Ethics and Boundaries Workshops
I am offering the following workshops for mental health professionals in Idaho.
Ethical issues for psychotherapists working with questioning youth in Idaho - A more ethical and effective way to work that will keep psychotherapists, their supervisors, and their agencies out of trouble
6-Hour Live Training
6-Hour Ethics
CE Pending
Rationale: Given that several medical associations have now reversed their advice about medically assisted sex change therapy and sex change surgeries for children, there is a need to create an ethical way to work with questioning youth that does not place psychotherapists at risk. Psychotherapists need to abide a new set of ethical principles for working with this population because psychotherapists, their supervisors, and their agencies may be at risk if it could be determined they are facilitating medical malpractice or offering mental health treatment that pushed patients toward harmful treatment.
Method: I will spend a day at your organization helping psychotherapists work effectively within these new guidelines, specifically with regard to managing risk.
Fee: $2,000 for the full-day workshop, includes one hour debriefing for leadership
Proposed Ethical Statements for children under 18 in Idaho
Boundary risks when ideology meets psychotherapy
Under construction
These evolving ideas are my own, derived from my understanding of the available research for this patient population, and existing broad ethical frameworks for psychotherapists. They are proposals. To date, these proposed ethical guidelines have not been approved by any professional association or continuing education authorizing group, although they align with the frameworks for medical providers put forward by the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds).
I believe many psychotherapy establishment thought leaders may be motivated by their socio-political ideology, power, or personal profit, which may have rendered their psychotherapy frameworks regarding human sexuality invalid. Thus, we need a careful analysis of what they have created, and contributions from unbiased professionals, hence my humble contribution here.
As always, I intend to pave the way to more ethical and effective psychotherapy practice.
Please contact me if you would like me to deliver either of these workshops at your organization.
Ethical issues for psychotherapists working with questioning youth in Idaho - A more ethical and effective way to work that will keep psychotherapists, their supervisors, and their agencies out of trouble
6-Hour Live Training
6-Hour Ethics
CE Pending
Rationale: Given that several medical associations have now reversed their advice about medically assisted sex change therapy and sex change surgeries for children, there is a need to create an ethical way to work with questioning youth that does not place psychotherapists at risk. Psychotherapists need to abide a new set of ethical principles for working with this population because psychotherapists, their supervisors, and their agencies may be at risk if it could be determined they are facilitating medical malpractice or offering mental health treatment that pushed patients toward harmful treatment.
Method: I will spend a day at your organization helping psychotherapists work effectively within these new guidelines, specifically with regard to managing risk.
Fee: $2,000 for the full-day workshop, includes one hour debriefing for leadership
Proposed Ethical Statements for children under 18 in Idaho
- Ethical psychotherapists working with questioning youth conduct an accurate, differential assessment of patients' problems of living that is uncontaminated by politics, reimbursements, or societal preferences, and leads to effective treatment.
- Ethical psychotherapists working with questioning youth offer thorough informed consent in their marketing materials and during pre-therapy that includes not only the psychotherapy process and fees, but also transparency about any beliefs or values the therapist might hold that could impact a diagnosis or prescription.
- Ethical psychotherapists working with questioning youth always offer the least restrictive, least invasive intervention (or no intervention) that, based on their clinical experience, and the available research, has the capacity to be effective.
- Ethical psychotherapists never participate in concealing new gender experimentation from the parents of a dependent child because such experimentation necessarily creates psychological distress that requires family support. Since gender experimentation is a sign of a serious psychological impairment, it should be documented in the medical record, which parents can access under Idaho law. Ethical psychotherapists work with their child patients to collaborate with their parents if they wish to engage in gender experimentation. In most cases, an ethical psychotherapist would inform the parents that their child is engaging in gender experimentation even if the child (and other people in their support system) wants to conceal the experimentation from the parents. A psychotherapist who fails to involve parents when serious and potentially dangerous acting out is occurring is not acting prudently to protect a minor, which could constitute an ethical violation.
- Ethical psychotherapists working with questioning youth provide unconditional positive regard to all patients, but they do not routinely confirm their patients’ self-perceptions (or the perceptions of other professionals or people in their personal lives) in the absence of objective reality.
- Ethical psychotherapists help questioning youth recognize that changing their bodies is not always possible or beneficial and is often harmful. Therefore, the least restrictive intervention for these children is Watchful Waiting, a process that allows ethical and effective psychotherapists to help their patients reconcile who they are so that they can accept themselves as they are.
Boundary risks when ideology meets psychotherapy
Under construction
These evolving ideas are my own, derived from my understanding of the available research for this patient population, and existing broad ethical frameworks for psychotherapists. They are proposals. To date, these proposed ethical guidelines have not been approved by any professional association or continuing education authorizing group, although they align with the frameworks for medical providers put forward by the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds).
I believe many psychotherapy establishment thought leaders may be motivated by their socio-political ideology, power, or personal profit, which may have rendered their psychotherapy frameworks regarding human sexuality invalid. Thus, we need a careful analysis of what they have created, and contributions from unbiased professionals, hence my humble contribution here.
As always, I intend to pave the way to more ethical and effective psychotherapy practice.
Please contact me if you would like me to deliver either of these workshops at your organization.
