TPC-Journal-V2-Issue1

30 The Professional Counselor \Volume 2, Issue 1 perspective need to find qualified supervision to help them establish their understanding of ethical decision-making in ethically challenging environments. This may include investigating state licensure regulations on distance supervision (via phone, Internet, etc.) to expand the supervision and mentorship possibilities. The counselor, new or experienced, should also strive to find supervision and peer-consultation that has experience in rural and frontier communities to better support an informed awareness of the necessities and realities of frontier life. “Acts of everyday living are self-disclosures” (Schank et al., 2010, p. 503) and the frontier counselor needs to be aware of their behavior on professional, social, and personal levels. As so much of frontier counseling is inter-relational, this self-attention is significant as it can help foster an awareness of the ethical aspects of many facets of frontier counseling practices and alert the counselor to potential ethical concerns in the making. When concerns are identified it is then incumbent on the counselor to determine the nature and extent of the issue and take action when necessary. The nature of that action is dependent on the role the counselor has created for themselves in the community, the needs of the client and the community and the potential actions that can be taken within cultural and ethical guidelines. Cultural Awareness With their own traditions and attitudes, frontier communities are very much their own small community cultures with self-determined ways of behaving and interrelating. For the frontier counselor to be accepted into the community it is necessary for the counselor to understand the values the community is built upon and work to honor and foster those values through professional practices. While many of the cultural behaviors of a frontier community may seem at odds with professional counseling ethical practices, a merging of the two is possible with vigilance and understanding. It is not for the counselor to enter a frontier community and require that they follow a professional ethic designed on a divergent cultural model by a dissimilar people; rather, it is for the counselor to appreciate that an ethical code is based on accepted cultural and behavior ideals and that it is the counselor’s obligation to serve those ideals within the boundaries of accepted professional codes of ethics. Understanding the community needs and values in terms of desired ideals and expected behaviors will help the counselor to better become a part of and serve the community as an involved and invested member. Future Investigation Directions for Frontier Ethics As the work of rural and frontier counselors impacts a significant percentage of the U.S. population and that population experiences a higher lack of mental health provisions than urban clients, it is in our best interest to better understand the needs and practices of rural and frontier counselors so that we can then provide better services to rural and frontier communities. Primarily, research needs to explore the practices of small community, rural, and frontier counselors, which should include case studies of how clinicians approach and handle clinical issues. This investigation into counselor practices needs to focus on the ethical decision-making processes that counselors employ when managing the ethical concerns that are prevalent in these communities. It also needs to analyze the products of these processes in light of the professional counseling code of ethics to better determine at what level, if at all, rural and frontier counselors are experiencing ethical crossings or violations in their professional practices. Next, we need to gain an understanding of the extent to which counselor educators recognize and understand small community settings and their effect on counseling in such areas. This would include the training that may exist in counselor education regarding the preparation of counselors to work with small community, rural, and frontier populations and should include counseling program curriculum, professional development courses and continuing education opportunities. Understanding what counselors are being taught in relation to these populations will help to determine if their training is adequate and appropriate to the needs of these communities. Conclusion This paper seeks to illustrate the point that the ambiguity that makes a code of ethics a flexible set of guidelines of professional behavior also creates difficulties when the situations they caution against are an inherent part of the social fabric of the world that the counselor works within, particularly that of a rural or frontier community. It is clear that many ethical issues cannot be avoided when working with frontier communities and must be integrated into professional practice with due consideration. Counselors in these areas need to be conscientious in examining their relationships with