Saylor URL: http://www.saylor.org/books Saylor.org
Remember also that confronting issues requires time to reflect, energy to get to the appointments and deal with
consequential feelings, and discipline to explore your issues on your own. Success at therapy is difficult, and it takes
effort.
The bottom line is that going for therapy should not be a difficult decision for you. All people have the right to
appropriate mental health care just as they have a right to general health care. Just as you go to a dentist for a
toothache, you may go to therapy for psychological difficulties. Furthermore, you can be confident that you will be
treated with respect and that your privacy will be protected, because therapists follow ethical principles in their
practices. The following provides a summary of these principles as developed by the American Psychological
Association (2010).[3]
- Psychologists inform their clients/patients as early as possible in the therapeutic relationship about the nature
and anticipated course of therapy, fees, involvement of third parties, and limits of confidentiality, and provide
sufficient opportunity for the client/patient to ask questions and receive answers. - Psychologists inform their clients/patients of the developing nature of the treatment, the potential risks involved,
alternative treatments that may be available, and about the voluntary nature of their participation. - When the therapist is a trainee, the client/patient is informed that the therapist is in training and is being
supervised, and is given the name of the supervisor. - When psychologists agree to provide services to several persons who have a relationship (such as spouses,
significant others, or parents and children), they take reasonable steps to clarify at the outset which of the
individuals are clients/patients and the relationship the psychologist will have with each person. - If it becomes apparent that a psychologist may be called on to perform potentially conflicting roles (such as
family therapist and then witness for one party in divorce proceedings), the psychologist takes reasonable steps
to clarify and modify, or withdraw from, roles appropriately. - When psychologists provide services to several persons in a group setting, they describe at the outset the roles
and responsibilities of all parties and the limits of confidentiality. - Psychologists do not engage in sexual intimacies with current therapy clients/patients, or with individuals they
know to be close relatives, guardians, or significant others of current clients/patients. Psychologists do not
terminate therapy to circumvent this standard. Psychologists do not accept as therapy clients/patients persons
with whom they have engaged in sexual intimacies, nor do they have sexual intimacies with former
clients/patients for at least 2 years after cessation or termination of therapy.