ACA Graduate Student Ethics Awards for Master's Students

• A counseling or counselor education program may have one team of master’s degree students and one team of doctoral degree students in the competition.
• Master’s degree and doctoral degree teams will be judged separately. Teams must be made up of students in the same level of a degree program. This is not a mixed-level competition.
• Counseling or counselor education programs with separate and distinct campuses may have a master's degree team representing each campus. Separate and distinct campuses are considered those that have stand-alone programs.
• A single counseling or counselor education program that has multiple satellite campuses is not eligible for multiple master’s degree team submissions. (These campuses would have one dedicated representative in an accreditation process, representing the multiple satellite campuses.) 

• Teams are limited to having a minimum of three and a maximum of four students.

• Each team must have a faculty member who serves as an administrative contact person for the counseling or counselor education program.
• The role of the faculty contact person is to represent the team’s counseling or counselor education program only.
• Faculty members should not act as consultants in the awards competition.
• The faculty member’s email address must be their own, not that of a student.

Essays will be scored based on five factors:  

1. Identification of the Dilemma: The team clearly identified the ethical dilemma(s) including conflicting factors, dimensions and variables included in the professional quandary. The dilemma was described in relationship to ethical standards, laws and professional ideas or aspirations.
2. Proposed Ethical Action: The team proposed action it would take including having: (a) clearly articulated professional interventions; (b) persuasive justification for proposed action; and (c) a description of the professionally recognized decision-making model or process used to arrive at decisions.
3. Use of the ACA Code of Ethics: The team cited appropriate sections of the ACA Code of Ethics (2014) and, if appropriate, other ethical guidelines considered in rendering their arguments. In addition, the team provided a clear rationale regarding selected sections of the 2014 ACA Code of Ethics and any other ethical guidelines cited.
4. Use of the Proposed Model: The steps of the group's decision-making model were clearly followed and skillfully applied to the case.
5. Overall: A thorough yet concise paper addressing details of the case and (a) the case study included proper citation of sources throughout the paper using the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association 7th edition for the reference list; (b) the paper was well organized and written, and information was presented clearly and concisely; (c) the paper cited the appropriate scholarly literature relevant to solving the ethical dilemma; and (d) the paper is no longer than 10 pages.

Sophia is a licensed professional counselor who runs a private practice in a rural area. She has been working with Mei, a 32-year-old client who recently immigrated to the U.S. from a culture where gift-giving is a common and meaningful way of showing respect, even in professional relationships. Mei originally came to therapy because she struggles with attachment issues—mainly trouble trusting others and maintaining healthy boundaries in relationships.

Throughout the sessions, Mei would sometimes bring small gifts like homemade food, a scarf she made, or some nice stationery. At first, Sophia told Mei that accepting gifts was not really allowed in counseling and turned down the first one. But Mei seemed really disappointed and later explained that in her culture, refusing a gift could feel insulting or like rejection.

Sophia began to feel conflicted. While she desired to uphold ethical guidelines, she was also concerned about damaging the therapeutic relationship. As the only licensed professional counselor in her area, with the nearest colleague over 600 miles away, she often felt compelled to navigate ethical decisions without the benefit of peer consultation or formal supervision. Over time, Sophia began to rely on what she referred to as “community ethics,” which she believed were more appropriate than formal ethical guidelines in the context of her small rural community. As a result, she chose not to seek outside guidance and decided it might be acceptable to accept some of the gifts in order to maintain client trust. Additionally, Sophia believed that being viewed as culturally sensitive could enhance her reputation and help attract more clients, particularly as the sole licensed counselor in the area. She hoped this would communicate to others in the community that her practice was a safe and welcoming place to seek help.

Eventually, Sophia started accepting more gifts without really revisiting the boundary conversation. She began to notice that Mei was becoming more attached and was bringing gifts almost every session. Instead of addressing the shift in dynamics, Sophia chose not to say anything, worried it might rupture the therapeutic relationship and would get in trouble.