Making ethical decisions and having a model to make ethical decisions is important within the marriage and family therapy and counseling professions. Counselors and marriage and family therapy and counseling students are often in situations where personal values or beliefs conflict with the client's beliefs and behaviors. It is essential to know how to ethically approach these situations.

Read the following case study:

Felicia lives in a state that has adopted the CAMFT Code of Ethics as the state code of ethics. However, recent legislation has been enacted that allows counselors to refuse to provide services to any client that conflicts with the counselor's personal beliefs. Felicia is a student in a marriage and family therapy and counseling program that requires students to abide by the code of ethics. Felicia grew up in a remote, homogenous area and was raised with very strong opinions regarding same sex marriage and the rights and obligations of undocumented immigrants.

Felicia works as a trainee at a community agency that focuses on marriage and family therapy and counseling support for impoverished families. She just started to report to you last week. You assigned her to work with Margaret and Maria yesterday.

Margaret is a United States citizen. Maria was brought to the United States from Mexico by her parents when she was less than a year old. She recently learned that she is not a U.S. citizen and that she is undocumented. Her parents never shared this information with her. Margaret and Maria are very close friends. Margaret is a lesbian, but Maria is not. They are discussing marriage because in their state, a legal marriage will allow Maria to apply for citizenship.

Today Felicia has asked to talk to you about some personal reservations about that assignment. You realize that Felicia could use help in utilizing an ethical decision-making model and you want to take her through each step in the process to help her make an appropriate decision for her profession.

You decided to create an 8- to 12-slide presentation that explains how one would utilize recovery-oriented care principles in planning for the care for the clients in this case. Utilize a decision-making model to determine the proper action if you were in Felicia's position. You should use at least 1 slide to discuss the presenting issues, 1 slide for summarizing the considerations for this case study, 1 slide for each step of your decision-making model, and1 slide to summarize what actions you will take. You plan on going through the presentation with Felicia when you meet with her to discuss her assignment to work with Margaret and Maria.

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