Another conflict between the therapist and the client – and again a scandal flares up on the Web. What if the one to whom we trust the most intimate, consciously hurts and humiliates with pleasure? A recent story in which a client complained about an abusive message from a psychotherapist raised issues of professional ethics again.
About fifteen years ago, at a moment of crisis, I decided to take a step that was not the most popular at that time – to turn to a psychotherapist. How great was the despair due to the troubles of life, how much I hoped to get help here.
The meeting took place at a specialist’s house and was not at all like what I saw in the movies. Well, God bless her, with the couch. For an hour I had to listen to what a cool specialist she is, how many people she helped and how lucky I was to come to her. Basically, the hour is over. After paying for the “consultation”, I left in complete confusion.
I never contacted this woman again. Then it turned out that, occupying a rather high position in one of the institutes, as a psychotherapist she had not undergone either supervision or personal therapy for a long time, and this is very, very important. Later, life brought me together with responsible, careful and in a good way scrupulous professionals who helped and are helping many.
But what should the client do if there is “something wrong” in the relationship with the therapist, but it is difficult to understand what exactly?
Basic Criteria
There are some points that you need to consider when trusting yourself to a stranger or unfamiliar person. In general, going to a psychotherapist with your problems is a competent and sound approach. But first you need to make sure of his professionalism: he must have a full higher education in this area and have a diploma in psychology or psychiatry.
In addition to the diploma, he must undergo training in one of the officially approved psychotherapeutic methods. In this case, he may be a member of one of the professional communities. As part of the community, he must undergo personal therapy and supervision.
The latter is also called “therapy therapy” – only the psychotherapist himself receives it. With experienced colleagues at the sessions, he can discuss not personal problems, but personal-professional problems that arise in the course of work. Before the meeting, it also makes sense to ask about the specialization of the person to whom you are going to go with your request (family, children, etc.).
intuition and common sense
It is very important to listen to yourself. Non-violent changes in the psyche is a process that requires time and careful attitude to the client. And the choice of any specialist is connected with mutual settings. It happens that a person is an excellent professional, but you “do not match”. This can also be a reason for the correct separation and the search for “their” therapist.
What “bells” can give rise to take a closer look at who you trust?
- If a person causes an internal protest in you, it is important to understand why. Are your boundaries violated – emotional and physical?
- Doesn’t the psychotherapist take the metaposition of a guru, doesn’t he give peremptory directives on how to live and what to do?
- Brilliant PR and a big name do not always mean that he will show himself as a good psychotherapist.
- Do they promise you instant results? For example, “healing childhood trauma in one session” is a dubious proposition because trauma therapy is a long and complicated process.
Code of Ethics
“There is a common code of ethics in the psychological community,” explains clinical psychologist Lidia Fedorova, “everyone who has received a higher psychological education is familiar with professional ethics.
A code of ethics is a set of rules that defines the behavior of a psychologist in relation to a client. And these rules appeared for a reason, they were formulated as a result of the analysis of errors that led to negative consequences.
That is why a psychologist cannot be in a dual relationship with a client (friendly, working, romantic, etc.), accept gifts from him, spread information about him, and even more so cannot humiliate, physically or psychologically injure the client.
The rules protect both the client and the psychologist. But despite this, no one is immune from a situation where a psychologist or psychotherapist, consciously or not, injures a client by violating the code of ethics.
Most psychological associations have their own ethics committees that deal with client complaints. This is a long process, after which (in competent commissions) both the client and the psychotherapist undergo rehabilitation.
And if the violation occurred through the fault of a psychologist, then sanctions are also imposed on him. This may be, for example, a requirement to undergo personal therapy again, or to conduct all cases under mandatory supervision, or to undergo retraining.
In our country, unfortunately, there is still no consensus on licensing the activities of psychologists and psychotherapists, although the law has been under consideration for a long time. Therefore, there is no general ethical committee that could resolve conflicts between psychologists and psychotherapists outside of associations.
The market for psychological and near-psychological (from non-professionals who call themselves “psychologists”) services in our country is very wide, so high-profile stories of ethical violations periodically pop up on the Internet.
A person who has experienced retraumatization from his psychotherapist is often insecure and confused. To somehow cope with this trauma, for many, the only way out is loud publicity on social networks.
On the one hand, it is good that attention is being drawn to these issues, on the other hand, this comes at a huge cost and new injuries in the absence of official mechanisms for both clients and psychologists. It also happens that, having considered a client’s complaint about a violation of ethics by a psychologist, the committee does not find such violations. Such situations are explained by the dynamics of therapeutic work.
Alas, even graduates are not immune from mistakes and professional deformation (by the way, this is exactly what the supervision and personal therapy of the psychotherapist himself is for). So in many cases it is important for the client to rely on common sense and his own intuition.