122 | Ethics, Law, Licensure, and Religion: Challenges Facing Mental Health Professionals in 2025 and How to Deal with Them

Over time, shifts in the APA, ACA, and NASW ethics codes have concerned psychologists and licensed mental health professionals with sincerely held religious beliefs. For example, professionals have an ethical mandate to avoid imposing personal values on clients, but this sometimes leads to the avoidance of discussions of spirituality altogether.  Some government inpatient and outpatient programs likewise discourage therapists from bringing up religion unless the client brings it up despite faith’s relevance to multicultural treatment. This discussion panel will compare current professional codes of ethics to that of the AACC Y2023 Code of Ethics with an emphasis on how to balance not imposing beliefs and yet practice in a spiritually competent manner. Practical clinical and advocacy strategies will be considered. In addition, the impact of laws being implemented on federal, state, and local levels for mental health professionals will be examined. The discussion will help psychologists, counselors, and social workers navigate the ethically delicate terrain of advocacy for spirituality as a meaningful component multicultural care, religious conscience, and promoting spiritual competency in their practice venues.