| Abstract: | Ward v. Wilbanks is the most important legal case for the profession of counseling in the last 25 years. This qualitative research used general content analysis to examine master's‐level counseling students’ responses to the Ward v. Wilbanks case. Emergent themes from data analysis include (a) the role of gatekeeping; (b) Julea Ward and Eastern Michigan University: inflexible and uncompromising; (c) Ward v. Wilbanks: confusion, complexity, and certainty; and (d) personal values, professional values, and the ACA Code of Ethics (American Counseling Association, 2005 ). |
