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Question 1Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

Which organization publishes the code of ethics that governs the counseling profession in the United States?

  1. American Counseling Association Correct answer.
  2. Association for Counselor Education and Supervision
  3. American Psychological Association
  4. National Association of Social Workers

Explanation

The ACA is the primary professional membership association for counselors in the United States and publishes the Code of Ethics that state boards and training programs treat as the profession's standard. The other organizations represent different disciplines or narrower specialty interests.

Question 2Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

What is the primary function of CACREP?

  1. Administering state licensure examinations
  2. Certifying individual counselors who meet national standards
  3. Investigating ethical complaints filed against counselors
  4. Accrediting counselor education programs Correct answer.

Explanation

CACREP, the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, reviews and accredits graduate counselor education programs against published standards. It does not credential individuals or handle complaints against practitioners.

Question 3Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

Frank Parsons is best known in counseling history for which contribution?

  1. Establishing vocational guidance services in Boston in the early 1900s Correct answer.
  2. Publishing the first diagnostic manual for mental disorders
  3. Writing the first code of ethics for the profession
  4. Founding the National Board for Certified Counselors

Explanation

Parsons founded vocational guidance services in Boston and is widely credited with launching the guidance movement that eventually developed into professional counseling. His work focused on matching individuals to occupations.

Question 4Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

A counselor who actively supports a client's right to make her own treatment decisions is honoring which ethical principle?

  1. Beneficence
  2. Justice
  3. Autonomy Correct answer.
  4. Fidelity

Explanation

Autonomy refers to respecting clients' right to self-determination and to make their own choices, including about treatment. The counselor's role is to support informed decision making rather than to direct it.

Question 5Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

The ethical principle of nonmaleficence requires counselors to do which of the following?

  1. Avoid causing harm to clients Correct answer.
  2. Promote the welfare of clients
  3. Keep promises made to clients
  4. Treat all clients fairly

Explanation

Nonmaleficence is the obligation to avoid inflicting harm, including through incompetent or negligent practice. It is often paired with beneficence, which is the duty to promote client welfare.

Question 6Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

The National Certified Counselor (NCC) credential is best described as which of the following?

  1. A voluntary national certification Correct answer.
  2. An accreditation of a training program
  3. A license issued by a state board
  4. A doctoral degree designation

Explanation

The NCC is a voluntary national certification awarded by NBCC after meeting education, examination, and experience requirements. It does not by itself authorize practice, which depends on state licensure.

Question 7Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

Which statement best describes informed consent in counseling?

  1. It is an ongoing process across treatment. Correct answer.
  2. It is a one-time event completed at intake.
  3. It is required only for minor clients.
  4. It is limited to group counseling services.

Explanation

Informed consent is an ongoing dialogue in which clients receive understandable information about services, risks, and limits, and may revise their choices over time. It is not discharged by a single signature at intake.

Question 8Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

A counselor must disclose confidential information without client consent when which of the following occurs?

  1. There is reasonable suspicion of child abuse Correct answer.
  2. The client requests a copy of the record
  3. The client's spouse asks about progress
  4. The client reports a crime already adjudicated

Explanation

Mandated reporting laws require counselors to report reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect to designated authorities, overriding confidentiality. Other disclosures generally require the client's written authorization or a court order.

Question 9Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

In most ethical decision-making models, what is the first step when facing an ethical dilemma?

  1. Consult an attorney about legal liability
  2. Define the problem and gather relevant facts Correct answer.
  3. Document the final decision in the record
  4. Implement an action plan and monitor it

Explanation

Sound models begin by clearly identifying and defining the dilemma and collecting the facts, because later steps depend on an accurate framing of the problem. Consultation, action, and documentation come later in the sequence.

Question 10Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

Which statement best distinguishes a boundary crossing from a boundary violation?

  1. A crossing involves gifts; a violation involves sexual contact.
  2. A crossing is always a precursor to a violation.
  3. A crossing is defined by law; a violation by the code.
  4. A crossing may be harmless, whereas a violation exploits or harms the client. Correct answer.

Explanation

A boundary crossing is a departure from customary practice that may be benign or even helpful and should be discussed and monitored. A boundary violation is a departure that exploits or harms the client and is always unethical.

Question 11Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

Under the ACA Code of Ethics, bartering with a client is best described as which of the following?

  1. Required whenever a client is unable to pay the fee
  2. Allowed only when the client signs a release of information and the fee is waived
  3. Permitted if it is not exploitative, is client-initiated, and is documented Correct answer.
  4. Prohibited in all circumstances regardless of setting

Explanation

The Code allows barter only when it is not exploitative or harmful, is requested by the client, is an accepted practice in the community, and is culturally considered and documented in a written agreement. Blanket acceptance or blanket prohibition would both misstate the standard.

Question 12Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

A client credibly threatens to seriously harm an identifiable person. Consistent with the duty to protect, the counselor should do which of the following?

  1. Take reasonable steps to protect the intended victim Correct answer.
  2. Document the threat and continue treatment as planned
  3. Maintain confidentiality because the threat was made in session
  4. Terminate the counseling relationship immediately

Explanation

Duty to protect, which arose from Tarasoff, permits or requires counselors to act when a client poses a serious threat to an identifiable person; actions may include warning the victim, notifying police, or arranging hospitalization. Simple documentation without protective action does not satisfy the duty.

Question 13Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

A counselor in private practice is asked to treat a client with a severe eating disorder, an area outside her training. The most ethical action is to do which of the following?

  1. Seek supervision and refer if competent care cannot be provided Correct answer.
  2. Rely on her personal experience with a friend who had the disorder
  3. Accept the client because licensure permits treating any condition
  4. Begin treatment and disclose the limitation only if a problem arises

Explanation

Counselors practice only within the boundaries of their competence and take reasonable steps to gain competence or refer when a client's needs exceed their training. A license authorizes practice but does not certify expertise in every disorder.

Question 14Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

A counselor who strongly disapproves of divorce is assigned a client considering divorce. According to the ACA Code, the counselor should do which of the following?

  1. Set aside personal values and provide competent, nonjudgmental services Correct answer.
  2. Share her views so the client can make an informed choice
  3. Continue but limit discussion of divorce to practical matters
  4. Refer the client immediately because of the value conflict

Explanation

Counselors set aside their personal values and avoid imposing them on clients, and the Code prohibits referral based solely on the counselor's personally held values. Ethical bracketing allows the counselor to keep personal beliefs from intruding on the client's decision making.

Question 15Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

A supervisee consistently fails to demonstrate basic counseling skills. The supervisor's ethical responsibility is to do which of the following?

  1. Recommend the supervisee for graduation to avoid delaying program completion
  2. Transfer the supervisee to another supervisor without documenting the concerns
  3. Document concerns, provide remediation, then follow dismissal procedures Correct answer.
  4. Ignore the deficits in order to preserve a positive supervisory relationship

Explanation

Supervisors serve as gatekeepers to the profession and must document deficiencies, provide clear feedback and remediation opportunities, and, if remediation fails, follow due-process dismissal procedures. Passing an unqualified trainee endangers future clients.

Question 16Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

Under the ACA Code of Ethics, sexual or romantic relationships with former clients are which of the following?

  1. Permitted if the former client initiates the relationship
  2. Permitted after one year has passed
  3. Prohibited for five years after the last professional contact Correct answer.
  4. Permitted once counseling ends

Explanation

The Code prohibits sexual or romantic relationships with former clients for a minimum of five years after the last professional contact, and even after that period counselors bear a heavy burden of demonstrating the absence of exploitation. The prohibition cannot be waived by client initiation or by a short waiting period.

Question 17Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

Before beginning a counseling group, leaders should inform members of which of the following?

  1. Members sign a contract that legally binds them to secrecy
  2. Confidentiality is guaranteed by the leader's license
  3. Group disclosures have no confidentiality protection at all
  4. Leaders cannot guarantee members' confidentiality Correct answer.

Explanation

Group leaders protect confidentiality as far as possible but cannot control what members disclose outside the group, and they must explain this limit during screening and informed consent. Presenting confidentiality as guaranteed would be misleading.

Question 18Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

When counseling a 15-year-old, a counselor generally should do which of the following?

  1. Disclose all session content to parents upon request
  2. Treat the minor's disclosures as fully confidential from parents
  3. Refuse to see the minor without both parents present
  4. Obtain guardian consent and also seek the minor's assent Correct answer.

Explanation

Minors generally require consent from a parent or guardian, and good practice also involves seeking the minor's assent and clarifying confidentiality with both the minor and the guardians at the outset. State law governs the specifics.

Question 19Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

A counselor must close a practice and cannot continue seeing clients. To avoid abandonment, the counselor should do which of the following?

  1. Plan for appropriate termination and provide referrals Correct answer.
  2. Send a brief notice that services have ended
  3. Keep the files indefinitely in case clients return
  4. Wait for clients to request a transfer of records

Explanation

When services must end, counselors arrange appropriate termination, provide pretermination counseling where feasible, and offer referrals so clients are not left without care. Simply announcing closure or waiting for clients to act leaves them unsupported.

Question 20Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

When a legal requirement conflicts with an ethical standard in the ACA Code, counselors should do which of the following?

  1. Disregard the law and follow the Code
  2. Disregard the Code and follow the law silently
  3. Work to resolve the conflict while complying with the law Correct answer.
  4. Defer entirely to the client's preference in the matter

Explanation

The Code directs counselors to make known their commitment to the Code and to take steps to resolve conflicts between ethics and law, while recognizing the obligation to comply with the law. The aim is resolution of the conflict rather than silent abandonment of either duty.

Question 21Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

To succeed in a malpractice claim against a counselor, a plaintiff generally must prove which of the following?

  1. A written ethical complaint filed with the state board
  2. Duty, breach of duty, causation, and damages Correct answer.
  3. Breach of duty and a signed informed consent form
  4. Damages and the counselor's lack of certification

Explanation

Malpractice requires the plaintiff to establish that the counselor owed a duty of care, breached that duty, that the breach caused the harm, and that actual damages resulted. Failing to prove any one element defeats the claim.

Question 22Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

A client sends a counselor a personal social media friend request. Best practice is to do which of the following?

  1. Accept it to strengthen the therapeutic alliance
  2. Ignore it and make no mention of it in session
  3. Decline and discuss the request and boundary policy in session Correct answer.
  4. Accept it but restrict the client's access to posts

Explanation

Counselors avoid entering personal virtual relationships with clients and instead establish clear technology and boundary policies and talk with clients about requests when they arise. Clinical use of the interaction is preferable to silent avoidance.

Question 23Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

A state statute that defines the practice of counseling, restricts that practice to licensed individuals, and makes unlicensed practice illegal is called which of the following?

  1. A title act
  2. A practice act Correct answer.
  3. A reciprocity agreement
  4. A certification statute

Explanation

A practice act defines the scope of counseling and restricts who may perform it, so practicing without a license is unlawful. A title act, by contrast, only restricts who may use the protected title.

Question 24Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

Before providing distance counseling, counselors are ethically required to do which of the following?

  1. Obtain consent from the client's guardian in all cases
  2. Verify identity and law and obtain informed consent Correct answer.
  3. Use whatever platform is most convenient for the client
  4. Record all sessions to ensure accurate documentation

Explanation

Distance counseling requires verifying client identity, determining the laws and regulations of the client's location, and obtaining informed consent that covers technology risks, privacy limits, and alternatives. Platform convenience and recording practices do not substitute for these duties.

Question 25Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

A counselor whose personal problems are impairing professional functioning should do which of the following?

  1. Disclose the problems to clients and continue working
  2. Continue working until a client files a complaint
  3. Ask a colleague to co-sign the clinical notes
  4. Seek help and limit or suspend practice as needed Correct answer.

Explanation

The Code requires counselors to refrain from practicing when their physical or emotional condition could harm clients and to seek appropriate assistance, limiting or suspending practice when necessary. Neither disclosure to clients nor co-signing notes resolves the impairment.

Question 26Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice

A client asks her counselor for a copy of her counseling record. Consistent with the ACA Code of Ethics, the counselor should do which of the following?

  1. Require the client to obtain a court order before any records are released
  2. Provide access in keeping with law, limiting disclosure only for compelling evidence of serious harm Correct answer.
  3. Deny the request, because clinical records are the counselor's professional property
  4. Release the record only after an attorney has reviewed it for liability concerns

Explanation

The ACA Code directs counselors to provide clients with access to their records upon request, consistent with state law and the setting's policies. Access may be limited only when there is compelling evidence that disclosure would cause serious harm to the client, or when records contain information about an identifiable third party. The default posture is openness, not denial.

Question 27Social and Cultural Diversity

Sue, Arredondo, and McDavis described multicultural counseling competence as having three dimensions. Which set names them?

  1. Awareness, knowledge, and skills Correct answer.
  2. Empathy, genuineness, and warmth
  3. Assessment, case conceptualization, and referral
  4. Prevention, consultation, and program evaluation

Explanation

The tripartite model holds that culturally competent counselors are aware of their own assumptions, values, and biases; possess knowledge of clients' worldviews and cultural context; and can apply culturally appropriate skills and interventions. The three dimensions operate together rather than as separate stages.

Question 28Social and Cultural Diversity

Wrenn's concept of cultural encapsulation refers to which counselor characteristic?

  1. An agency policy requiring same-race counselor assignment
  2. A client's reluctance to discuss cultural background in session
  3. A counselor's reliance on stereotypes and assumed universality in place of the client's reality Correct answer.
  4. A counselor's deliberate use of culture-specific interventions

Explanation

Cultural encapsulation describes a counselor who defines reality according to one set of cultural assumptions, becomes insensitive to cultural variation, and substitutes stereotypes and a one-size-fits-all view of behavior for the client's actual experience. Wrenn identified it as a central barrier to effective cross-cultural work.

Question 29Social and Cultural Diversity

A client of color reports that a coworker said, "You speak so well, where are you really from?" In Sue's taxonomy, this remark is best classified as which type of microaggression?

  1. Microassault
  2. Reverse discrimination
  3. Microinvalidation
  4. Microinsult Correct answer.

Explanation

Microinsults are subtle, often unintentional communications that demean a person's heritage or identity, such as comments implying surprise at a person of color being articulate. They differ from microinvalidations, which negate experiential reality, and from microassaults, which are overt and deliberate.

Question 30Social and Cultural Diversity

Which sequence correctly orders the stages of Cross's nigrescence model of Black identity development?

  1. Conformity, dissonance, resistance-immersion, introspection
  2. Encounter, pre-encounter, internalization, immersion-emersion
  3. Pre-encounter, encounter, immersion-emersion, internalization Correct answer.
  4. Pre-encounter, immersion-emersion, encounter, internalization, internalization-commitment

Explanation

Cross's model proceeds from pre-encounter (the old, pre-existing identity), through encounter (an event that challenges that identity), into immersion-emersion (deep involvement in Black culture and withdrawal from the dominant culture), and on to internalization, later elaborated as internalization-commitment.

Question 31Social and Cultural Diversity

In Helms's White racial identity development model, which status is marked by conscious belief in White superiority and blaming people of color for their disadvantage?

  1. Autonomy
  2. Reintegration Correct answer.
  3. Disintegration
  4. Pseudo-independence

Explanation

Reintegration occurs when a person resolves the racial dissonance of the previous status by consciously accepting racist beliefs, idealizing Whiteness, and denigrating people of color. It represents a step backward from the discomfort of disintegration rather than growth.

Question 32Social and Cultural Diversity

Cass's six-stage model of sexual identity formation begins with which stage?

  1. Identity confusion Correct answer.
  2. Identity tolerance
  3. Identity pride
  4. Identity synthesis

Explanation

Cass's model begins with identity confusion, in which a person first becomes aware that sexual feelings differ from what is expected in their environment. The stages then continue through comparison, tolerance, acceptance, pride, and synthesis.

Question 33Social and Cultural Diversity

An immigrant adolescent rejects both her family's heritage culture and the host culture, showing little involvement in either. In Berry's framework, this acculturation strategy is called:

  1. Assimilation
  2. Integration
  3. Marginalization Correct answer.
  4. Separation

Explanation

Berry's model crosses maintenance of the heritage culture with participation in the host culture; rejecting both yields marginalization, which is generally linked to the poorest psychosocial adjustment. Integration, by contrast, involves engagement with both cultures.

Question 34Social and Cultural Diversity

Which statement best characterizes a collectivistic cultural orientation?

  1. Personal achievement is valued above group harmony and loyalty.
  2. Self-expression and autonomy are the primary goals of development.
  3. Decisions are guided primarily by individual preference and privacy.
  4. Group needs and goals outrank individual wishes. Correct answer.

Explanation

In collectivistic orientations, the self is defined relationally, and obligations to family and community take precedence over individual preferences. Individualistic orientations, by contrast, emphasize autonomy, self-expression, and personal achievement.

Question 35Social and Cultural Diversity

A counselor working with a Mexican American family notes that decisions about a client's treatment are routinely made in consultation with grandparents, aunts, and godparents. The most culturally congruent interpretation is:

  1. Enmeshment that should be targeted as a clinical problem
  2. A collectivistic extended-family value (familismo) Correct answer.
  3. A resistance to treatment that calls for limit setting
  4. Evidence that the client lacks self-differentiation

Explanation

Familismo is a cultural value emphasizing loyalty, reciprocity, and closeness within an extended family network, so consulting relatives about important decisions is normative rather than pathological. Pathology should be judged by impairment, not by departure from individualistic norms.

Question 36Social and Cultural Diversity

A counselor working with a recent Chinese immigrant notices the client agrees readily in session but does not follow through between sessions. The most culturally informed hypothesis is:

  1. Deliberate testing of the counselor's authority
  2. Limited English proficiency preventing consent
  3. A passive-aggressive personality style
  4. Preserving harmony and avoiding loss of face in the session Correct answer.

Explanation

In many Asian cultural contexts, maintaining harmony and saving face are strongly valued, so open disagreement with a professional may be avoided even when the client does not intend to comply. The counselor should invite concerns indirectly and check understanding rather than assume defiance or personality disturbance.

Question 37Social and Cultural Diversity

The concept of historical or intergenerational trauma is most directly relevant when conceptualizing which client population?

  1. Employees adapting to a corporate merger
  2. Adult children of parents with alcohol use disorder
  3. Refugees who experienced war trauma within the past year
  4. Native American and Alaska Native clients Correct answer.

Explanation

Historical trauma refers to cumulative emotional and psychological wounding across generations resulting from massive group trauma such as colonization, forced relocation, and boarding schools, and it is central to conceptualizing present-day distress among Native American and Alaska Native clients. Distress can be transmitted through family and community processes long after the original events.

Question 38Social and Cultural Diversity

A Japanese international student apologizes and hints at dissatisfaction instead of stating it directly. Using Hall's framework, the counselor should understand this as:

  1. Low-context communication showing low assertiveness
  2. Passive resistance to the counseling relationship
  3. High-context communication relying on implicit cues Correct answer.
  4. A sign of an avoidant attachment style

Explanation

Hall distinguished high-context cultures, in which meaning resides largely in the relationship, shared history, and situation, from low-context cultures in which meaning is stated explicitly in words. Indirect expression of dissatisfaction is consistent with high-context politeness norms rather than with avoidance or resistance.

Question 39Social and Cultural Diversity

When a client with limited English proficiency needs an interpreter, recommended practice is to:

  1. Use a trained interpreter and speak directly to the client Correct answer.
  2. Use a family friend who knows the client's culture well
  3. Ask the client's teenage child to interpret to save time
  4. Rely on gestures and written English instead of interpretation

Explanation

Best practice is a trained interpreter rather than family members or friends; the counselor addresses the client directly, avoids side conversations with the interpreter, and asks for faithful rendering of meaning. Using a child distorts family roles and increases the risk of errors and censored information.

Question 40Social and Cultural Diversity

During an intake, a counselor notices an African American client giving brief, guarded answers and disclosing little. Guided by Terrell and Terrell's work on cultural mistrust, the counselor should first:

  1. Consider the client's history of discrimination and build trust Correct answer.
  2. Confront the client about resistance in the first session
  3. Interpret the guardedness as evidence of a personality disorder
  4. Refer the client to a same-race counselor automatically

Explanation

Cultural mistrust is a historically grounded wariness of institutions and individuals associated with discrimination, and it is not itself psychopathology. Effective practice involves acknowledging the reality of racism, being transparent and consistent, and allowing trust to develop over time.

Question 41Social and Cultural Diversity

Which pairing of a Helms White racial identity status with a likely in-session behavior is most accurate?

  1. Pseudo-independence - consistently confronting institutional racism
  2. Resistance-immersion - paternalistic overidentification with the client Correct answer.
  3. Conformity - actively exploring the client's experience of racism
  4. Integrative awareness - treating race as irrelevant to counseling

Explanation

In resistance-immersion, White individuals have moved toward recognizing racism but often overidentify with people of color in a guilt-driven, paternalistic way rather than from a secure internalized identity. Conformity avoids racial material, and integrative awareness entails sustained self-examination rather than colorblindness.

Question 42Social and Cultural Diversity

Two siblings immigrated together as children. As adults, one reports depression and family conflict while the other reports none. The strongest explanation within acculturation research is that:

  1. Acculturation gaps can produce stress within one family Correct answer.
  2. Acculturative stress has a largely genetic basis
  3. The unaffected sibling did not actually migrate
  4. Depression is generally unrelated to migration history

Explanation

Acculturative stress is shaped by the pace and strategy of acculturation, and children often acculturate faster than parents or siblings, creating gaps in language, values, and expectations. Those gaps are associated with family conflict and distress in some members but not others, so differential outcomes within one household are expected.

Question 43Social and Cultural Diversity

Phinney's model of ethnic identity development includes which three stages?

  1. Conformity, dissonance, and immersion
  2. Unexamined, exploration, and achieved ethnic identity Correct answer.
  3. Pre-encounter, encounter, and internalization
  4. Confusion, comparison, and tolerance

Explanation

Phinney adapted Marcia's identity framework to ethnicity: individuals begin with unexamined ethnic attitudes, may enter a period of exploration, and may arrive at an achieved ethnic identity marked by clearer commitment. Not everyone completes the sequence.

Question 44Social and Cultural Diversity

A biracial adolescent reports feeling she must "choose a side" and that peers question her authenticity. Consistent with Root's work, the counselor should:

  1. Help her commit to a single racial identity for clarity
  2. Treat the identity questions as a symptom requiring diagnosis
  3. Support exploration of multiple, fluid, and contextual identities Correct answer.
  4. Focus only on the minority heritage to strengthen pride

Explanation

Root described multiple, non-hierarchical resolutions of biracial identity and emphasized that identity may shift across contexts and relationships. The therapeutic task is to support the client's own resolution rather than to impose a single group membership.

Question 45Social and Cultural Diversity

Atkinson, Morten, and Sue's Racial/Cultural Identity Development model includes five stages. Which of the following is a stage in that model?

  1. Pre-encounter
  2. Introspection Correct answer.
  3. Identity pride
  4. Autonomy

Explanation

The Racial/Cultural Identity Development model's stages are conformity, dissonance, resistance and immersion, introspection, and synergetic articulation and awareness. The model is intended to apply across oppressed groups rather than to one specific group.

Question 46Social and Cultural Diversity

Sue's worldview model classifies clients along which two dimensions?

  1. Locus of control and locus of responsibility Correct answer.
  2. Socioeconomic status and education
  3. Acculturation and enculturation
  4. Introversion and extraversion

Explanation

Sue described worldview as the intersection of locus of control (internal versus external) and locus of responsibility (internal versus external), producing four worldviews. These shape how clients explain problems and what they expect from counseling.

Question 47Social and Cultural Diversity

A counselor at a community agency notices that most clients cannot reach the clinic by public transit. The best example of social justice advocacy is to:

  1. Teach clients relaxation skills to manage travel stress
  2. Refer all clients to a private practice across town
  3. Terminate with clients who miss sessions due to transportation
  4. Document the barrier and advocate for transit or outreach services Correct answer.

Explanation

Social justice advocacy addresses environmental and systemic barriers rather than locating the problem solely within the client. Counselors use advocacy competencies at client, community, and public levels while supporting clients' own empowerment.

Question 48Social and Cultural Diversity

The social model of disability holds that disability is primarily:

  1. A fixed medical category determined at birth
  2. A product of environmental barriers and societal attitudes Correct answer.
  3. A moral or characterological failing
  4. A defect located within the individual that requires cure

Explanation

The social model distinguishes impairment from disability, locating disability in inaccessible environments, policies, and prejudicial attitudes rather than in the person. This contrasts with the medical model, which treats disability as an individual deficit to be treated or cured.

Question 49Social and Cultural Diversity

According to the ASERVIC competencies, when a client raises religious or spiritual concerns, the counselor should:

  1. Persuade the client toward the counselor's values
  2. Share the counselor's own religious beliefs to build rapport
  3. Assess the client's religious and spiritual beliefs Correct answer.
  4. Refer the client to clergy without further discussion

Explanation

The ASERVIC competencies call on counselors to recognize spiritual and religious themes as part of the client's worldview and to assess them as part of the clinical picture, while avoiding imposition of the counselor's own beliefs. Practice must remain within the counselor's competence.

Question 50Social and Cultural Diversity

Which statement best distinguishes a refugee from a voluntary immigrant?

  1. Refugees flee persecution and cannot safely return home Correct answer.
  2. Refugees typically arrive with greater financial resources
  3. Refugees usually plan their relocation well in advance
  4. Refugees migrate mainly to seek better employment

Explanation

A refugee is defined by a well-founded fear of persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion and is unable or unwilling to seek protection from that country. Voluntary immigrants generally move for opportunity and can return home, which shapes different clinical needs and stressors.