Posted by gardenergirl on April 20, 2006, at 13:00:15
Posted with author's permission from a listserv message.
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This *American Psychologist* study's findings led the authors to call
for changes in the APA ethics code.Here's some background. The original ethics code of the American Psychological Association was empirically based, the result of a membership survey, asking what ethical dilemmas psychologists encountered in their "real world" work.
Almost half a century later, Pope and Vetter replicated that study. They found that the second most frequently reported ethical dilemmas
were in the area of "blurred, dual, or conflictual relationships."On the basis of their findings, Pope and Vetter called for changes in the APA ethical principles in the areas of dual relationships, multiple
relationships, and boundary issues so that the ethics code would, for example:(1) define dual relationships more carefully and specify clearly conditions under which they might be therapeutically indicated or acceptable;
(2) address clearly and realistically the situations of those who practice in small towns, rural communities, remote locales, and similar
contexts (emphasizing that neither the current code in place at the time nor the draft revision under consideration at that time fully acknowledged or adequately addressed such contexts); and(3) distinguish between dual relationships and accidental or incidental extratherapeutic contacts (e.g., running into a patient at the grocery market or unexpectedly seeing a client at a party) and to address realistically the awkward entanglements into which even the most
careful therapist can fall.The new web page provides the relevant section from this article ("Ethical Dilemmas Encountered by Members of the American Psychological
Association: A National Survey" by Kenneth S. Pope & Valerie A. Vetter (published in the March, 1992 issue of *American Psychologist*). It also provides a link to the complete article.This new web page ("A Study Calling for Changes in the APA Ethics Code regarding Dual Relationships, Multiple Relationships, & Boundary
Decisions") is at http://kspope.com/dual/multiple-relationships.php<snip>
"Ethics codes cannot do our questioning, thinking, feeling, and responding for us. Such codes can never be a substitute for the active
process by which the individual therapist or counselor struggles with the sometimes bewildering, always unique constellation of questions, responsibilities, contexts, and competing demands of helping another
person. . . . Ethics must be practical. Clinicians confront an almost unimaginable diversity of situations, each with its own shifting questions, demands, and responsibilities. Every clinician is unique in
important ways. Every client is unique in important ways. Ethics that are out of touch with the practical realities of clinical work, with the diversity and constantly changing nature of the therapeutic venture, are useless." (Pope & Vasquez, *Ethics in Psychotherapy & Counseling, 2nd Edition*) End message.Sounds like great recommendations to clarify and adapt the Ethics Code to the realities faced in therapist/client relationships.
gg
poster:gardenergirl
thread:635284
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20060406/msgs/635284.html