![]() Counselors and counselor educators should seek guidance from counseling professionals who have served as witnesses in court.Īs reported in the Counseling Today article “ Your witness” in 2011, George Cyphers, a counselor educator at Kent State University and owner of a consulting business, made this statement about testifying on behalf of clients: “I have learned over the years that this is a serious business because it involves a person’s life. Together, the ACA Code of Ethics and the CACREP Standards would appear to require that counselor education curricula incorporate training in the roles and responsibilities that come with testifying in court and otherwise acting in the best interests of clients.Ĭounselor educators are not only responsible for providing students with material on courtroom testimony and other aspects of law pertaining to their clients counselor educators are also to be knowledgeable about the topic themselves. specifies that training must be provided in “ethical standards of professional counseling organizations and credentialing bodies, and applications of ethical and legal considerations in professional counseling.” states that programs must include, “the multiple professional roles and functions of counselors across specialty areas,” whereas Standard 2.F.1.i. Two CACREP Standards apply to the issue of counselors testifying in court. The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) Standards (2016) also address the ethical and legal responsibilities of counselor educators in preparing their students for practice. Accordingly, counselor educators are ethically obligated to educate students about their ethical and legal responsibilities when testifying in court. They are knowledgeable regarding the ethical, legal and regulatory aspects of the profession are skilled in applying that knowledge and make students and supervisees aware of their responsibilities.” This section of the ethics code applies to the fact that counselors are frequently subpoenaed to testify on behalf of their clients. of the American Counseling Association’s 2014 Code of Ethics states, “Counselor educators who are responsible for developing, implementing and supervising educational programs are skilled as teachers and practitioners. I also determined to use my negative experience to better equip counselors for testifying in court.Ĭounselor educators are expected to be knowledgeable about ethical and legal issues in the counseling profession and recent changes in the field of counseling. As a result, the client’s case suffered and the counseling profession was misrepresented.Īfter this initial experience of testifying in court, I vowed never to be caught unprepared again. I was not ready for the questions that were asked of me or the grueling process of cross-examination. ![]() The first time that I testified in court as a beginning counselor, I found that I had been poorly prepared by educators and attorneys. Therefore, I believe it is crucial that counselor educators prioritize educating students about testifying in court. ![]() Inadequate knowledge about the judicial system and process regarding court testimony may place counselors at risk for ethical violations. But most counselors are not well prepared to serve as competent witnesses or represent the counseling profession adequately. In a paper presented at the 25th International Play Therapy Conference in 2008, Marilyn Snow and Ruth Ouzts Moore found that counselors were increasingly being called on to testify in court, especially in child custody cases. One topic that often gets neglected is preparing counselors for testifying in court. It is challenging for counselor educators to include all areas of preparation because numerous content and curriculum standards must be met. Counselor educators are responsible for ensuring that students are sufficiently prepared for entry into the counseling profession.
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