The ethics of supervision are informed by many sources. Therapists have a primary duty of care for their clients but when making ethical choices also need to consider themselves, their work organisations, their profession and indeed the society whose understanding and trust defines the role. To this end they are guided by the laws of society, the Codes of Ethics and Standards of Practice of their professional associations, and the policies and procedures of employing organisations. This is well described by the Australian Association of Social Workers (1999) in their discussion of ethical practice and the role of their Code as a guide, which does not eliminate the need to exercise professional discretion. ‘It is a guide and checklist for educational and supervisory purposes and a benchmark for the assessment of professional behaviour’.
While supervision may also be informed by these Laws and Codes, the focus will be on the wellbeing of client and counsellor. It may be that the best ethical decisions made through supervision give primacy to client-counsellor at the expense of others. For example, a client may be better served having more resources of time than organisational policy allows, or the organisation may see it in its interests to silence criticism of unethical practice. Ethical choices are as much guided by Codes as they are by the Laws of society. It is important to note that they are guidelines only, and that truly ethical choices come from a full understanding of all information, both immediate and contextual, and an appreciation of all points of view.
There is then the potential to judge what will do the most good, with the even ‘greater’ imperative to do the least harm. Difficulties arise when there are a number of conflicting considerations. For example, a supervisor may become aware that a counsellor is showing signs of stress through overload and there is the possibility that it may impact on performance. The supervisor may give feedback and confront the situation, to be told that the high workload is the employer’s policy, and that the counsellors job will be at risk if the load is not covered. How should the supervisor act? Would it make any difference if the supervisor knew that the counsellor has a history of stress breakdown, or of the counsellor and family needed the income desperately, or the region was isolated and had no alternative services? Ethical decisions are based on such appraisal rather than slavishly following rules (Axten & Massey, 1997).
