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Ethics and Values in Psychotherapy

Posted By: Alan Tjeltveit
Date: Sunday, 27 February 2000, at 9:41 a.m.

Tjeltveit, A. C. (1999). Ethics and Values in Psychotherapy. London: Routledge.

Addresses a dimension of psychotherapy to which integrative explorations can be directed -- therapy's pervasively ethical character.

In Ethics and Values in Psychotherapy, I examine the role of the therapist as ethicist and the ways in which the ethical convictions of both therapist and client contribute - pervasively but often subtly - to the practical process of psychotherapy. Practitioners and other therapy stakeholders are increasingly thinking through the implications of two facts - that psychotherapy is not value-free, and that the contributions of science to the ethical dimensions of therapy are somewhat limited. I develop a conception of ethics broader than that of traditional codes of professional ethics and argue for more careful thinking about which values (ethical convictions) psychotherapy do and should exemplify. I argue that any discussion of professional and ethical practice in psychotherapy is inadequate if carried out in ignorance of (or in isolation from) traditional and contemporary ethical theories, from relevant evidence, and from the experience of psychotherapy practitioners and clients. Understanding the ethical character of therapy in a way that draws on those rich literatures (I cite over 700 sources) produces an approach that better accounts for therapy's ethical character. I apply that approach to issues such as: the role of therapy in society, the goals and outcomes of psychotherapy, therapeutic techniques and practices, the various meanings of values across cultures and theorists, ethics and managed care, and the intellectual and social contexts in which therapy takes place.

I use clinical examples and case studies throughout the book to relate my theoretical discussion to clinical practice. Ethics and Values in Psychotherapy should be of interest to ethics educators, experienced psychotherapists, and graduate students who are interested in the important issue of ethics in clinical practice.