Jeffrey E. Barnett

In Pursuit of Wellness: The Self-Care Imperative

The practice of psychology can be demanding, challenging, and emotionally taxing. Failure to adequately attend to one’s own psychological wellness and self-care can place the psychologist at risk for impaired professional functioning. An ongoing focus on self-care is essential for the prevention of burnout and for maintaining one’s own psychological wellness. Salient aspects of self-care are discussed, including the ethical imperative of addressing self-care throughout one’s career. Three invited expert commentaries provide additional insights and recommendations on positive actions, preventive strategies, and steps to be taken by individual psychologists, by those training the next generation of psychologists, and by professional associations. Realities of the current state of psychology and a clear call for action are highlighted, with the overarching goal being the ethical and effective treatment of clients and the successful management of the challenges and stresses faced by practicing psychologists.

Technological Advances And Telehealth: Ethics, Law, And The Practice Of Psychotherapy

Advances in technology are rapidly changing the practice of psychotherapy. Psychotherapists may now offer clinical services around the world by telephone and via the Internet by e-mail, chat rooms, Web sites, and interactive audio and video technology. The many new media and resources available to practitioners are reviewed along with the potential benefits as well as the ethical and legal challenges and dilemmas that place the unwary or ill-informed practitioner at great risk. Recommendations for effective clinical and ethical practice are made to assist the practitioner using these technologies to provide clinical services.

Utilizing technological innovations to enhance psychotherapy supervision, training, and outcomes.

Recent technological advances in the use of the Internet and video technologies has greatly impacted the provision of psychotherapy and other clinical services as well as how the training of psychotherapists may be conducted. When utilized appropriately these technologies may provide greater access to needed services to include treatment, consultation, supervision, and training. Specific ethical challenges and pitfalls are discussed and recommendations are made for the ethical use of these technologies. Additionally, innovative practices from the seven articles in the special section that follows are highlighted and reviewed. These articles present a number of innovations that can take psychotherapy training, research, supervision, and treatment forward toward increased effectiveness. Recommendations for integrating these innovations into ongoing practices are provided and for additional research to build on the important work of the authors in this special section are provided.

Mentoring, boundaries, and multiple relationships: opportunities and challenges

Most students and early career professionals desire mentoring relationships. Mentors can provide numerous added benefits to their protégés beyond what they typically obtain from classroom and other formal training experiences. Yet, despite the many potential benefits of mentoring relationships, the very nature of successful mentoring relationships brings with it certain risks for participants. Issues of boundaries and multiple relationships must be understood and successfully navigated to help ensure that mentors’ objectivity and judgment are not impaired and that protégés are not exploited or harmed. The concepts of boundaries, boundary crossings, boundary violations, and multiple relationships are explored in this article and applied in the context of mentoring relationships. Recommendations for successfully navigating the challenges they bring are made in the hope of helping to ensure productive and healthy mentoring relationships.

Psychotherapy Termination : Clinical and Ethical Responsibilities

The successful termination of the psychotherapy relationship is each psychotherapists goal. Yet, a number of circumstances may arise that interfere with the successful completion and termination of treatment. This article addresses both termination and abandonment and illustrates the applicable guidelines and standards from the American Psychological Associations (2002) Ethics Code. We conclude with 12 recommendations for proactively addressing termination and abandonment consistent with professional standards and each patients best interests.

Integrating Spirituality and Religion Into Psychotherapy: Persistent Dilemmas, Ethical Issues, and a Proposed Decision-Making Process

Religion and spirituality are important aspects of the lives of most psychotherapy clients. Unfortunately, many psychotherapists lack the training to effectively and ethically address these issues with their clients. At times, religious or spiritual concerns may be relevant to the reasons clients seek treatment, either as areas of conflict or distress for clients or as sources of strength and support that the psychotherapist may access to enhance the benefit of psychotherapy. This article reviews persistent ethical issues and dilemmas relevant to providing psychotherapy to clients for whom issues of religion and spirituality are clinically relevant. Ethical considerations include assessment, advertising and public statements, informed consent, competence, boundary issues and multiple relationships, cooperation with other professionals, and how to effectively integrate religious and spiritual interventions into ongoing psychotherapy. A decision-making process is presented to guide psychotherapists in their clinical work with clients for whom religious and spiritual issues are salient or clearly linked to their presenting problems.

Clinical supervision, Teaching, and mentoring: Personal perspectives and guiding principles

Abstract Clinical supervisors and teachers have a profound influence on the professional development of mental health professionals in training. This paper presents the personal views and experiences of a supervisor and teacher, a supervisee, and a student. Each presents their views and experiences on the training process and the significant role the clinical supervisor and teacher may play. For those fortunate enough a mentoring relationship develops that provides enrichment far beyond the training experiences typically achieved. The impact mentors may have and the important role they may play in the supervisees and trainees professional and personal growth and development are highlighted.

Psychotherapist self-disclosure: ethical and clinical considerations.

Self-disclosure is an ever present and unavoidable aspect of psychotherapy. But, why, how, and when it is done requires careful forethought. The use of self-disclosure is discussed in the context of boundaries, highlighting its ethical and appropriate use in psychotherapy. Rather than avoiding self-disclosure out of a fear of violating ethical and professional standards, a thoughtful approach to addressing self-disclosure is presented. Recommendations for the ethical and effective use of self-disclosure are provided to include the use of ethical decision-making models and thoughtful consideration of contextual factors that include the psychotherapists motivations, the clients treatment needs and personal history, the psychotherapists theoretical orientation, and individual differences to include each aspect of the clients and psychotherapists diversity. Recommendations for psychotherapists considering the use of self-disclosure with clients are made along with specific recommendations for the profession of psychology to provide greater guidance on the ethical, effective, and clinically appropriate use of self-disclosure.

Multiple Relationships Between Graduate Assistants and Students: Ethical and Practical Considerations

Most, if not all, psychologists have served as teaching or research assistants during graduate school, been instructed by teaching assistants, or both. As both faculty and students themselves, graduate assistants are faced with several dilemmas for which they typically have little preparation or guidance. These issues are explored in the context of the existing literature on multiple relationships in academic settings. Recommendations are made for graduate assistants, their faculty supervisors or mentors, and administrators to proactively address and confront these challenges in a manner consistent with the profession of psychologys ethics code and to minimize the potential for harm to those we are entrusted to teach.

The ethical practice of psychotherapy: easily within our reach

Psychotherapists confront a myriad of ethical dilemmas as they endeavor to provide effective services. This issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology: In Session on Ethics in Psychotherapy provides psychotherapists with thoughtful reviews, case examples, and practical guidance in the major areas of ethics. Following this brief introduction, the subsequent seven articles cover Informed consent; confidentiality, privilege, and their limits; treatment of minors and their families; business matters of practice (e.g., money, fees, bartering, advertising); clinical competence and scope of practice; boundaries and nonsexual multiple relationships; and termination and abandonment. This issue is designed to promote ethical practice, to provide guidance on common ethical dilemmas, and to prevent ethical challenges before they occur.