Hey Everybody!
Today I am going to talk with you
about ethics in therapy.
What's appropriate?
and what can we expect?
♫ (introduction music playing) ♫
So like I said,
today I am going to talk with you about ethics in therapy.
and the reason I am bringing this up is because
I didn't realize that the layperson,
the people that aren't in the therapy practice themselves
and haven't gone to school to become a therapist,
didn't realize what their rights are,
and whats ethically appropriate behavior
for a therapist and the therapeutic relationship as a whole.
That being said, I just wanted to go over
a few of the "red flags"
or things you should know
so that you are better protected,
because overall I want all of you to have a great therapy experience.
I want you know know what
appropraite boundaries and what
an appropriate therapeutic relationship looks like,
and I want you to get the most benefit out of your therapy.
I have heard from some of you
as well as some of my clients,
that their experiences have been terrible.
They are telling me things and I'm like, "You're kidding me?!?"
"That happened in real life?"
So, the first thing
I want to talk with you about is boundaries.
Now I know I talk a lot about boundaries
with friends and family,
and keeping you safe,
when you have some toxic people in your life,
and how boundaries can be important through our recovery.
Boundaries can also be important in therapy.
Because as a therapist, I can't tell my clients,
"You can call me anytime and I will get right back to you."
or "Text me anytime and I will text you."
"Email me anytime and I will email you."
Having a constant dialogue,
no matter what time a day, is inappropriate.
Because the whole goal of therapy
is for me to teach you tools,
and then during the week,
between our sessions, or if I see you twice a week,
between those sessions,
you practice them,
and then you get back to me, in my office.
To have access 100% of the time,
it's not healthy.
It causes us to use the therapist as a crutch,
instead of learning to do things on our own,
we are relying on someone else
for every decision we make.
Does that make sense?
So it is important to notice
if a therapist breaches those boundaries right away.
Saying things like,
"You can get a hold of me anytime."
Obviously there is protocol.
As a therapist,
I have a 24 hour period,
if it's an emergency,
Call 911, go to the hospital,
check yourself in, call the suicide hotline,
but I will get back to you as soon as I can.
That's an appropriate boundary.
I have a life too,
I have other clients too,
I can't be on call all the time.
Now, the second thing
I want to talk about
is setting your expectations.
As a therapist, it is my responsibility,
As are the boundaries,
these are all my fault and my responsibility,
and I am taking all of this on,
is setting your expectations.
Now, I never tell my clients,
"that goal you set when we first got together,
we will fix that lickety split!"
"Don't you worry, we'll get that!"
"Don't ever think for a second we won't"
"Everything will be perfect!" "We will do that!"
"I will always be here, things will always work out!"
I can't make those promises.
I not God,
or whoever else you believe runs the world,
like maybe the Wizard of Oz,
I am none of those things.
I can't make things happen.
What I can promise you, is that I will be consistent,
that we will work together,
we will be in this process together,
and we will do our best!
So, thats another important thing,
because I have had other clients and other people
online telling me that their therpist has told them
that they would always be there,
or "things would always get better",
and, "this will happen at this time."
We just can't,
what that can lead to is disappointment.
and then shame and embarrassment,
thinking that as the client
we didn't do what we were suppossed to,
or something because it didn't turn out the way it was supposed to.
Am I right?
So the way a therapist should set expectations,
is letting them know
that therapy is a process, it's not perfection,
we're working together,
it's one step at a time,
you let me know if your goals change,
or if things get harder for you,
we can slow it down, or we can speed it up,
it's together we work on this.
It's no certain time period,
There is no assurance that everything is going to get fixed,
because every situation, every person is different.
Am I right?
Now, the last thing I want to talk about,
is being clear about the process of therapy.
That being said about confidentially,
and their limations too,
I have heard from one of my followers
that their therapist had said,
"Everything you say in here is a secret between you and I."
That's just not true.
Unfortunately, if we think abuse is happening,
whether you are going to hurt someone else,
if you are going to endanger the life of someone else, or yourself,
as I have talked about before,
those are reasons I may have to break confidentiality.
I may have to put you in the hospital.
I may have to call CPS, and report child abuse,
or elder abuse.
There are a bunch of things
that I am legally mandated to report.
Things changes state to state, and country to country
but overall they all have something in place,
where as a therapist I am legally bound to do some things,
and I have to break confidentiality
and tell them some things,
to make sure everybody stays safe.
So, those are some basic,
three points, three red flags
I want you to notice,
I want you to be aware of
because this is your therapy.
This is your process.
and as a therapist,
the responsibility falls on us,
but the more I am learning is that
not every therapist is doing the best with this.
Just like we might hire a plumber to
come to our house and the toilet may overflow the next day,
and we don't really know why,
that plumber apparently sucked.
Then we get other people that come in and do their job great!
Things are fixed!
It's the same with therapy,
it's just a job.
Some people are really good at their job,
they invest a lot in their job,
and other people are not.
So I want you to be aware,
so that we can work together!
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so please leave your comments below,
let us know what your experiences have been,
things that have worked for you,
what therapy was like for you.
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Subtitles by the Amara.org community