Ethical Practice in Grief Counseling

Book excerpt: "Gamino and Ritter do an excellent job of providing cogent advice and helpful suggestions for how professionals can manage ethical dilemmas that arise from the practice of grief counseling." -J. William Worden, PhD, ABPP Clinical Psychologist Laguna Niguel, California Author, Grief Counseling and Grief Therapy, 4th Edition (From the Foreword) Essential reading for grief counselors, mental health clinicians, death educators, hospice workers, clergy, funeral directors, and social workers. Grief counselors are confronted daily with a host of serious ethical dilemmas, some so critical that they can drastically change the course of a counselor's practice and career. This practical and authoritative guide serves as a comprehensive handbook for navigating the difficult ethical issues grief counselors confront daily with clients. These include confidentiality, end-of-life issues, intimacies with clients, challenges posed by unnatural deaths, spiritual and cultural considerations, and many more. To tackle these issues head on, Gamino and Ritter present the Five P Model, a customized process for ethical decision-making that will help counselors outline a specific, step-by-step course of action to respond to the ethical dilemma at hand. The book is also rich with case examples, both hypothetical and real-life, to demonstrate how to implement the Five P Model in practice, and apply it to various ethical dilemmas. Among the key topics discussed: How to address ethical problems posed by Internet counseling, such as authenticating identity, securing confidentiality, and intervening in a crisis Death competence on the part of the counselor and how the counselor's own experience of grieving can inform counseling practice Guidance on how to report a colleague or face a complaint How to meet ethical obligations towards clients when moving or closing a practice