Ethics for Counselling and Psychotherapy

1. Ethics for Counselling and Psychotherapy Introduction

2. Role specific Talking therapy as personal/individual action Individual practitioner Ethic of client autonomy dominant Ethical principles dominant Generic Talking therapy as both personal and social action + Team and agency Multiple ethical perspectives offered Other approaches to expressing ethics included Relational ethics The changes: to ...

3. Ethic of client autonomy -strengths • Challenges assumptions about professional power • Strengthens client power and influence by directing attention to the client’s right to be self-governing • Directs attention to importance of free and informed consent, confidentiality, rejects manipulation for social ends

4. Ethic of client autonomy - limitations • Culturally biased - presupposes atomistic and individualistic approach to self • Leaves an ethical void when limitations to autonomy encountered - dependency/lack of capacity, suicidal intent(?), harm to others • Weak on practitioner’s valid rights • Inhibits awareness of wider social context and responsibilities - self in relationship

5. Innovations – new principles • Fidelity -honouring the trust placed in the practitioner • ethic of relationship • trustworthiness, boundaries, confidentiality, mutual respect • Closely matches ethic of autonomy in Western culture but adaptable to other social and cultural contexts

6. Innovations - autonomy • Autonomy - respect for client’s right to be self-governing • addresses power imbalance, informed consent, confidentiality, clients as ends in themselves -not means to an end - ie rejects manipulation for beneficial social ends

7. Innovations - new principles Beneficence - promoting client’s well-being Non-maleficence - avoidance of harm • previously implicit as subsidiary principles • vulnerable clients incapable of autonomy • prohibition on exploitation • responsibility for dependent clients who are vulnerable to harm?

8. Innovations - new principles Justice - fair and impartial treatment of all clients and the provision of adequate services • respect for human rights and dignity • conscientiously considering any legal requirements • fairness and avoidance of discrimination • striving for fair and adequate provision of services

9. Innovations - new principles Self-respect - fostering the practitioner’s self-knowledge and care of self • controversial but important in relationship with client’s, colleagues and others • appropriate application of all the previous principles to self • personal and professional development • validates life outside talking therapies

10. Strengths and limitations of principles • Dominant in professional ethics • Good way of expressing prospective expectations and retrospective justification • Rational, analytic and action orientated • impersonal and detached? BUT • Ethics in practice are informed by underpinning ethical commitment, values, and experienced as personal moral qualities ….

11. Values • Values inform principles • respect for human rights and dignity • integrity of practitioner-client relationships • enhancing quality of professional knowledge • alleviating personal distress and suffering • facilitating a sense of self that is meaningful …

12. Personal moral qualities • Empirical evidence that the practitioner’s personal qualities are foremost in clients’ sense of safety and quality of relationship • Cannot be required by definition • Need to be deeply rooted in the person as an act of personal commitment • Qualities are what we aspire to

13. Empathy Sincerity Integrity Resilience Respect Humility Competence Fairness Wisdom Courage Personal moral qualities

14. Overall effect • Recognition that profession is maturing and facing complex ethical challenges for which there may be several appropriate responses • Change the professional culture and ethos from conformity to rules to ethical accountability and engagement • Fostering ethical understanding and practice intrinsic ethics - ethical mindfulness