Within the CACREP Core Area of Social and Cultural Diversity, counselors are expected to demonstrate skills that allow them to work effectively with clients from diverse backgrounds. A key competency is the ability to avoid imposing personal values and to maintain an unbiased, respectful stance toward clients’ cultural identities, beliefs, and worldviews.

Ethical Bracketing (Correct Answer)Ethical bracketing refers to a counselor’s intentional process of setting aside personal values, beliefs, or biases in order to provide competent, culturally responsive services.This aligns with ethical expectations that counselors:

Maintain value neutrality,

Avoid personal value imposition, and

Uphold client autonomy, dignity, and cultural uniqueness.Ethical bracketing is specifically encouraged as an important skill when working with diverse populations.

Countertransference (Incorrect)This refers to a counselor’s emotional reactions toward the client, often based on the counselor’s unresolved issues. It is not about intentionally setting aside personal values; instead, it is a internal emotional process that must be managed during therapy.

Acculturation (Incorrect)Acculturation refers to the process of adapting to a dominant or new culture, not the counselor’s act of setting aside personal values during counseling.

Developmental Maturation (Incorrect)This refers to normal growth processes across the lifespan. It has no direct connection to value management in counseling.

Because only ethical bracketing describes consciously setting aside personal values to serve clients without bias, A is the correct answer.