Sharon and Mitch share your anxiety

Donald N Bersoff

doi:10.1037/a0019683

Reviews the book, Ethics for psychotherapists and counselors: A proactive approach by Sharon K. Anderson and Mitchell M. Handelsman (see record 2009-11315-000). Since the American Psychological Association (APA) published its latest version of its Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (hereinafter Code of Ethics; (APA, 2002), there has been a plethora of texts explicating, interpreting, criticizing, or teaching it. The book under consideration here, Ethics for psychotherapists and counselors: A proactive approach, is different in several respects. First, although authored by well-known psychologists who have contributed to the ethics literature, the book is not aimed solely at psychologists but at all mental health professionals who practice therapy. Second, it hardly cites relevant provisions in APA’s Code of Ethics. In the few instances where it quotes an ethics code provision, it is as likely to cite the codes promulgated by the American Counseling Association or the National Association of Social Workers as it is the one developed by APA. Third, and most significant, the book has two conceptual themes that lend coherency throughout. The text does something almost no ethics texts do—it pays attention to the emotional aspects of becoming a therapist and to the process of acculturating to the profession. But by stressing affect rather than cognition, the authors are not very specific in helping readers resolve ethical dilemmas, particularly the complex problems of dealing with threats of violence by psychotherapy patients. The authors create an interesting and complex hypothetical involving potential violence (see pp. 134ff), but the analysis is skimpy and somewhat naïve. The reviewer would lodge the same complaint with regard to the multiple relationship, boundary scenario later in the book—good on developing the situation and in asking questions but short on analysis. It would have been helpful if the authors had given readers clues on how these and other ethical dilemmas could be resolved within the acculturation framework they espouse. Ethics for psychotherapists and counselors is aimed at both students and practitioners and as either a primary or ancillary text in ethics. In the reviewer's judgment, it is best as an ancillary resource in a more formal course on ethics for therapists early in their training. It is useful in stressing those aspects of immersion into the ethicoaffective side of one’s professional development that is not always present in more didactic texts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Sharon and Mitch share your anxiety

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Sharon and Mitch share your anxiety

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