Use

of Ethical Standards

This year I met with a student, M., on a weekly basis. She had a 504 that supports her
social/emotional development and executive functioning. M.s parents asked that she receive
regular counseling services because she struggled to turn in work on time, had poor
organizational skills and was often disengaged with her learning. M. is a very bright student who
is highly capable but prefers reading fiction to school work or interacting with peers.

M. and I began by working on developing organizational tools but, based on her input,
willingness to engage and my assessment of her needs, transitioned into working on
mindfulness and then evolving to addressing issues of power and control. M. was very resistant
to academic support but more open and engaged in our work around mindfulness and
power/control. According to the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) Ethical
Standards, I have a responsibility to promote the welfare of individual students and collaborate
with them to develop an action plan for success (Ethical Standards for School Counselors, 2010,
A.1.e). Our working relationship improved significantly when we began working on mindfulness
and M.s classroom behavior improved. However, M. continued to struggle with turning in her
assignments and her grades remained low. M.s parents requested that our counseling sessions
be exclusively academic support, specifically finding missing work and turning it in. I recognized
my responsibility to establish and maintain a working and collaborative relationship with
parents (B.1.f) and found it difficult to balance my own beliefs about the best way to support
this student with her parents. After consulting with M.s grade level counselor and receiving
permission from M. to break confidentiality, I spoke at length with M.s parents about the goals
of our work on mindfulness, power and control. Because the mindfulness work aligned with the
parental goal to improve M.s grades, they were ultimately supportive of the focus of our
counseling sessions.