Accepting Fallibility: A Model for Personal Responsibility for Nonegregious Ethics Infractions

The profession's ethics standards require counselors to self‐monitor their professional actions and take responsibility for misconduct. However, the professional literature has focused on preventing misconduct and on response to serious violations and has offered little guidance regarding the minor infractions that all professionals are vulnerable to committing during their careers. The author presents a 4‐element model to guide counselors in ethically repairing damage when they recognize they have violated ethics codes or ethical principles in minor ways. The model uses the ethical principles that underlie the American Counseling Association's (1995) Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice and J. R. Rest's (1983, 1994) model of moral behavior as a foundation.