Ethics in Therapeutic Contexts 2500-EN_S_16
Why is ethical reasoning important in psychotherapeutic practice? How
do the ethical issues get involved in everyday clinical work with patients?
The course is a chance to promote ethical reflection on various aspects of
psychotherapeutic process and underlines the importance of ethics, as
one of the major pillars of psychotherapy.
During the course meetings the participants will be invited to take
part in open discussions, regarding general ethical issues on one hand,
but also very specific ethical problems that a psychotherapist would face
during his/her practice. The texts suggested for the course provide not
only with theoretical background of ethical reflection, but offer an insight
to specific, practical issues of everyday practice.
The course is divided into two sections. The first section covers
the issues of ethical standards that are based on deontology of
psychotherapy (codes of ethics). The codes are limited in their usefulness
in practice. At times they can be too rigid or narrow as they cannot reflect
all the varied circumstances of professional life. Ethics is only partially
about the rules - it is as much about emotion, intuition and relationships
as it is about reason.
The second section of the course is meant to be a response to that
statement. The focus is put on more specific problems, such as ethical
standards/law relationship, money and its meaning in therapeutic
process, ethical issues in different therapeutic contexts (f.e. individual vs
couple therapy), boundaries in therapeutic relationship, and ethical
aspects of psychotherapeutic training etc.
Type of course
Learning outcomes
The course is meant not only to demonstrate various standards of
psychotherapeutic practice, but also to promote skills of ethical reflection
and attitude.
Assessment criteria
Students may miss 1 class. In other cases additional assignments such as
an essay will be required.
Active particiation during course meetings, based on proposed readings
will contribute in 30% to the final grade. During the each course meeting
there will be specific task to do / question to be answered that will be
evaluated.
Final test/ essay will determine 70 % of the final grade.
Additional information
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: