Ethical dilemmas rarely arrive as a clean textbook case. They usually turn up as a nagging discomfort about a particular client or situation — something that doesn’t feel quite right but isn’t obviously a rule violation either. Supervision is exactly where that discomfort deserves airtime, before it turns into an actual problem.
The dilemmas that come up most often
- Confidentiality — where the line sits when a client discloses risk to themselves or someone else, or when family members ask for information.
- Dual or multiple relationships — a client you also know socially, run into locally, or who wants to connect on social media.
- Scope of practice — a presentation that’s drifted outside what you’re trained or confident to work with.
- Competing duties of care — what you owe the client in front of you versus a family member, an employer (in EAP work), or the broader community.
- Capacity and consent — particularly with younger clients, or clients whose decision-making capacity is in question.
- Mandatory reporting tension — balancing the therapeutic relationship against a legal obligation to report.
Why these are genuinely hard, not just under-prepared-for
Most of these dilemmas don’t have a single “correct” answer sitting in the ACA or PACFA Code of Ethics — the codes set out principles and obligations, but applying them to a specific, messy, real situation is where the judgement call happens. That’s precisely the kind of thinking that benefits from another qualified perspective, rather than working it through alone.
ACA Code of Ethics and Practice
A structured way to think it through
Having a consistent process for ethical decisions — rather than relying on gut feel in the moment — makes for both better decisions and a clearer paper trail if you’re ever asked to account for one. I put together an Ethical Decision-Making workbook for exactly this: it works through the ACA and PACFA Codes of Ethics, a step-by-step “ETHICAL Pathway” decision-making tool, a decision record template you can use to document your reasoning, and a set of practice scenarios for independent study or for working through in supervision.
Ethical Decision-Making Workbook
It’s designed to be used either on your own or as a shared framework with your supervisor — so if you bring a live dilemma to a session, we have a common structure to work through it together, rather than starting from scratch each time.
What to bring to supervision
- The specific facts of the situation, with client details removed — not just “I’m not sure this is OK.”
- What’s actually nagging at you — sometimes the real dilemma is different from the one you think you’re raising.
- Any code of ethics clause, policy, or legal obligation you think might be relevant, even a rough guess — it gives us a starting point.
- What you’ve already considered doing, and why you haven’t yet.
Getting started
If there’s a situation sitting with you that you haven’t quite been able to name as “about ethics” yet, that’s often exactly what supervision is for. Get in touch if you’d like to talk it through.
You can reach me here, or fill in the supervision enquiry form below.