Navigating the Ethical Landscape: Critical Issues in Practice and Training

Abstract

Counsellors and therapists must provide a safe space and walk the ethical line during their psychotherapeutic interactions with vulnerable clients. Ethical practice is informed by several philosophical positions; deontological, utilitarian, the widely used principle-based framework, feminist care ethics and other post-modern perspectives. Expanded frameworks of ethics encompass context, culture, and personal values and embrace the complexity of ethical dilemmas encountered in the therapy room. Research has identified common ethical dilemmas; confidentiality and its limits, boundary violations, therapist self-disclosure, but this has also raised questions about the intersections of culture and ethics. Various professional bodies have delineated ethical codes and guidelines but there are inevitable gaps in their translation to the arena of therapeutic practice. The application of ethical principles may be influenced by a range of client, setting, therapy (theoretical orientation or therapy modality), and organisational variables as well by extant legal frameworks and socio-political contexts. Training in ethics for mental health professionals is inconsistent and often inadequate. A critical evaluation of ethical codes, innovative training methodologies, the need for training in ethical decision-making models, and the value of therapist self-reflection are discussed, with a special focus on the Indian context.