This book delves into risks that can easily bedevil any psychotherapist and what can happen if they are ignored. Dramatic storytelling, based on actual incidents from the author’s experiences as a member of ethics committees and as an ethics teacher and consultant, explores actions prompting clients to issue formal complaints. The stories are absorbing, enlightening, sometimes shocking, and often stranger than fiction.
Key Features
- Dramatic storytelling: Based on actual incidents, providing real-life context.
- Insights into complaints: Offers perspectives from both the complainant and the psychologist.
- Author’s commentary: Discussion questions follow every story for deeper understanding.
- Valuable resource: Aimed at both new and seasoned practitioners, as well as those still in training.
Additional Information
Set in the context of an ethics committee meeting over the course of a weekend, twelve psychologists face their peers who will stand in judgment. Issues include the fallout from losing one’s temper with a difficult client, a personal disclosure gone terribly wrong, a bartering arrangement that literally falls apart, a private life revealed in a most public way, a vengeful act that sullies the reputation of an entire department, breaking confidentiality when a client threatened harm, and the slippery slope to sexual exploitation. Narrative nonfiction puts human faces and emotions on what would otherwise be cursory statistics. What led to the formal complaint offers insights not otherwise available unless the dynamics of their private lives leading up to the conflict are revealed.
