Mental health professionals face many complex questions in the course of their work with clients and patients. Among the most difficult are dilemmas that involve ethical issues. This book presents a forthright exploration of these dilemmas and the ethical considerations they raise. Drawing on extensive interviews, the author identifies common ethical problems that practitioners encounter. What happens, for example, when personal interests intrude into therapy? How can the therapist make an accurate assessment of his or her appropriateness as a care provider for a particular patient? What about confidentiality? How are problematic financial arrangements best addressed? The author goes on to show how these dilemmas may be intensified by the unique assumptions of different therapeutic orientations--individual, group, family, marital, and organizational--and how professionals can learn from such experiences to better understand and apply their particular approach. This
analysis--and the words of the therapists themselves--provide both a guide to practice and a unique store of experience for the growing number of researchers and students concerned with ethical problems in psychotherapy.
Industry Reviews
"This book goes a long way toward identifying and addressing major ethical issues facing the practitioner of psychotherapy. Lakin even suggests that therapists can improve the quality of their services when they become interested in and concerned about about ethical issues related to their everyday practice. Covering a broad spectrum of topics, from the ethical challenges of individual psychotherapy to ethical issues with legal implications and the reverse,
the book is comprehensive, well-researched, and accurate. Documentation by occasional patient vignettes enhances its authenticity." --Guidepost
"Considerable help for students and practitioners alike. . . . Very useful and thought provoking." --American Journal of Psychotherapy
"The book's strength is in its use of actual therapist-client interactions to illustrate problems. . . . Many of the ethical issues raised confront all health care practitioners to some extent; the problems for those in the mental health field are more difficult because there is no clear agreement on the goals and methods of therapy. This book helps raise these questions." --Journal of Psychosocial Nursing
"A serious, relatively comprehensive, undogmatic, informed, and interesting discussion of the very pertinent area that it addresses. I recommend Ethical Issues in Psychotherapies to practitioners in the many precincts of psychotherapy." --American Journal of Psychiatry
"The strength of this book lies in Lakin's ability to identify ethical issues others might well be insensitive to, and to analyse them from several perspectives. Also, he generally makes good use of the many excellent examples he has from the 100 interviews... A valuable new contribution to the field." --Contemporary Psychology
"Timely and most welcome . . . . a book which practitioners should find refreshingly 'relevant'. It will also be welcomed by philosophical applied ethicists; although it contains little discussion of fundamental ethical principles, it is excellent as a sourcebook of what moral dilemmas confront real-life therapists in their practice." --Bioethics
"This book goes a long way toward identifying and addressing major ethical issues facing the practitioner of psychotherapy. Lakin even suggests that therapists can improve the quality of their services when they become interested in and concerned about about ethical issues related to their everyday practice. Covering a broad spectrum of topics, from the ethical challenges of individual psychotherapy to ethical issues with legal implications and the reverse,
the book is comprehensive, well-researched, and accurate. Documentation by occasional patient vignettes enhances its authenticity." --Guidepost
"Considerable help for students and practitioners alike. . . . Very useful and thought provoking." --American Journal of Psychotherapy
"The book's strength is in its use of actual therapist-client interactions to illustrate problems. . . . Many of the ethical issues raised confront all health care practitioners to some extent; the problems for those in the mental health field are more difficult because there is no clear agreement on the goals and methods of therapy. This book helps raise these questions." --Journal of Psychosocial Nursing
"A serious, relatively comprehensive, undogmatic, informed, and interesting discussion of the very pertinent area that it addresses. I recommend Ethical Issues in Psychotherapies to practitioners in the many precincts of psychotherapy." --American Journal of Psychiatry
"The strength of this book lies in Lakin's ability to identify ethical issues others might well be insensitive to, and to analyse them from several perspectives. Also, he generally makes good use of the many excellent examples he has from the 100 interviews... A valuable new contribution to the field." --Contemporary Psychology
"Timely and most welcome . . . . a book which practitioners should find refreshingly 'relevant'. It will also be welcomed by philosophical applied ethicists; although it contains little discussion of fundamental ethical principles, it is excellent as a sourcebook of what moral dilemmas confront real-life therapists in their practice." --Bioethics
