Principle 1: Respect for the rights and dignity of the client: Guidance counsellors honour and promote the fundamental rights, moral and cultural values, dignity and worth of clients. They respect clients’ rights to privacy, confidentiality, self-determination and autonomy, consistent with the law. As far as possible, they ensure that the client understands and consents to whatever professional action they propose.
Principle 2: Competence: Guidance counsellors maintain and update their professional skills. They recognise the limits of their expertise, engage in self-care, and seek support and supervision to maintain the standard of their work. They offer only those services for which they are qualified by education, training and experience.
Principle 3: Responsibility: Guidance counsellors are aware of their professional responsibility to act in a trustworthy, reputable and accountable manner towards clients, colleagues and the community in which they work and live. They avoid doing harm, take responsibility for their professional actions, and adopt a systematic approach to resolving ethical dilemmas.
Principle 4: Integrity: Guidance counsellors seek to promote integrity in their practice. They represent themselves accurately and treat others with honesty, straightforwardness and fairness. They deal actively with conflicts of interest, avoid exploiting others, and are alert to inappropriate behaviour on the part of colleagues.
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