WEEK 5 ASSIGNMENT
Professional Identity and Ethical Statement
Professional Website
This assignment includes four (4) components:
Professional Identity Statement
Ethics Statement.
Professional website; and
Reflection paper.
Instructions for Professional Identity and Ethics Statement:
The purpose of the professional statement is to inform the potential client(s) of the counselor’s ethical values and its impact on their professional identity. While much of this information will be detailed in the informed consent process, a counselor’s website gives clients a first glimpse and provides appeal to the counseling process.
Professional Identity Statement: How might your personal beliefs and values impact your view of human relationships and behaviors. It may be helpful to review and modify your responses to the preparation task in week 4.
Ethics Statement: What codes of ethics (i.e., ACA, 2014) that govern your practice; multicultural competence and its importance in today’s society; and counselor traits and skills that influence the helping process.
You will write your Professional Identity and Ethics Statement with your future, potential clients in mind.
Write your statement as if you already are a counselor in an agency or private practice setting. Write clearly and concisely. Say what needs to be said but be mindful of the length to ensure potential clients do not lose interest (three to four complete sentences). Be authentic, yet professional. Try not to use clinical jargon lay people might not understand, yet do not be too colloquial. Keep in mind that this is a statement potential clients will read to determine if they will utilize your services. Make your website visually appealing, professional, and free of grammatical/spelling/mechanical errors.
It might be helpful to imagine yourself as a client in search of a counselor or therapist. How might you perceive or respond to the information in the counselor’s statement and the counselor’s professionalism? What would be important for you to learn about the counselor’s practices and approach to counseling?
Instructions for the Professional Website:
After you write your Professional Identity and Ethical Statement create a professional website that can transition with you to professional practice once you are licensed. Your website needs to contain only one web page that includes:
a professional photo.
your ethical statement.
your professional identity statement.
inclusion of belief/values and how the context may influence counseling along with ethical decision making.
your name and graduate student in the Certificate Program or Marriage, Couples, and Family Counseling at Lamar University.
Because you are not yet licensed, document your name and credentials as follows in this example:
Revon L. Spain, Graduate Student in —————- (Counseling and Development Certificate Program or Marriage, Couples, and Family Counseling Student)
Lamar University, Beaumont, TX 77710
For examples of professional websites, students are encouraged to view websites of professional counselors in their state (LOUISIANA) of practice. Additionally, students may want to ask their instructor for “tips of the trade.”
There are several online platforms available for creating free websites, including:
webnode.com
web.com
wix.com
weebly.com
Instructions for the Reflective Paper:
After writing your Professional Identity and Ethical statements and creating your website, write a reflective paper to explain the following:
your understanding of the ethical obligations of the professional counselor.
your personal journey of learning, understanding, and identifying your personal beliefs and value systems along with how they influenced you as a professional; and
your “trials and tribulations” related to building your professional website and marketing yourself as a future professional counselor.
Guidelines for writing the reflective paper:
Write in first-person voice.
Use APA formatting (Include a cover page, but not a reference page).
Write a minimum of two pages
