Where are the ethical principles of APA most relevant to AT?
"Ethical principles are 'enduring beliefs about specific modes of conduct or end-states of existence that, when acted upon, protect the interests and welfare of all of the people involved.'" Ethical principles still provide guidance for adventure therapists when evaluating potential options the adventure therapist can take (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012).
According to the American Psychological Association these are the Ethical Principles of Psychologists: Resolving Ethical Issues, Competence, Human Relations, Privacy and Confidentiality, Advertising and other Public Statements, Record Keeping and fees, Education and Training, Research and Publication, Assessment, and Therapy. For the field of Adventure Therapy there is a list of ethical guidelines that are important to follow. Here is a list of the Ethical Guidelines of Adventure Therapy: Competence, Integrity, Responsibility, Respect, Concern, Recognition, Objectivity, Service, Social Justice, Dignity and Worth of the Person, and Importance of Human Relationships (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012).
To bring together the ones that seem most similar to me from the two lists, I would point out that they both begin with Ethical Issues. It is not the first one in the list for Adventure Therapy, but in the chapter the first part of becoming an Ethical Adventure Therapist is understanding our nonnegotiable values, recognizing our own value systems as well as our clients, knowing the ethical standards of the profession (which are in the list above), practicing ethical decision-making, and continually advancing our professional practice through continued education and receiving supervision and feedback while working with clients (Gass, Gillis, and Russell 2012).
On a more list by list comparison, one of the first ethical principles from the APA list that stands out to me the most as being very relevant to AT is Competence. In the last chapter we discussed the importance of being competent in your field in order to provide the most effective therapy and professional relationship with your client. The next is Human Relations. As we were discussing in class on Monday it was brought to my attention how important our relationships are with each other, especially in a therapy type setting. All of these ethical principles really connect with the others because if we start with the human relations it goes right into Privacy and Confidentiality, which reminds me of the example that was given in class. There is a certain amount of privacy that you promise to a client and as your relationship with that client develops more there will also be more that the client will share. It is important to have a balance between the all of these ethical principles. The next from the APA list that is very relevant to AT is Assessment. After all of the AT experiences it is important, as we learned a few chapters ago, to assess the client and see how those experiences actually affected the client so that as a therapist you can better evolve these experiences to the benefit of the clients.
All in all if I had to choose one of the most revenant ethical principles of APA to AT I would choose Privacy and Confidentiality. Without this therapy would be no different than anything else. Clients would not feel protected or like they were in a safe place to open up. This area could be especially tricky when it comes to family or group therapy.
Citations
American Psychological Association, Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct (2010.) Retrieved from: http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index.aspx
Gass, M. A., Gillis, H.L., Russell, K. C. (2012). Adventure therapy: Theory, research, and practice. New York, Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
I agree with you, privacy and confidentiality are extremely important. I know, personally, that knowing the therapist will not disclose anything that I would say would be very comforting. As far as ethics go, not telling any information protects the client from any backlash or bad things that might happen if any information were to be leaked from therapy.
ReplyDeleteHey Leslie! I like how you took the time to first point out that part of being a ethical therapist is recognizing out own values as well as our clients values. I feel like this sometimes goes underrated and is a core concept that should be a topic of discussion for most practices regarding ethics. I also talked about human relations in my blog. As an Adventure Therapist this is another important value as relationships with clients should remain professional. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteP.s. On a unrelated note I like the dog in your picture! It looks like some sort of spaniel or bird dog from the picture, I would love to hear more about this pup!
Hey Leslie! While reading your blog, a key stood out to me and it was the statement about becoming an Ethical Adventure Therapist the therapist must recognize his own value belief systems as well as the client. That's really important because if the therapist doesn't believe in what he's doing, then how will the client. Another you mentioned was the therapist must practice ethical decision making. That is also important because it allows the therapist to choose the appropriate therapy for the client. Great Job Leslie
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