Ethics & Legal
111 articles found
Informed Consent with Children and Adolescents
Informed consent lays the foundation for the psychotherapy relationship and treatment to come in respecting the client’s legal rights and offering her or him the opportunity to make an informed decision about participating in the treatment to be offered. Barnett, Wise, Johnson-Greene, & Bucky (2007) have highlighted the potential benefits of an appropriately implemented informed […]
Caroline Coffman + 1 more
November 8, 2015
Boundaries and Multiple Relationships in Psychotherapy
The process of psychotherapy is relationship based. As such, how psychotherapists conduct themselves in these relationships has significant clinical and ethical implications. The Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (APA Ethics Code, APA, 2010) makes clear the ethical obligations relevant to boundaries and multiple relationships that are likely to be well known by […]
Jeffrey E. Barnett, Psy.D., ABPP + 1 more
July 19, 2015
Termination and Abandonment
Psychotherapists have numerous obligations to our clients that exist with the intent of ensuring that our clients’ best interests are paramount in our thinking and resulting actions. Jorgenson, Hirsch, and Wahl (1997) describe the responsibilities inherent in the psychotherapy relationship as a fiduciary responsibility to one’s clients. As they explain this relationship and responsibility: Generally, […]
Jeffrey E. Barnett, Psy.D., ABPP + 1 more
July 5, 2015
Confidentiality and its Exceptions
Maintaining the confidentiality of both the existence of and content shared within psychotherapy is one of the foundations of the psychotherapy relationship. In fact, this has been an essential feature of all health care relationships dating as far back as the Fifth Century B.C.E. as articulated in the Hippocratic Oath: Whatever I see or hear […]
Jeffrey E. Barnett, Psy.D., ABPP + 1 more
May 10, 2015
Ethical Considerations When a Client Crosses Sexual Boundaries
I’ll never forget the day that a friend of mine quoted a professor from my university: “The only way you can screw up as a psychologist is by having sex with your clients. As long as you don’t do that, you’re set!” Forgive the crass language, but the words and tone used at the time […]
Ashley Herbst, M.S.
April 30, 2015
Informed Consent in Clinical Practice
It may be easy to view informed consent as one of those obligations all psychotherapists must meet in order to stay out of trouble. After all, no one wants an ethics complaint, licensure board complaint, or malpractice suit. And, if we ever do become the subject of any of these we will definitely want to […]
Jeffrey E. Barnett, Psy.D., ABPP
March 29, 2015
Lessons From a Concussion
Imagine: You’ve been in an accident. Now, your thinking is clouded and unclear, you are terrified that you have lost your ability to reason and think clearly and it might never return, and you have a caseload of clients. What would you do? If you didn’t (or couldn’t) turn to anyone, is there someone in […]
Sarah Lukens
February 8, 2015
The Big Reveal
I was recently at a lecture where an audience member asked the speaker, psychologist Dr. Richard Schwartz, about his stance on the role of therapist self-disclosure. Dr. Schwartz paused for a moment before responding that he often urges supervisees to bring to mind the acronym WAIT before engaging in self-disclosure in a session (personal communication, […]
Sherry Sadighim, M.A.
January 22, 2015
Ethical Concerns Regarding Psychologists’ Roles in National Security
Throughout the history of the United States, the strength of American national security has been put to the test. A product of postwar social unrest, labor struggles, and anti-capitalist agitation, the Wall Street Bombing in the 1920s, which left many dead, injured, and confused, still leads investigators and historians to question the source of the […]
Lydia Popovski, M.A.
November 28, 2014
Integrating Spirituality and Religion into Psychotherapy Practice
Download a free accompanying Power Point presentation from Dr. Barnett here: Integrating_Religion_and_Spirituality.ppt It may be easy for psychotherapists to overlook or avoid addressing our clients’ spirituality and religion in psychotherapy. Such issues may not have been addressed in our training and thus may not be seen as relevant to our clinical work with clients. After all, we […]
Jeffrey E. Barnett, Psy.D., ABPP
November 16, 2014
Integrating Technology into Psychotherapy Practice
“Telehealth,” “Telepsychology,” “E-Health,” “E-Therapy;” whatever you call it, when you integrate various technologies into psychotherapy and other professional services you provide (such as clinical supervision) there are a range of important issues that each mental health clinician should be aware of and consider. While much more information is included in the accompanying downloadable Powerpoint presentation from workshops […]
Jeffrey E. Barnett, Psy.D., ABPP
October 26, 2014
Potential Ethical Dilemmas in the Treatment of Eating Disorders
Mental health clinicians make decisions based on their respective ethical codes daily. Certain ethical standards, such as abstaining from sexual relations with clients, are clear. Other decisions, particularly those involving nuanced clinical judgment, can be more complex. Psychologists who treat clients struggling with an eating disorder frequently face common ethical dilemmas such as therapist competence, […]
Sarah Long, M.S., LPC
September 25, 2014