Re:APA Ethics Committee Considered Prohibiting Solo Practice

Dr. Thomas,

I enjoy your posts. I like your arguments. Thank you for sharing your articles. I am a clinical social worker. I have had the pleasure of being ripped up in court several times especially when I was working with children in dependency situations. Fortunately I document well and I have faith in the system even with all its flaws and risks. Our code of ethics has similar provisions. I can understand the APA's concern about teacher student sexual relationships as a result of some bad grad school experiences involving peers. I think there are so many other places in which a professor can form relationships. This is a small limitation in such a big world. I think the adversarial nature of the board is necessary. The risk of borderline, paranoid, lying clients is probably equal to the risk of narcissistic, antisocial, lying therapists. Although we like to think we have egalitarian relationships with our clients, our clients usually start out thinking they are in a subordinate position. This being the case, the risk of therapist exploitation is high and the consumer needs aggressive protection. I believe the provisions regarding dual relationships are necessarily fuzzy. Yes most of us make clinical decisions to cross that line at times. These are difficult decisions due to the risk of how the client will perceive our choice to engage outside the therapy relationship. The language of the code should indicate that such relationships hold a high risk for perceived exploitation. If we choose to proceed, we need to precede with caution, and document our rational well. Going to trial is not fun but I think it is a necessary game with unfortunate casualties. Some times the good ones loose. Some times the bad ones get away with it. In most cases some form of justice is given. It is imperfect but I think it is necessary and worth it. It is also necessary not to be complacent with the system and to be vigilant of it and to have open debate about how to make the process better.

Craig

Replies:

Re:APA Ethics Committee Considered Prohibiting Solo Practice, by , 10/19/01 Re:APA Ethics Committee Considered Prohibiting Solo Practice, by Joe, 10/20/01 Re:APA Ethics Committee Considered Prohibiting Solo Practice, by Carroll R. Thomas, 10/20/01 Re:APA Ethics Committee Considered Prohibiting Solo Practice, by , 10/20/01

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