Counseling Ethics: Philosophical and Professional Foundations

Can a counselor act ethically without first reflecting philosophically? 

This question forms the living pulse of Counseling Ethics: Philosophical and Professional Foundations by Christin Jungers. At a time when professional ethics is often reduced to compliance checklists, Jungers reawakens our attention to the moral imagination and philosophical depth that true counseling demands.

Jungers’ book moves beyond rules and codes to explore why we act ethically, not merely how. She invites readers to approach counseling as a moral and philosophical vocation, rooted in reflection, autonomy, and virtue. 

Through experiential activities, case studies, and diverse theoretical lenses—from existential phenomenology to care ethics—she cultivates ethical awareness as a lived, dialogical process rather than a set of rigid prescriptions.

The book’s richness lies in its integration of classical and contemporary moral theories. Jungers situates Aristotle’s virtue ethics alongside phenomenological approaches that emphasize authentic encounters and moral perception. She draws from the ethics of care to remind counselors that empathy and attentiveness are not “soft skills,” but moral imperatives. In doing so, she aligns with a growing movement within counseling and philosophy that views ethics as a practice of becoming rather than mere rule-following.

Her discussion of existential ethics—how freedom, choice, and responsibility define the therapeutic relationship—echoes the voices of Kierkegaard, Sartre, and Buber. Ethical decisions, she suggests, arise not from detached reasoning but from the lived dialogue between the self and the other, the counselor and the client, intention and consequence.

For philosophical counselors, Jungers’ text is a reminder that every session is a moral encounter. The counselor’s reflective stance, capacity for empathy, and self-awareness are themselves ethical acts. By encouraging practitioners to clarify their own philosophical foundations, she brings ethics into alignment with identity and practice. Her approach empowers counselors to move beyond anxiety about “doing the right thing” toward cultivating an ethical presence—one that is attentive, responsible, and grounded in reflective self-knowledge.

The book’s case studies, each grounded in real-life ethical ambiguity, illustrate how moral reasoning evolves not through certainty but through humility and dialogue.

Christin Jungers’ Counseling Ethics is more than a textbook—it is a philosophical invitation to rethink what it means to care, decide, and act. For those in counseling, teaching, or philosophical practice, it restores ethics to its rightful place: not as an external code, but as the inner art of living and helping well.

“Ethics,” Jungers seems to say, “is not what we memorize—it’s how we meet the human before us.”