Starting Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: Ethics

Integrated Child & Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (ICAPP)
2021-22, 1st Block — Mondays, 8:00-9:15pm
Julie Wood, MA

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Introduction

The focus of these four weeks on ethics will be practicing how to think about clinical decisions and actions ethically. This requires more than a list of what not to do. Our ethical guidepost, like all health care providers is: do no harm. It may be easier to consider a therapist action as harmful, and it is equally important to consider lack of action as harm. If I do or do not do x, how will my patient be helped or harmed? By definition, the helping relationship includes a power dynamic. The helpee is seeking help and paying for such help, while the helper presumably has some skill and talent for provision of help. It is an inherently unbalanced relationship. It is not mutual or reciprocal. Each of us has a professional code of ethics. I encourage us to consider those and note the common threads (MSW, MA ACA, LMFT/AAMFT, PhD’s APA, MD’s AMA.)

Psychoanalytic psychotherapy is an intimate endeavor aimed at healing and growth for the patient. The relational nature of the practice, with a focus on free association, regression, transference/countertransference creates a more complex stew for consideration of relational ethics. These four weeks will focus on a capacity to reflect and think ethically specific to this mode of psychotherapy. While there are some readings to enliven our discussion, we will focus on thinking ethically about your current ethical dilemmas in your clinical practice, including in training and supervision.

October 11, 2021 — Code of Ethics, Nuts and Bolts

Print and bring your professional Code of Ethics, Disclosure Statement, and Consent for treatment. We will consider all codes of ethics, similar threads, internal conflicts. We will cover the nuts and bolts, the “to-do’s” of practicing ethically, including: Disclosure Statements, disclosure of training status, privilege and confidentiality (including children, teens and families), professional wills, gifts, fees, treatment frame, risk of treatments, mandated reporting, suicidality, emergency policies.

Bring a current ethical dilemma to class.