We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
ETHICAL ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH CLIENT VALUES CONVERSION AND THERAPIST VALUE AGENDAS IN FAMILY THERAPY.
- Authors
Odell, Mark; Stewart, Scott Philip
- Abstract
The article argues that family therapy is not an ethically appropriate context for therapists' evangelistic activity. Psychotherapy is an exercise in influence, one in which rhetoric or conversation, is used to help the client change some problematic aspect of his or her life. Juxtaposed with the metaphor of therapist as problem solver or healer is the metaphor of therapist as moral agent. Psychotherapy is a moral enterprise in which therapists act as both moral agents and healers, as the term therapy implies. One result of this metamorphosis, that is, the shift to attending to context within the cultural milieu of individualism, among practitioners is that a consensus defining a standard of health or functionality may be less apprehensible now than ever. Whether therapists should attempt to be value free, value neutral or value active is of crucial ethical and professional importance. What role do the therapist's values have in clinical work? Attempts at neutrality appear futile, for values are pervasive and serve as guides to decision making.
- Subjects
THERAPEUTICS; PSYCHOTHERAPY; PROBLEM solving; DECISION theory; INDIVIDUALISM; MENTAL health services
- Publication
Family Relations, 1993, Vol 42, Issue 2, p128
- ISSN
0197-6664
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/585444