| Summary: | 博士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 輔導與諮商研究所 === 99 === The purpose of this study was to present counselors’ ethical experiences in the process of obtaining informed consent during counseling. This study explored the ethical meaning of the informed consent process by using phenomenology. We invited counselors who had practiced counseling for over an year for in-depth interviews by purposive sampling. A total of 10 counselors (7 females, 3 males) with a mean age of 36.5 years were recruited. All counselors were licensed and in practice. Most of their clients were adults and students.
Based upon the participants' experiences, we identified the contents and methods of the informed consent process. The contents included 3 categories: material of frame, education with heart, and opportunity of psychotherapy. Throughout the counseling process, these contents were communicated through conducted methods to make counseling work.
The common experience of these participants was the ethical story composed by the counselors and clients. Using the ethical story as the context, we adopted a phenomenological approach to analyze the interview transcripts to explore the participants’ beliefs and values in the informed consent process and the ethical meaning. Five themes were identified: (a) person-based and returning to clients’ subjectivity, (b) portraying blueprint and planning boundary, (c) probability of building on expertise, (d) creating space for balance and collaboration, and (e) returning to counseling in itself. Each theme contained 2 to 5 individual sub-themes. The “person-based and returning to clients’ subjectivity” and “portraying blueprint and planning boundary” took person-centered principles into consideration, and the “probability of building on expertise” and “returning to counseling in itself” emphasized the maintenance of professionalism. Through “creating space for balance and collaboration,” all of those above made counselors and their clients work together and compose graceful melody.
The relationship between the informed consent process and the development of counseling relationship was illuminated by timelines as navigation, resonance, and coming ashore. The finding indicated that the informed consent process and the development of counseling relationship were complementary to each other during counseling.
This study suggests that both systematic continuing education in professional ethics and case based discussion be provided for counselors in practice. Professional norms and ethical codes that meet the needs for the implementation of school counseling should also be developed. This study also provides suggestions for future research studies.
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