NCE-ABE National Counselor Examination Questions and Answers

A strengths-based approach emphasizes identifying, affirming, and using the client’s existing resources, abilities, and resilience to support change. Within core counseling attributes, counselors are expected to maintain a positive, hopeful view of the client, focusing on what the client already does well and how those capacities can be applied toward goals.

Option A directly reflects this: discover and utilize client resources and resilience is the essence of a strengths-based stance—locating inner and outer strengths and using them in planning and intervention.

Option B (rewarding the client for challenging negative thoughts) is more characteristic of cognitive-behavioral techniques, not specifically a strengths-based orientation.

Option C (strengthening perceived self-worth) is valuable and related to positive regard, but it does not explicitly capture the process of identifying and using strengths as the main pathway to change.

Option D (recognizing the effects of social structures) is more aligned with social justice and multicultural counseling perspectives.

Therefore, the option most consistent with a strengths-based approach as emphasized in core counseling attributes is A.

Behavior therapy is grounded in learning theory and focuses on observable behavior and the environmental conditions that maintain it. A key procedure is functional analysis, often described in terms of A–B–C:

A – Antecedents: What happens before the behavior?

B – Behavior: The specific, observable behavior.

C – Consequences: What happens after the behavior that might reinforce or punish it?

Option D, mapping antecedents and consequences, directly reflects this core emphasis of behavior therapy—understanding what triggers behaviors and what maintains them, so that interventions can be designed to change environmental contingencies and support new, adaptive behaviors.

A (collaborative relationship) is important in almost all approaches but is not a unique emphasis of behavior therapy.

B (personal awareness) aligns more with insight-oriented or humanistic approaches.

C (moral behavior) does not reflect standard behavior therapy focus, which is on learning processes, not moral judgment.

Mastery of theoretical orientations like behavior therapy fits under Areas of Clinical Focus, where counselors must know how different models conceptualize problems and guide intervention choices.

The Group Counseling and Group Work core area highlights the importance of group norms, ground rules, and structure in promoting effective group functioning. When group rules are clear and explicit:

Members know what behavior is expected and what is inappropriate,

There is a shared understanding of participation, confidentiality, respect, and attendance, and

Members can self-regulate and hold each other accountable, rather than relying solely on the leader.

Thus, Option A is correct: clearly stated rules increase the likelihood that members will follow the group guidelines in their participation.

Why the other options are less accurate:

B. Move through stages more slowly – Having explicit rules generally supports smoother movement through group stages by reducing confusion and conflict, not slowing development.

C. More work for the leader – Explicit rules typically reduce the leader’s enforcement burden because expectations are shared and can be maintained by the group.

D. Increased reliance on the leader – Clear, agreed-upon rules foster greater group autonomy, not greater dependence on the leader.

Therefore, consistent with CACREP’s emphasis on understanding and facilitating group norms, A is the best answer.

In the Assessment and Testing core area, counselors are expected to understand different types of tests, including the distinction between maximum performance measures (e.g., ability, aptitude, achievement) and typical performance measures (e.g., personality, interests, attitudes, self-concept).

Ability tests (including aptitude and achievement) are designed so that each item has one correct answer. They measure how well a person can perform on tasks that have objectively right or wrong responses.

Measures of personality, interest, and self-concept do not have right or wrong answers; they assess typical ways of thinking, feeling, behaving, or preferences.

Because the question states that each item has only one correct answer, this clearly describes a measure of ability, making B the correct answer.

The Group Counseling and Group Work core area requires counselors to know the advantages and limitations of using groups in various settings, including career counseling.

One commonly noted limitation is that:

Group members often have a wide range of individual needs, interests, and career concerns.

A group format can make it challenging for the leader to tailor content, activities, and feedback to each person’s unique interests and decision-making stage.

This is exactly what option D describes: the leader may struggle to address the full variety of individual interests in a group setting.

Why the others are not best:

A: It is possible (and common) to assess members’ occupational functioning through intakes, assessments, and individual check-ins, even in group programs.

B: Psychological functioning can be assessed in a group setting; group counselors are trained to observe behavior, collect histories, and use assessment tools.

C: All formats (individual, group, family) have limitations; stating there are none is inconsistent with CACREP’s emphasis on critical evaluation of methods.

Thus, a major limitation in career groups is that the leader can find it difficult to meet the wide range of individual interests, making D the correct answer.

In Counseling and Helping Relationships, especially in systemic and family counseling, Minuchin’s structural family therapy focuses on:

Family structure (patterns of interaction),

Subsystems,

Boundaries,

Rules and norms that govern behavior.

The “standards that govern behavior” in a family—what is acceptable, expected, or prohibited—are best described as family norms (Option B). These norms shape how members interact, how power is distributed, and how roles are carried out.

Family hierarchy (D) is one important aspect of structure (who has authority over whom), but the broader phrase “standards that govern behavior” aligns more directly with norms and rules across the whole family system.

Genetics (A) and socioeconomic status (C) may influence the family, but they are not Minuchin’s primary explanatory construct for behavioral standards.

Thus, B. Family norms is the best answer.

The Counseling and Helping Relationships core area outlines the counseling process, including assessment, goal setting, and treatment planning. After the counselor has clarified the primary issue or problem, the next appropriate step is to:

Work collaboratively with the client to develop clear, mutually agreed-upon counseling goals.

Option C reflects this standard. Goal setting is the bridge between assessment and intervention. It ensures that any treatment plan or technique used is purposeful, client-centered, and aligned with the client’s priorities.

A (implement treatment) is premature without collaboratively established goals.

B (informed disclosure) should occur at the beginning of the counseling relationship, not after the problem is identified.

D (set number of sessions) may be discussed later, often in the context of goals, agency policy, or client constraints, but it is not the primary next step immediately after identifying the problem.

Therefore, C is the most appropriate next step in the intake process.

In the Group Counseling and Group Work core area, CACREP describes typical stages of group development (initial, transition, working, termination). The working stage (often called Stage III):

Is characterized by greater cohesion, trust, and openness,

Members assume more responsibility for the work of the group,

The leader shifts from high structure to a less directive, more facilitative role.

Because the group is more mature and self-directing in Stage III, the leader usually provides less overt intervention (Option A), while still monitoring process and safety.

Resistance (B) is often highest in earlier or transition stages; in the working stage it is present but more manageable.

Conflict resolution (C) certainly can occur, but conflict is often addressed more effectively by members themselves at this point.

Self-disclosure (D) typically increases, not decreases, in the working stage.

Thus, the most accurate distinction is A. Less leader intervention.

In the Group Counseling and Group Work core area, CACREP-based training and the NCE require familiarity with stages of group development (often described similarly to forming, storming, norming, performing):

Stage I (Initial/Forming/Orientation):

Members are cautious, tentative, and dependent.

They often ask many questions of the leader.

The group may be quiet or withdrawn as members test safety and structure.(These correspond to options B, C, and D.)

Stage II (Transition/Storming/Conflict):

Characterized by anxiety, resistance, and control issues.

Members may challenge the leader or one another.

Open disagreement, power struggles, and expressions of frustration are common.

Therefore, the clearest indicator that the group is in Stage II is when members openly express disagreement with the leader, reflecting conflict and challenge—hallmarks of the transition/storming stage.

Thus, A is correct.

In the Career Development core area, modern practice emphasizes career self-management, lifelong employability, and empowering clients with skills to navigate a changing labor market.

Contemporary occupational placement and career services focus on helping clients develop practical job search skills (résumé writing, interviewing, networking, use of online tools) and the ability to build and maintain professional networks. Clients are taught to actively manage their careers rather than passively wait for placements. This aligns with Option A, making it correct.

Computer-assisted decision-making models (B) can be useful tools, but current theory does not emphasize reliance on them as the main feature; they are one resource among many.

The idea that the singular purpose of placement centers is simply to find jobs for clients (Option C) reflects an outdated, narrow view. Contemporary practice emphasizes counseling, skill-building, and career development, not only placement.

Option D, suggesting that personal skills can always compensate for declining trends in any occupational field, is inaccurate; labor market conditions and field-specific trends significantly affect opportunities, and counselors are trained to help clients realistically consider labor market information and occupational outlooks.

Thus, the focus on clients developing job search and networking skills (A) best represents contemporary theories of occupational placement services.

In the Counseling and Helping Relationships core area, systemic and family counseling approaches emphasize that:

A family is a system, and problems (such as parental conflict and stepfamily tension) are best understood by observing the entire system interacting.

Early sessions often focus on joining with the whole family, clarifying roles, boundaries, and interaction patterns, especially in blended families where alliances and loyalties can be complex.

Option B, seeing the family as a whole in the first session, allows the counselor to:

Directly observe parent–child and stepparent–stepchild interactions,

Hear each member’s perspective on the arguing and its impact,

Begin to restructure communication and set shared goals collaboratively.

The other options fragment the system:

A (see each child separately) misses the systemic interaction at the heart of the complaint.

C (see parents together) may be useful later but does not initially address how the conflict is affecting the children or the overall family dynamics.

D (each parent with their stepchildren) reinforces existing divisions and alliances rather than treating the family as a single integrated system.

Therefore, B is the most appropriate first-session technique for this blended family issue.

In the Group Counseling and Group Work core area, CACREP includes knowledge of group leadership styles, including approaches grounded in person-centered (client-centered / group-centered) theory.

A group-centered leader, drawing from person-centered principles, typically:

Holds a positive view of human nature,

Believes members have an innate tendency toward growth and self-actualization,

Trusts that, given the right conditions (empathy, genuineness, unconditional positive regard), people will move in constructive directions.

This matches D: seeing people as basically positive in their intentions.

Why the others are not best:

A (pessimistic about human nature): More consistent with some strictly psychoanalytic or control-oriented approaches, not group-centered leadership.

B (seeing people as reactive to their environments): Sounds more like behavioral or social learning perspectives, not specifically group-centered.

C (focused on redirecting negative impulses): Implies a directive, control-focused stance, rather than the non-directive, facilitative stance of a group-centered leader.

Therefore, the characteristic that best fits a group-centered leader is D. Seeing people as basically positive in their intentions.

In the Counseling and Helping Relationships core area, CACREP includes behavioral and learning theories such as operant conditioning. A foundational principle is that:

Behaviors that are reinforced are more likely to be maintained, and

Behaviors that are no longer reinforced tend to weaken and eventually extinguish.

Option C directly states this assumption: behavior that is not reinforced gradually extinguishes. That is the core explanation for why, in behavior therapy, counselors manipulate reinforcement contingencies to reduce maladaptive behaviors.

A is incorrect because behaviors are not always reinforced on a strict one-to-one (continuous) schedule; intermittent reinforcement can also maintain behavior.

B (shaping) is used to build new complex behaviors, but it is not required for maintaining an already-learned behavior.

D refers to modeling (observational learning), which is associated with social learning theory, not the central assumption about maintenance in basic operant conditioning.

Thus, C is the correct assumption regarding behavior maintenance.

Within Counseling and Helping Relationships, CACREP includes major counseling theories, including behavioral approaches. Behaviorism focuses on observable behavior and the ways it is learned and maintained through conditioning and reinforcement.

From a behavioral perspective:

Behaviors (including “inappropriate” or maladaptive ones) increase in frequency when they are reinforced—by attention, relief from discomfort, tangible rewards, or avoidance of something aversive.

Thus, when a behavior continues, behaviorists look for the reinforcement history that keeps it going.

The other options reflect different theoretical orientations:

A (defense mechanism) is psychoanalytic/psychodynamic.

B (symptom of intrapersonal conflict) aligns with psychodynamic or some humanistic views.

C (early family conflict) fits Adlerian or some family systems perspectives.

Only D accurately states the behaviorist position: inappropriate behavior persists because it is reinforced and therefore tends to reoccur.

In the Research and Program Evaluation core area, counselors are expected to understand basic inferential statistics and hypothesis testing. Central concepts include:

The null hypothesis (H₀): typically states that there is no difference or no effect between groups or conditions.

The research (alternative) hypothesis (H₁): states that there is a difference or effect.

A statistically significant difference indicates that the observed difference is unlikely to be due to chance alone, given the selected significance level (e.g., p < .05).

When results are statistically significant, the standard decision rule is:

Reject the null hypothesis (Option A), because the data suggest that the assumption of “no difference” is not supported.

Although in everyday language one might say the results “support” or are “consistent with” the research hypothesis, classical hypothesis testing emphasizes rejecting or failing to reject the null, rather than formally “accepting” the research hypothesis.

Therefore, the most correct technical decision the researcher could make is to reject the null hypothesis (A).

In the Human Growth and Development core area, counselors study major developmental and personality theories, including humanistic and existential approaches.

Abraham Maslow proposed the hierarchy of needs, a motivational model in which human needs are arranged from basic physiological needs to safety, love/belonging, esteem, and finally self-actualization at the top.

In Maslow’s framework, self-actualization is the realization of one’s full potential and is explicitly presented as a central goal of personal development.

Carl Rogers (Option C) also discussed an actualizing tendency and the movement toward becoming a “fully functioning person,” but the classic concept of self-actualization as the pinnacle of a hierarchy of needs is most directly associated with Maslow.

Fritz Perls (Option B) is associated with Gestalt therapy, focusing on awareness, here-and-now experience, and integration of the self, but not primarily on the hierarchical notion of self-actualization.

William Glasser (Option D) developed Reality Therapy and Choice Theory, emphasizing responsibility and needs satisfaction (love/belonging, power, freedom, fun, survival), but again, not self-actualization as framed in Maslow’s model.

Because self-actualization as a specific, named goal in development is most strongly and classically linked with Abraham Maslow, the correct answer is A (Maslow).

The Social and Cultural Diversity core area emphasizes understanding of acculturation, cultural identity development, and multicultural concepts. Within common acculturation and identity frameworks used on the NCE:

Acculturation (A) is a broad term for the overall process of adapting to a new culture; it does not, by itself, specify whether individuals maintain their original culture, adopt the new one, or both.

Biculturalism (B) describes people who identify with and competently navigate two cultures, maintaining their original culture while also actively participating in and identifying with the new/dominant culture.

Marginalization (C) occurs when individuals do not strongly identify with either the original or the new culture.

Separation (D) refers to maintaining strong identification with the original culture while rejecting or minimizing identification with the new culture.

The question specifically describes identifying with both the original and the new culture. This is the definition of biculturalism, making B the correct answer.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Within the Counseling and Helping Relationships core area, CACREP emphasizes that effective counseling is grounded in the therapeutic relationship—especially the quality of the working alliance (agreement on goals, tasks, and the emotional bond between counselor and client). Across theories and techniques, outcome research consistently shows that the strength of the counseling alliance is one of the most powerful and consistent predictors of positive client outcome, often more predictive than the specific technique or theoretical orientation used.

While hopefulness (C) and evidence-based treatments (D) are important, they are not as consistently predictive across all modalities and client populations as the quality of the alliance. Technique choice (e.g., CBT, option B) also matters, but CACREP-aligned training and NCE materials repeatedly highlight the helping relationship and working alliance as central to successful outcomes. Therefore, A. A strong alliance with the client is the best answer.

The Group Counseling and Group Work CACREP core area requires knowledge of:

Group development stages,

Group process and dynamics, and

Leader behaviors that facilitate members’ growth and change.

Effective group leaders are trained to:

Encourage here-and-now, emotionally honest interactions,

Promote sharing of feelings and experiences (the affective level), and

Create conditions for cohesion, trust, and risk-taking.

Option analysis:

A. Call on natural leaders to take charge.This can actually interfere with group development by creating dominance, cliques, or dependency on certain members rather than developing shared responsibility.

B. Promote sharing on an affective level.This is central to group progress. When members move beyond surface-level, intellectual discussion and begin to share feelings and emotional reactions, the group becomes more therapeutic and change-oriented.

C. Link interactions to personal problems.This is a useful skill, but it tends to come after members are safely sharing at an affective level. Without emotional engagement, such linking can feel forced or overly interpretive.

D. Minimize interpretation of relationships.This runs counter to group counseling principles, where leaders often help members understand the meaning of their interactions and relationships in the group.

Thus, the action that most directly fosters progress in counseling groups is B (promote sharing on an affective level).

In the Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice core area, CACREP highlights counselors’ roles in prevention, psychoeducation, and developmental interventions, including creating and using media and materials that promote mental health, safety, and wellness.

Developmental/preventive media refers to educational materials or presentations (e.g., videos, brochures, classroom presentations, campaigns) designed to promote healthy development and prevent problems before they occur.

In option B, the counselor is facilitating the creation of a video about sexual violence to be shown in school classes. This is clearly a preventive educational tool (media) targeting a large audience to increase awareness, promote safety, and reduce risk—exactly what developmental/preventive media are used for.

Option A (compiling a referral list) is about resource referral, not the creation of media.

Option C (compiling a service report) is program evaluation/administrative documentation, not preventive media.

Option D (creating a needs assessment survey) is used to assess needs, not to directly deliver developmental/preventive content.

Therefore, the best example of a counselor preparing developmental/preventive media is B. Having students in a drama club create a video about sexual violence to show in school classes.

O D. creating a needs assessment survey to be distributed to potential clients.

Within the Assessment and Testing core area, counselors are expected to understand the principles of diagnosis, including that mental disorder diagnoses (such as ADHD) are based not only on the presence of symptoms but also on clinically significant impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning across settings.

Diagnostic criteria for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder specify that symptoms must cause clear evidence of interference with, or reduction in quality of, social, academic, or occupational functioning, and must be present in two or more settings (e.g., home and school). Therefore, a diagnosis is justified primarily when functioning is impaired, which matches Option D.

ADHD is more commonly diagnosed in males than females, particularly in childhood; thus, Option A is incorrect.

Although symptoms often begin in early childhood, ADHD is commonly identified after increased demands in school; it is not typically diagnosed before formal schooling, so Option B is incorrect.

ADHD is associated with a familial pattern of ADHD and related conditions, not specifically with family members having personality disorders, so Option C is incorrect.

Therefore, D is the correct answer because diagnosis must be tied to meaningful impairment in functioning, not just the presence of symptoms.

Within Professional Counseling Orientation and Ethical Practice, CACREP highlights the importance of counselors understanding impairment, burnout, and self-care—for themselves and in general occupational contexts.

Burnout is typically defined as a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion that results from chronic work-related or career-related stress, often accompanied by decreased sense of accomplishment and depersonalization.

Option D captures burnout as a phenomenon associated with career-related (occupational) stress, which is the broad, accurate description tested on the NCE.

Options A, B, and C each describe possible symptoms or correlates (hopelessness, confusion, fatigue, illness), but none by themselves constitute the definition of burnout. Burnout is best understood as a syndrome arising from prolonged job stress, making D the best answer.

In the Research and Program Evaluation core area, CACREP includes knowledge of qualitative research methods, including ethnography.

Ethnography is a qualitative approach in which the researcher studies a culture-sharing group (e.g., a community, organization, or subgroup) over time, focusing on patterns of group behavior, interactions, beliefs, and meanings in their natural context.

The emphasis is on understanding how groups function and behave, often through participant observation and in-depth immersion.

Storytelling (B) and critical tales (C) can be narrative products of qualitative work, and hermeneutic design (D) refers more broadly to interpretive approaches. But ethnography is most centrally concerned with the systematic study of group behavior and culture, making A the correct choice.

UESTION NO: 187 [Career Development]

What is true about group career counseling?

A. It works best if all members are interested in the same career path.

B. It allows members to learn and support each other's career exploration.

C. It should be focused on overcoming the storming phase.

D. It should be based on individual assessments.

Answer: B

Within the Career Development core area, group career counseling is recognized as an effective method because it promotes peer learning, mutual support, and normalization of career concerns. Members share information, experiences, and perspectives, which can broaden each person’s understanding of options and strategies. This is exactly what option B describes—group members learning from and supporting one another’s exploration.

Option A is incorrect because groups do not need to share the same career goal; diversity of interests can enrich the group process.

Option C confuses general group development stages with the purpose of career groups; storming is not the focus of career counseling.

Option D overemphasizes individual assessment; while individual data can be included, group career counseling is not “based on” individual assessment alone, but on shared exploration and interaction.

In the Counseling and Helping Relationships core area, CACREP includes knowledge of systemic and family counseling concepts, including circular causality.

Circular causality in family systems theory emphasizes that family members mutually influence one another in ongoing interaction cycles. Behaviors are not understood as simple “A causes B” in a straight line; rather, each person’s behavior is both a response to and a stimulus for others’ behavior.

Option B captures this idea: a child’s behaviors are conceptually inseparable from parents’ behaviors—each is understood in the context of reciprocal interaction patterns, not isolated cause–effect.

Options A and D both reflect linear causality, implying that parents cause children’s actions in a one-way direction or that parents are always the “starting point.” This contradicts the systemic view. Option C is not a defining feature of circular causality; withdrawal may change patterns, but it is not inherent to the concept.

Thus, the statement most consistent with circular causality is B.

In the Human Growth and Development core area, CACREP includes understanding theories of human needs, such as Maslow’s hierarchy. According to this framework:

When individuals are under significant financial stress, their basic needs (e.g., housing, food, safety, security) are threatened.

Under such conditions, people are more likely to be preoccupied with survival-level concerns (physiological and safety needs) than with higher-order needs such as development, self-exploration, or complex interpersonal growth.

Options A, B, and C refer to important but higher-level needs relative to basic survival and security. In the presence of acute financial stress, clients understandably prioritize D. Survival needs.

The Counseling and Helping Relationships core area includes person-centered (client-centered) theory, originating with Carl Rogers. A central concept in this approach is unconditional positive regard—warm acceptance, respect, and valuing of the person without conditions of worth.

Applied to the parent–child relationship, a client-centered perspective emphasizes that:

Children should experience consistent acceptance and respect,

Love and regard are not contingent on performance, behavior, or meeting parental conditions,

This environment supports healthy self-concept and growth.

Thus, Option C (unconditional positive regard) directly reflects the client-centered approach.

The other options come from different theoretical frameworks:

A. Authoritarianism conflicts with client-centered values and reflects a rigid, controlling style.

B. Natural and logical consequences are features of Adlerian / Dreikursian parenting approaches.

D. Behavior-shaping is rooted in behavioral/operant conditioning, not client-centered theory.

Therefore, C is the correct answer.

In the Assessment and Testing core area, counselors must differentiate among types of validity:

Face validity refers to the degree to which a test appears, on the surface, to measure what it claims to measure. It is based on a subjective judgment of the items by laypersons or test users—essentially, “does this look like it measures what it says it does?” This is captured by option D, which involves subjectively examining the items.

By contrast:

Option A describes criterion-related or convergent validity (correlating with another established measure).

Option B reflects item analysis and relates to internal consistency/reliability, not face validity.

Option C describes content validity, which relies on expert judgment about whether items adequately represent the construct content.

Thus, D is the correct description of how face validity is established.

In the Research and Program Evaluation core area, CACREP emphasizes knowledge of quantitative methods, including the use of regression techniques, correlations, and appropriate statistical procedures.

Multiple regression is a statistical technique used when there is one dependent (criterion) variable and two or more independent (predictor) variables. It estimates how well the set of independent variables predicts or explains variance in the dependent variable and provides coefficients indicating the strength and direction of each relationship.

Stratified sampling is a sampling method, not a statistical technique for analyzing relationships.

Chi-square tests are used primarily for categorical data, examining associations between variables, but do not involve multiple predictors predicting one continuous dependent variable in the same way as multiple regression.

Point-biserial correlation measures the relationship between one continuous and one dichotomous variable, not between multiple independent variables and one dependent variable.

Thus, the method that specifically examines the relationship between one dependent variable and multiple independent variables is A. Multiple regression.

In the Group Counseling and Group Work core area, CACREP emphasizes the importance of group leadership skills, including self-awareness, emotional regulation, and the impact of the leader on group dynamics.

A central principle is that affect in groups is contagious:

When leaders are visibly anxious and do not manage or contain that anxiety, members often mirror or absorb it, leading to increased tension, defensiveness, or withdrawal.

Effective leaders are aware of their own emotional reactions and manage them so the group environment remains safe, stable, and facilitative of growth.

While:

Ethical and professional standards (option A) do require competence and self-monitoring, the primary reason in group dynamics terms is the direct effect on members.

Option C (improving cohesion and effectiveness) is a positive outcome but is more general and indirect.

Option D (member expectations) may be true, but expectations alone are not the main professional rationale.

The most direct and group-dynamics–based reason is B. Their anxiety can increase that of members.

In the Social and Cultural Diversity core area, counselors are expected to demonstrate multicultural competence, including the ability to broach topics such as race, ethnicity, culture, oppression, identity, and power dynamics.

Broaching is the counselor’s intentional effort to:

Acknowledge and invite discussion of cultural and sociopolitical factors affecting the client,

Normalize and validate the significance of the client’s cultural identities, and

Address how these factors may shape the counseling relationship and presenting concerns.

Best practice is for broaching to occur early and repeatedly:

It should be introduced in the first session to set a foundation that cultural and identity-related issues are welcome topics.

It should continue throughout the counseling process, as relevance may change or deepen over time.

Limiting broaching to referral considerations (A) or only when a client formally requests it (B) contradicts multicultural counseling competencies, which emphasize counselor responsibility.

Doing it only by the second session and at termination (C) makes it infrequent and procedural, rather than an ongoing part of the relationship.

Thus, broaching is implemented in the first session and throughout counseling, making D the correct answer.

In the Group Counseling and Group Work core area, CACREP emphasizes the counselor’s ability to design and facilitate preventive and psychoeducational group interventions, especially in school settings.

For elementary school students who witness bullying, the primary need is often:

Understanding what bullying is,

Learning appropriate bystander behaviors (how to report, how to support peers), and

Developing social-emotional skills and empathy.

Group psychoeducation is developmentally appropriate and efficient for:

Teaching many students at once about bullying,

Normalizing their experiences as witnesses,

Practicing skills (role-plays, discussions) in a safe, structured group environment.

Not B (Individual counseling): May be appropriate for specific students in distress, but it is not the best first-line method for a general group of witnesses.

Not C (Conduct an assessment): Assessment may be part of the process, but the question asks for the best method for working with these students, which focuses on intervention.

Not D (Determine the need for a referral): Referrals are indicated when specialized services are needed; they are not the primary method of working with a broad group of witnesses.

Thus, providing group psychoeducation (A) is the best method in this context.

In the Assessment and Testing core area, counselors are expected to recognize major psychological and neuropsychological instruments and what they measure.

The Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test (often called Bender-Gestalt) is primarily used to assess visual-motor integration / visual-motor perception—how well a person can perceive visual stimuli and reproduce them through motor responses (drawing).

It can be used as a screening tool for brain dysfunction, developmental issues, or neurological problems, but its core construct is visual-motor perception/integration.

It does not directly measure general intellectual disability (A), pure visual concept formation (B), or motor skills alone (C). Thus, D. Visual-motor perception is the best answer.

Within diagnostic work, counselors must distinguish between eating disorders by identifying core diagnostic features. Anorexia nervosa is characterized by restriction of energy intake leading to significantly low body weight, a disturbance in the way one’s body weight or shape is experienced, and, critically, an intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even when underweight. That intense fear is central to both the client’s experience and the clinical diagnosis, making Option B correct.

Option A (repeatedly regurgitating food for at least one month) aligns more with rumination disorder, not anorexia nervosa.

Option C is incorrect: anorexia is more frequently associated with higher-income, industrialized societies, not predominantly low-income countries.

Option D (binge eating) is more characteristic of bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder; while some people with anorexia (binge-eating/purging type) may binge, it is not the defining feature.

Correctly identifying hallmark symptoms like fear of weight gain reflects the NBCC Intake, Assessment and Diagnosis expectation that counselors accurately recognize and differentiate mental disorders when formulating diagnoses and treatment plans.

Counselors are expected to practice within ethical guidelines that include evaluating potential risks, cultural factors, and therapeutic implications of client gift-giving. Ethical practice involves assessing the meaning, timing, and potential impact of the gift on the therapeutic relationship. Exploring the significance of the gift with the client allows the counselor to determine whether accepting it maintains appropriate boundaries and supports the client’s cultural values without compromising professional judgment or the integrity of the counseling relationship.

Reality therapy, grounded in choice theory, emphasizes that clients are responsible for their choices and can learn to make more effective ones. In group counseling, the approach focuses on:

What members are doing and thinking in the present.

Encouraging effective action plans.

Acknowledging feelings but emphasizing choices and behaviors.

Personal responsibility and evaluation of whether current behavior is helping members meet their needs.

Option D accurately reflects this: reality therapy groups highlight actions, thinking, feelings, and individual choice, with particular attention to behavior and responsibility within the group context.

Why the others are incorrect:

A. Nondirective stance: Reality therapy is typically active and directive, not nondirective; the leader is engaged, confronts inconsistencies, and helps members plan.

B. Emphasis on the analysis of resistance: Rather than deeply analyzing “resistance,” reality therapy focuses on what the member is willing to do now and helping them design realistic, responsible plans.

C. The leader outlines a strategy: In reality therapy, the counselor helps members formulate their own plans; the leader does not simply prescribe or impose a strategy.

This matches NBCC Counselor Work Behavior Areas for group work and interventions, which expect counselors to understand how theoretical orientation shapes the focus of group sessions, the leader’s role, and the type of change process emphasized.

When planning treatment for substance use disorders, counselors are expected to prioritize immediate safety and stabilization, followed by the development of skills and environmental changes that support abstinence and recovery. Early treatment typically focuses on:

Physical concerns (A): addressing withdrawal, medical risks, and overall health stability is often the first priority.

Managing stress without substances (B): clients need early coping strategies to handle cravings and stressors without returning to use.

Dysfunctional lifestyle (C): examining and beginning to modify high-risk routines, relationships, and environments that maintain substance use is an early and ongoing focus.

Personality traits (D), while potentially relevant, are typically not an initial focus. Deep exploration of personality structure, enduring traits, or complex characterological issues usually comes later, after stabilization, reduction of use, and establishment of basic coping skills. Addressing these too early can be overwhelming and may distract from urgent recovery tasks.

Therefore, the factor not initially addressed is personality traits, making D the correct answer.

Top of Form

Extended thinking

Bottom of Form

Feminist counseling emphasizes how social, political, and cultural structures contribute to client distress, especially for women and other marginalized groups. A core idea is that personal problems are often rooted in systemic oppression, and therefore counseling is not only about individual change but also about social transformation.

Option C reflects this: feminist counselors view individual counseling as a potential tool of social change by helping clients recognize oppressive systems, develop critical consciousness, and become empowered to challenge inequities in their lives and communities.

A focuses narrowly on the mother relationship, which is more aligned with psychodynamic approaches, not feminist theory.

B is incorrect because feminist counseling explicitly recognizes that women do not have full social equality.

D conflicts with feminist principles, which stress self-empowerment and mutual empowerment, rather than empowerment being bestowed by a more powerful group (e.g., men).

This fits within Areas of Clinical Focus, where counselors must understand theoretical orientations that address power, oppression, gender roles, and social justice in clinical work.

Counselors must understand major theories of human development as part of their Areas of Clinical Focus. Carol Gilligan (A) is known for her work on moral development in females, challenging Kohlberg’s male-centered model. She argued that women’s moral reasoning often emphasizes care, relationships, and responsibility, and that this pattern was not adequately captured in earlier theories that relied heavily on male samples.

Her research opened the door for a more nuanced understanding of gender differences in moral reasoning, which is important for counselors when conceptualizing clients’ values, decision-making, and developmental tasks.

The other theorists focus on different areas:

Virginia Satir (B) is associated with family systems and communication patterns in families.

Anne Roe (C) is known for a theory of career development related to early child–parent relationships.

Karen Horney (D) contributed to neo-Freudian psychoanalytic theory and explored personality and feminine psychology but did not specifically develop a major model of moral development in females.

Gilligan’s work supports counselors in recognizing diverse developmental pathways and avoiding gender-biased assumptions when understanding clients’ moral judgments and values.

In the Counseling Skills and Interventions domain, counselors are expected to use basic attending and responding skills to facilitate understanding, rapport, and client growth. One of the core skills is reflection.

Reflection involves the counselor restating or paraphrasing the client’s message, often focusing on feelings and meanings, using the counselor’s own words while staying close to the client’s experience. Reflection may:

Clarify what the client is expressing

Highlight underlying emotions

Help the client feel heard and understood

Bring important themes or aspects into focus

In the scenario, the counselor is:

Restating the client’s concern using different words

Including possible emotions and relevant factors

This matches the definition of reflection (sometimes called paraphrasing with feeling), not the other skills.

Reframing (A) involves offering a new, alternative meaning or interpretation of a situation (changing the “frame” through which the client sees the problem), rather than simply restating it.

Confrontation (C) involves pointing out discrepancies, contradictions, or distortions in the client’s words, behaviors, or beliefs.

Summarization (D) is a broader pulling together of themes and content over a longer segment of the session or several sessions, not a single restatement of the presenting problem.

Therefore, the counselor is using reflection, making B the correct answer.

Career work with clients in midlife and later adulthood must consider actual life circumstances, including financial responsibilities, health, caregiving roles, retirement timing, age discrimination, and existing skills. For this reason, career counseling for this group should be grounded in the realities of clients’ lives—their current roles, constraints, and opportunities—making Option C the best answer.

Option A (focus on career selection) is more appropriate for adolescents or emerging adults choosing an initial field, not individuals who already have extensive work histories.

Option B (abstract self-perception) is too vague and detached from the very concrete life factors often central in midlife/older transitions.

Option D (emphasize training/education) may be appropriate for some clients, but it is not a universal guiding principle and ignores many who may not have the time, resources, or interest for extensive retraining.

NBCC Counselor Work Behavior Areas highlight that, in career development, counselors must integrate developmental stage and real-world context into their clinical focus, particularly for adults navigating later-life work and retirement decisions.

Within the Intake, Assessment and Diagnosis work behavior area, counselors are expected to understand the basic principles of test construction, reliability, and validity so they can select and interpret assessment instruments appropriately.

Criterion validity refers to how well a test score is related to an external criterion, such as independent ratings, real-world performance, or other objective measures of behavior or achievement. For example, if a test is designed to measure job performance, its criterion validity would be demonstrated by the strength of the relationship between test scores and supervisor performance ratings or actual productivity.

Face validity (A) is a superficial judgment about whether a test appears to measure what it claims to measure and is not based on statistical relationships.

Content validity (C) concerns whether the items on a test adequately represent the full range of the content area or domain being measured.

Construct validity (D) refers to how well a test measures a theoretical construct or trait (such as depression, anxiety, or intelligence) and involves an accumulation of evidence from many sources.

Because this question specifically references the test's relationship to independent ratings of performance, it is describing criterion validity, making option B the correct answer.

The techniques listed come from different theoretical orientations:

Relaxation training – commonly associated with behavioral and cognitive-behavioral approaches.

Covert modeling – a behavioral technique using imagined models.

Mental imagery – used in both cognitive and experiential/affective approaches.

Interpretation – often associated with psychodynamic and insight-oriented therapies.

Empty chair – a hallmark of Gestalt and other affective/experiential approaches.

Because this list spans multiple theoretical orientations, the best match is D. Eclectic, where counselors intentionally draw techniques from different theories and apply them in an integrated manner based on client need rather than allegiance to a single model.

NBCC Counselor Work Behavior Areas describe effective counselors as able to:

Select and apply a variety of interventions.

Match techniques to client goals, problems, and preferences.

Integrate methods from different orientations when appropriate.

This is the essence of an eclectic approach, making D the correct answer.

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) results from prenatal exposure to alcohol and is characterized by a pattern of:

Central nervous system (CNS) abnormalities

Growth deficiencies

Characteristic facial features

Cognitive, behavioral, and learning difficulties

These effects are considered permanent and irreversible, making Option A correct. While supportive services and interventions can improve functioning and quality of life, the underlying damage does not “heal” or disappear over time [as consistently noted in medical and developmental literature, e.g., CDC and pediatric guidelines].

Why the other options are incorrect:

B. “The effects … are mental rather than physical.”FAS includes both physical and neurodevelopmental effects—growth deficits, facial anomalies, and CNS involvement—not just “mental” effects.

C. “FAS can develop through breastfeeding.”FAS is specifically caused by alcohol exposure in utero; breastfeeding does not cause FAS, although alcohol can affect the infant in other ways.

D. “The children with FAS tend to have average IQs.”Many individuals with FAS have below-average IQ, learning disabilities, and executive functioning deficits. Average IQ is not characteristic of the syndrome as a whole.

Within the NBCC Counselor Work Behavior Areas, counselors are expected to understand key features of developmental and neurobehavioral conditions such as FAS to inform assessment, referral, and appropriate support planning.

Within the Intake, Assessment and Diagnosis domain, counselors are expected to understand different types of assessment instruments, including their purpose and limitations. Projective techniques (such as the Rorschach Inkblot Test or Thematic Apperception Test) are designed to provide information about unconscious processes, personality dynamics, and underlying conflicts by eliciting open-ended responses to ambiguous stimuli.

These techniques are not considered strictly objective (eliminating A). They often involve clinical interpretation.

They are not designed primarily to predict future difficulties (eliminating B), though they may contribute to a broader understanding of risk.

While they can inform hypotheses about contributing factors, they do not directly “reflect the causes” of current problems in a definitive way (eliminating C).

Their central theoretical purpose is to tap unconscious feelings, motives, and conflicts, making D the correct answer.

Professional practice and ethics expectations include understanding ethical responsibilities when counselors participate in or conduct research. In a collaborative research project, while all researchers share ethical obligations, the primary responsibility for ensuring the protection of participants’ legal and ethical rights lies with the principal investigator (PI).

The PI is responsible for:

Ensuring informed consent procedures

Safeguarding confidentiality and data security

Complying with institutional and legal requirements

Overseeing the ethical conduct of all aspects of the project

Option B (author of the proposal) does not necessarily have ongoing responsibility if they are not the PI.

Option C (the counselor who agrees to accept responsibility) is too vague; specific responsibility lies with designated roles and typically centers on the PI.

Option D (state licensure board) regulates professional conduct broadly but does not manage the day-to-day ethical implementation of a specific research project.

Therefore, the correct answer is A, the principal investigator.

Career construction counseling (Savickas) is a narrative, meaning-based approach to career development. Its central activity is helping clients tell, explore, and organize their life stories in a way that reveals recurring life themes and preferred ways of being in the world. These themes then guide career choices and roles that feel coherent and meaningful.

Thus, option C. Identifying life themes is correct, as it captures the core narrative task of career construction counseling.

A. Analyzing temperament fits more with trait-based or psychometric approaches.

B. Documenting experience may occur, but it is secondary to making sense of those experiences through themes.

D. Practicing interview skills is a useful career skill-building task but is not the central activity of career construction counseling.

NBCC Counselor Work Behavior Areas expect counselors to understand major career theories and approaches, including narrative and constructivist models that emphasize life themes, meaning-making, and storytelling in career development.

In the Professional Practice and Ethics domain, counselors are expected to understand basic research concepts so they can evaluate the quality of studies and apply findings responsibly. When a researcher examines factors such as:

History (events occurring between pretest and posttest),

Differential mortality (attrition of participants from groups),

Pretesting procedures (testing effects),

Statistical regression (regression toward the mean),

they are evaluating threats to internal validity.

Internal validity (Option C) refers to the degree to which changes in the dependent variable can confidently be attributed to the independent variable, rather than to extraneous or confounding factors. Examining these threats is central to determining how well the experimental design supports cause-and-effect conclusions.

Why the other options are incorrect:

A. Content validity – Concerns whether a measure adequately samples the domain of content it is supposed to cover (e.g., whether a test of math skills adequately represents the math curriculum), not the design’s vulnerability to history or mortality threats.

B. External validity – Involves the generalizability of findings to other populations, settings, and times, not the internal threats listed.

D. Construct validity – Refers to whether a test or procedure actually measures the theoretical construct it purports to measure, not the impact of history, testing effects, or attrition on experimental outcomes.

NBCC-aligned counselor work behaviors emphasize that ethically responsible practitioners must be able to critically evaluate research methods, including recognition of internal validity threats, to determine how much confidence to place in study results they might use to inform practice.

Effective group work requires that members understand the group’s purpose, goals, and expectations before they commit to participate. Within NBCC-aligned work behaviors for group counseling, counselors are expected to:

Clarify the purpose, structure, and expectations of the group during the screening or pre-group orientation phase (Option A).

Ensure that clients can make an informed decision about whether the group fits their needs.

Promote psychological safety by reducing uncertainty from the outset.

Although the counselor may restate or refine the purpose in the first session or as the group progresses, ethically and professionally it should not be delayed:

Waiting until the first session (Option B) means members are already committed and may feel pressured to stay even if the group is not appropriate.

Only discussing it as the group evolves (Option C) or if members ask (Option D) fails to meet expectations for informed consent and clear contracting.

Thus, according to professional group counseling standards embedded in the Counselor Work Behavior Areas, the counselor should discuss the group’s purpose during the screening process.

In the Intake, Assessment and Diagnosis domain, counselors are expected to gather history, duration, and prior episodes of symptoms to determine the most accurate diagnosis using established diagnostic criteria (e.g., DSM-5-TR depressive disorders).

The client currently meets criteria for a major depressive episode: hopelessness, worthlessness, impaired concentration, and suicidal ideation occurring nearly every day for at least two weeks.

The question also states the client previously experienced the same symptoms during college. This history of a prior major depressive episode means the current presentation is not a single episode but part of a pattern of recurring episodes.

Therefore, the appropriate diagnosis is:

A. major depressive disorder, recurrent

Why the other options are not the best fit:

B. major depressive disorder, single episode – incorrect because the client has had more than one episode (current plus college years).

C. persistent depressive disorder – this requires a chronic depressed mood over at least two years, typically less episodic and more continuous than what is described.

D. bipolar I disorder – requires at least one manic episode; there is no indication of manic or hypomanic symptoms.

Accurately distinguishing between single-episode and recurrent disorders reflects the counselor’s responsibility to integrate symptom history and duration into a diagnostic formulation, as emphasized in the NBCC work behavior expectations for assessment and diagnosis.

Within the Areas of Clinical Focus work behavior area, counselors are expected to know evidence-based treatments for specific clinical conditions, including personality disorders.

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) (Option C) was originally developed by Marsha Linehan specifically to treat chronically suicidal individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD). DBT integrates:

Cognitive-behavioral strategies for behavior change,

Acceptance-based strategies (e.g., mindfulness),

A dialectical framework balancing acceptance and change.

The model includes:

Individual therapy,

Group skills training (mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness),

Phone coaching,

Consultation team for therapists.

These features reflect the NBCC-aligned work behavior expectation that counselors understand appropriate, validated modalities for complex clinical presentations such as BPD.

Why the other options are incorrect:

A. Analytical behavioral analysis – This is not the recognized model associated with the original treatment of BPD.

B. Cognitive behavioral therapy – While DBT evolved from CBT and CBT techniques are useful with many disorders, standard CBT was not specifically designed as the original, specialized treatment protocol for BPD.

D. Transactional analysis – A distinct theoretical model focusing on ego states and life scripts; it is not the empirically established, original treatment model for BPD.

Counselors working with personality disorders are expected to identify and, when within their scope, apply or refer for treatments such as DBT, which are designed and researched for these clinical populations.

In developmental and ethological theory, imprinting refers to the process by which very young offspring form a strong, early bond or attachment to a primary caregiver. This process is especially noted in animal studies but is often used conceptually to describe how early, close caregiver relationships form and shape later attachment patterns.

Option B, imprinting, matches the idea of an early, foundational attachment process.

Role identification (A) involves modeling and adopting roles/behaviors, typically later in development.

Operant conditioning (C) and classical conditioning (D) describe learning through reinforcement or association, not specifically the attachment bond itself.

Knowledge of early attachment processes and their impact on later emotional and relational functioning is part of Areas of Clinical Focus in the NBCC Counselor Work Behavior Areas, as it helps counselors understand developmental roots of clients’ concerns.

Counselors are expected to understand major theoretical orientations and how they conceptualize the family and the individual in context. Within this competency, Alfred Adler is recognized as the theorist who emphasized:

The family constellation, including the structure and dynamics of the family system.

The impact of birth order (e.g., oldest, middle, youngest, only child) on personality development, beliefs, and interpersonal style.

How these early family experiences shape a person’s sense of belonging, inferiority/superiority, and lifestyle.

Adlerian theory holds that an individual’s position in the family constellation influences roles, expectations, and perceived significance, which in turn affect behavior and psychological functioning. Counselors use this understanding to conceptualize clients within their relational and familial context.

Why the other options are not correct:

B. Carl Jung focused on the collective unconscious, archetypes, and individuation—not birth order.

C. Jean Piaget is associated with cognitive development in children, not family constellation dynamics.

D. Virginia Satir worked extensively with families and communication patterns, but she is not the theorist associated with birth order as a core conceptual tool.

This aligns with the NBCC Counselor Work Behavior Area expectations that counselors understand key theorists and use family and developmental context when conceptualizing client concerns.

Feminist counseling approaches highlight the impact of power, social roles, and systemic oppression on client wellness. These modalities place strong emphasis on social justice, advocacy, and empowerment, and they often extend beyond individual intrapsychic change to include action aimed at transforming oppressive systems that affect the client’s life.

Option A captures this core feature: feminist counseling actively orients intervention toward changing systemic threats (such as sexism, racism, heterosexism, and other forms of oppression) that harm the client’s mental health and overall well-being. This is consistent with counselor work behaviors that stress advocacy, attention to sociocultural context, and the integration of interventions that promote equity and client empowerment.

Why the other options are incorrect:

B. SFBT roots: Feminist therapy developed from feminist movements and critical perspectives on traditional psychotherapy, not from solution-focused brief therapy.

C. Contraindicated for couples and families: Feminist approaches are frequently applied to couples and family counseling, especially to examine power imbalances and gendered expectations.

D. Androgynous gender role requirement: While feminist therapy may explore gender roles and encourage flexibility, it does not require practitioners to “move beyond an androgynous gender role” as a precondition for effective practice.

This aligns with NBCC Counselor Work Behavior Areas, which include using counseling models that acknowledge social, cultural, and systemic influences and incorporating advocacy and systemic change into interventions when appropriate.

In treatment planning, counselors are expected to identify and incorporate client strengths, resources, and existing coping strategies to increase the likelihood of successful goal attainment. Option A is a strengths-focused question because it:

Directs attention to what the client is already doing that is working, even partially.

Helps uncover existing skills, strategies, supports, or internal resources the client uses to prevent the situation from deteriorating.

Allows those strengths to be built into the treatment plan as intentional interventions.

The other options are less directly focused on usable strengths for goal attainment:

B. “What is the worst part about having this problem?” explores distress and problem impact, not strengths.

C. “What resources do you wish you had?” can be useful, but it focuses on missing or external resources, not current strengths the client already possesses.

D. “What is your most positive memory from childhood?” might be helpful for rapport or narrative work, but it does not necessarily elicit current, goal-relevant strengths.

NBCC Counselor Work Behavior Areas related to treatment planning emphasize using client resilience, skills, and successes as part of collaborative goal setting and intervention design. Asking about how the client has kept the problem from becoming worse, as in Option A, directly aligns with that strengths-based, change-oriented approach.

When addressing abuse and neglect, counselors are expected to understand risk factors, patterns, and transmission across generations. The phrase “intergenerational child abuse” refers to how abusive behaviors and dynamics are often passed down from one generation to the next.

Option B, learned patterns of behavior, fits this concept because:

Children who grow up in abusive homes may learn that violence, coercion, or neglect are normal ways to relate.

Without intervention, they may replicate these patterns with their own children or partners.

This reflects social learning principles—behavior is observed, internalized, and then repeated.

The counselor’s role includes recognizing these learned, patterned behaviors and helping clients break the cycle through awareness, new skills, and protective interventions.

Why the other options are not correct:

A. Specific traumatic reaction – Refers more to an individual’s response to a particular trauma (e.g., PTSD symptoms), not the across-generation transmission of abuse.

C. Parental alienation syndrome – A controversial concept typically used in the context of high-conflict custody disputes, not as a general explanation for intergenerational abuse.

D. Genetic predisposition – While biology can influence temperament, intergenerational child abuse is more accurately associated with relational and learned patterns rather than strict genetic inheritance.

This reflects the NBCC Counselor Work Behavior Areas related to recognizing the impact of family-of-origin experiences, abuse, and maladaptive relational patterns across generations.

The term that encompasses a client’s background, values, morals, traditions, and ways of living within a social context is culture.2 Culture is commonly understood as the shared patterns of beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that a group uses to cope with the world and pass on to future generations. It shapes:

Worldview and meaning-making

Interpersonal expectations and communication styles

Attitudes toward counseling, mental health, and help-seeking

Thus, Option B (culture) is correct.

Why the other options are incorrect:

A. Individualism – Refers to a value orientation emphasizing personal autonomy, independence, and self-reliance. It is one possible cultural value, not the full description of a client’s total human experience.

C. Collectivism – The opposite value orientation to individualism, emphasizing group harmony, interdependence, and group goals. Again, it is one type of cultural value, not the overarching construct.

D. Race – Refers to a category often (problematically) based on physical characteristics and socially constructed groupings. While race can influence experience and oppression, it does not by itself encompass the entirety of background, values, morals, and traditions; those are more fully covered by the broader concept of culture.2

In the Professional Practice and Ethics area, NBCC highlights that ethically competent counselors must understand and respect clients’ cultural contexts, integrating these into assessment, case conceptualization, and intervention.

Ethical practice requires counselors to avoid multiple relationships when they could impair professional judgment, increase the risk of harm, or exploit the client. Serving simultaneously as both instructor and personal counselor to the same individual creates:

A power differential (grading authority and evaluative role)

Potential for role confusion

Risk that the student may feel pressured or may not be fully free in the counseling relationship

Therefore, the counselor should not enter into a counseling relationship with a current student. The ethically appropriate action is to provide a referral to another qualified mental health professional, as in Option B.

A (asking the student to wait until the course is over) still allows for a future dual relationship and does not completely remove the risk tied to the existing power dynamic.

C (scheduling counseling) directly creates a problematic multiple relationship.

D (redirecting to another faculty member) could create another dual relationship (faculty–student and counselor–client) and is not the cleanest or safest option.

Thus, the counselor should refer the student to another appropriate professional, making B the correct answer.