CP522 Professional Competence: Advanced Skills & Ethical Practice Summative Assignment 2026

CP522 Counselling Summative Assignment 2026

CP522 Autobiography guidelines

The primary purpose of an ethics autobiography is to encourage self-reflection about your ethics of origin. This is your existing instruction manual for your built-in moral machinery. The more you know about it, the more you can use it to help develop your professional ethical muscles! As you answer the questions, what thoughts and feelings are stirred in you? We are not asking these as prescriptive questions – we’re not asking how you should make ethical decisions.

We are asking the questions about how you think right now about such issues and how you may have developed your intuitive notions of professional ethics. At this level, you need to consider your position related to ethics, values, cultural competence, record-keeping, supervision and the legal aspects related to the profession.

1. What motivations, values and virtues are most important to you, as a person, in your relationships with other people? What are the origins of these motivations, values and virtues? Family/society/religion/education/employment, etc.? How similar are your motivations, values and virtues to those of other members of the cultures to which you belong? (Culture meaning any group of people who share some values, traditions or ideals, e.g. nationality, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, geographic area, counselling trainees, etc.).
2. What experiences have you had with members of cultures to which you do not belong and their notions of right and wrong? What feelings did you have about those experiences and about the members of those other cultures?
3. At this stage in your professional journey, what would you consider as examples of right and wrong professional behaviour? What behaviours do I give up (with some individuals) by being a professional (e.g. dating, sex, gossip, self-disclosures)? What do I gain by being a professional (e.g. watching people grow, appropriate use of knowledge and skill, gratitude, money)? Use professional codes of ethics to support your answer. Where does your idea of right and wrong professional behaviour come from?
4. At this stage in your professional journey, how do you understand and evaluate competency, including your own?
5. When considering your personal values, beliefs, and experiences, how do they influence your perspective on mandatory reporting? Are there any biases or emotions clouding your judgement?
6. Consider how your cultural, religious and moral beliefs influence your perspective on suicide. Are there any biases or stigmas that might affect your understanding?
7. At this stage in your professional journey, how do supervision, case notes and the law influence your work and decision making as a therapist? How does this align with your personal and professional ethics and values?
8. Make a list of your strengths, those aspects of ethical development at which you find yourself articulate and confident. Then make a list of the other aspects – those for which the words, feelings and thoughts don’t come so quickly. Here is your list of what you can do to facilitate your development as a professional.

Like your growth and development as a professional, your autobiography will never be finished because your experiences, thoughts, and perspectives will change over time. So keep this portion of your journal accessible, as you will have occasion to refer back to it, reconceptualize it, and revise it many times

Note

Turnitin is a support tool intended to benefit students’ academic writing & referencing.

There is no requirement to use Turnitin in any specific way but is available to all students. Academic writing requires original work, correct citations, and referencing and Turnitin can assist students with checking these requirements.

The average assignment turnaround time for the previous academic year was 6 weeks.

Please see the link to the Assignment Cover Sheet that should be used on the front of all your summative assignments – Assignment Cover Sheet.docx

CP522 Summative Assignment 2026

Learning Outcomes: 

When completing or marking this assignment please remember the learning outcomes for this module are:

1. Evaluate competency in a wider range of therapeutic interventions and advanced counselling skills.
2. Display a deepening awareness of the importance of ethics in counselling and the influence of personal values, prejudices and triggers on same.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the importance of multicultural awareness and sensitivity towards the unique issues faced by diverse and/or minority populations.
4. Critically appraise and summarise the principles of key codes of ethics in the Irish/British fields of counselling and psychotherapy.
5. Display working knowledge of practitioner considerations such as the use of supervision, keeping of case notes, and various legal issues.
6. Identify further strengths and areas for improvement through reflection on triad/small group work.

Middlesex University guidelines

Middlesex Gradings and Guidelines for Associated Percentages

CP522 Grading Rubric