Expanding the Use of the Ethical Genogram: Incorporating the Ethical Principles to Help Clarify Counselors’ Ethical Decision-Making Styles

Abstract

Although it was originally conceived to tap into the intuitive-level of the ethical decision-making process, as outlined by Kitchener, the ethical genogram developed by Peluso (2003) can also illuminate how counselors (particularly couples and family counselors) operate on the more conscious, critical-evaluative level. As a result, two exercises were developed for supervisors or trainers to use as an adjunct to the ethical genogram, to tap into the counselor’s priorities regarding the ethical principles of beneficence, nonmalfeasance, justice, autonomy, and fidelity. The first exercise lists the definitions of the values, and the second exercise uses brief clinical vignettes that exemplify a dilemma related to the ethical values. A case example is provided to further illustrate the uses of these exercises with the ethical genogram.