfully serve the very people who pay their salaries.

 

That said, item 115 still maintains:

Seems pretty clear to me.

 

What, she can't talk about her religion amongst her classmates? Worthy of booting? Hmmm...

Nonetheless, according to the ACA Code Of Ethics:

That tells me that counselors shouldn't be pushing (condoning) personal beliefs/agendas on their students/clients. What it doesn't tell me is "how" they have to personally believe. To me, the whole thing still boils down to professionalism. If Ms. Keeton can exhibit that in the classroom, then let her continue her education there.

Item 114 relates that in the ASU handbook it states:

I didn't read anything about riots breaking out in the classroom.

 

"Address the post, but not the poster."

- barfo

http://sportstwo.com/posthistory.php?do=compare&p=2444343

 

A well crafted response that you apparently ignored most of. If she's discussing openly that she would consider conversion therapy, she is unfit to counsel.

I got my Master's at a Catholic school. There were many Catholics and Christians in the program who would be and already are excellent counselors. Those people can all deal with clients who they have basic lifestyle disagreements with. Ms. Keeton seems unable to deal with people who don't agree with her outlook on life.

 

I think the lady easily wins her lawsuit. Discrimination, violating a person's right to religious freedom, and literal brainwashing programs may play well in China or Russia, but I'm betting on our constitution prevailing in this one.