Professional competence refers to our ability to perform effectively within our professional role. As counselors, we are required to remain aware of our professional strengths and weaknesses and respond accordingly when counseling situations fall outside of our ability to be effective. Professional competence involves working with client populations for which we have been properly trained, maintaining training and education throughout our careers, and identifying and addressing personal experiences or internal problems that can affect our ability to be effective counselors. In this chapter, authors cover what it means to be professionally competent, how to recognize when we are exceeding boundaries of competence, and how to maintain competence throughout a professional career. Professional competence includes a host of complex situations and variables. Much of the research and writings on the topic of competence focuses on multicultural competence. Understanding individual differences in our client population is essential for maintaining professional competence.

The concept of boundaries is understood as a method of maintaining professional roles within the context of providing services. The intention of professional boundaries is to maintain a healthy and trusting relationship between the professional and the client. This chapter focuses on three typical dilemmas that occur within counseling relationships: (a) self-disclosure, (b) accepting gifts, and (c) inappropriate relationships. It reviews each of these dilemmas and walk through how the American Psychological Association (APA’s) Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct and that of the American Counseling Association (ACA’s) Code of Ethics can guide our ethical decisions. Professional boundaries are maintained through an awareness of the cultural and workplace norms, and internal dynamics that impact a counselor’s perception and experience of boundaries.

This chapter reviews two ethical issues which authors find challenging for any counselor, given their nuances: (a) understanding how worldviews may collide and (b) what happens when boundaries are crossed. It discusses the role of self-awareness in sound ethical decisions. The chapter reviews each of these dilemmas and walk through how American Psychological Association (APA) and American Counseling Association (ACA) can guide our ethical decisions regarding each of these dilemmas. Counselors cannot make sound ethical decisions devoid of individual and sociocultural contexts. In this chapter the authors reviewed that being culturally competent includes having self-awareness of our biases and assumptions, knowledge of those we work with, and our ability to adapt our skills so they are congruent with the people we serve. It is most important to be aware of our various areas of privilege and biases that may impact our ability to effectively interpret and respond to ethical dilemmas.

Social media is an amazing way to communicate with friends, colleagues, and family members across the world. Counselors have the right to participate in and benefit from this way of relating to others it would be unrealistic to think otherwise. This chapter focuses on counselors’ personal use of social media platforms and how their participation may result in ethical dilemmas. Social media has become, and likely will continue to be, an integral way in which people communicate. The potential to leverage social media for counseling-related purposes is promising. However, given the laws, rules, and ethical guidelines and standards that are still under development, counselors must proceed with caution, even when social media is used for professional purposes, and thoughtfully consider the risks and benefits. Given the interconnected, transparent, and discoverable nature of social media, personal use must also be thoughtful and deliberate.

This chapter reviews multiple vignettes that provide examples of complex ethical dilemmas involving client and colleagues. It focuses on three specific gray areas that pose dilemmas for counselors. First, and perhaps one of the greatest dilemmas, is how to tell the difference between actions that can be addressed informally vs. actions that require reporting to ethics committees. While discussing the importance of addressing colleagues’ behaviors, it is essential to develop the ability to receive feedback ourselves. Therefore, two additional gray areas arise. First, how do we proceed when workplace rules seem to differ from our code of conduct? Second, how should we proceed if the counselor engaging in unethical behavior is a supervisor or someone in a leadership position? The chapter reviews each of these gray areas and walk through how the American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Counseling Association (ACA) can guide sound ethical decisions.