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Transactional Analysis and ethics.... Introductory notes on the principles of ethics A few Introductory Notes on the Principles of Ethics
All codes of ethics need to balance the need for clarity with the need for simplicity and the need to reflect the underlying principles associated with ethics. In TA there is a tradition of emphasising Eric Berne's edict... "Do no harm"! Dave is a member of the Institute of Transactional Analysis (ITA), see their web site for their codes of ethics and professional practice guidelines. The ITA is also a member of the UKCP and so you can check out their codes as well. Finally the ITA is also a member of the European Association of Transactional Analysis… EATA have just recently revised their professional codes to include a description of ethical principles and values…. Ethical Principles! What constitutes an ethical principal? There seems to be 3 strands to this historical debate...
A Hierarchy of Ethical Thinking and Practice: As people develop their capacity for ethical thinking there is a developmental process through three levels….
In attempting to draw these strands together Ross (in The Right and the Good (1930) which was written for the UK medical profession) created a model of ethics which considered the morality of an action and it's outcomes. Ross described the following 7categories of duties by which "We are morally governed".
5 Guiding Principles Steve Page and Val Wosket; Supervising the Counsellor (1994) suggest adding one more.... Autonomy and reducing the others to four principles... 1. Non Maleficience... Prevention of harm to others, dilemmas can arise in therapy for example when a client confides that they know of sexual abuse occurring, however they are too frightened to report it... The therapist has to decide who she / he must act to protect. 2. Fidelity... Being faithful to promises made. Contracts agreed upon must take into account what is realistic. For example a therapist may say... "I am available to you when you are feeling scared" Any limits to this availability must be made explicit. Other examples of areas of conflicts are the need to break confidentiality for supervision and for protection of the client in emergencies. 3. Justice... Ensuring that people are treated fairly. For example in a group when one client is facing a crises, they may apparently receive more direct attention than others in a group. 4. Beneficence... Actions taken should do good, the question then arises who judges what is good... the client or the professional or the supervisor, or an external judge such as a religious teaching. For example the client making a decision for autonomy may be happier following their decision which is for their benefit but this could be detrimental to the wider community or family. 5. Autonomy... Each individual has the right to freely choose their own course of action and to choose what happens to them. The constant difficulty in therapy is when a client in an impasse asks for help or direction regarding how to resolve their impasse. The therapist needs to consider what course of action is best going to invite the client to be autonomous; this in itself seems to contain possible contradictions as the therapist is also free to choose their intervention autonomously. The question arises can a psychotherapist act autonomously? · In TA we seek to work within this contradiction by working relationally and contractually within the therapy process, doing with the client rather than doing to the client, all the time seeking to maintain and promote the OK – OK position. · My (Dave Spenceley) additional thought is that mature autonomy includes actively choosing to act ethically / responsibly… In the book “Values and Ethics in the Practice of Psychotherapy” Fiona Palmer Barnes and Lesley Murdin describe 3 approaches to ethics: 1. Consequential: In which the outcome defines what is ethical or not… ie all actions are ethically neutral… 2. Dutiful: All actions are either right or wrong… thus defining their ethicality. 3. Ethical Pluralists: who use both of the above to make decisions regarding the ethicality of actions. They also describe various ethical principles and values underpinning ethics:
Transactional Analysis Journal Articles: Ethics special edition 1994 1) Val Garfield: Ethical Principles for work in Organisations: 1993: vol 02. This article contrasts the history and rigorous requirements of traditional ethical standards governing therapist-client and teacher-student relationships with the more ambiguous and diverse standards necessary for work in training and organizational settings. Thirty-one ethical principles are proposed. The reader is invited to discover and confirm his or her personal code of ethics for organizational and training work. 2) Grace McGrath: 1994-01: Ethics boundaries and contracts, applying moral principles: Dealing with issues related to therapeutic boundaries often creates complex and difficult ethical dilemmas for psychotherapists. This article describes a method of applying moral principles (Thompson, 1990) to ethical dilemmas that can assist transactional analysts in making Adult decisions about boundaries. 3) William F. Cornell 1994-01: Dual Relationships in Transactional Analysis; Training, supervision and therapy: This article reviews the literature on and the practice of dual supervisory/therapeutic relationships in psychotherapy in general and transactional analysis in particular. Seven training and supervisory structures are delineated, and the clinical/ethical issues for each are discussed. 4) William F. Cornell 1997 – 01 Touch and boundaries in TA; Ethical and transferrential considerations: While Eric Berne viewed physical contact between therapist and client with considerable anxiety and disapproval, the use of touch as therapeutic invention has become common in the practice of transactional analysis. This article presents a theoretical discussion of some of the implications of intentional physical contact between therapist and client, with particular attention to ethical and transferrential concerns. It is the central premise of this article that the use of touch can simultaneously evoke a rich and potentially disturbing mix of history, affect, and desire. Recommended further reading: (Click on the links to go to Amazon to buy the books: )
I highly recommend this excellent handbook, written by an experienced practitioner in the art of handling ethical issues for the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy
Values and Ethics in the Practice of Psychotherapy and Counselling
Supervision in the Mental Health Professions, A practitioners Guide by Joyce Scaife. Despite it's terrible title this is the book I have based some of these notes on it!... I again recommend it!
Notes by Dave Spenceley Teaching and Supervising Transactional Analyst Yorkshire Training Centre www.ta-psychotherapy.co.uk // dave@ta-psychotherapy.co.uk Dave Spenceley: web design: www.vincentswebdesign.co.uk
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