Ethical and Legal Considerations in Sexual Health Counseling
A three-hour graduate-level continuing education course examining the ethical and legal frameworks that govern sexual health counseling. The course addresses informed consent and confidentiality in sexually charged clinical contexts, duty-to-warn obligations, boundaries and countertransference, mandatory reporting, documentation and record-keeping standards, and the legal liability and scope-of-practice questions that arise when counselors work with sexuality, intimacy, and sexual behavior. Anchored in the ACA and NBCC codes of ethics and in landmark case law including Tarasoff and Jaffee v. Redmond, the course equips clinicians to make defensible, client-centered ethical decisions.
3
CE Hours
What you'll learn
- Apply informed consent, confidentiality, and duty-to-warn standards to sexual health counseling contexts.
- Distinguish ethical boundary crossings from boundary violations and recognize countertransference in sexuality-focused work.
- Identify mandatory reporting obligations and apply jurisdiction-specific thresholds for abuse, neglect, and risk.
- Implement documentation and record-keeping practices that meet ethical and legal standards in sexual health settings.
- Analyze legal liability and scope-of-practice limits using the ACA and NBCC codes of ethics.
- Integrate landmark case law, including Tarasoff and Jaffee v. Redmond, into ethical decision-making frameworks.
Approval & credit
CounselorReady is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP #7760). This course awards 3 NBCC-approved CE hours; a certificate is issued on completion. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. CounselorReady is solely responsible for all aspects of the program.