For this course, here’s what we mean by the ethical realm: behavior that has consequences for the welfare of others. It’s about how we affect others, and in particular the dilemma of balancing self-interest when doing so could harm others.
When we listen for ethical challenges in clients’ lives, they come up everywhere.
Here’s a partial list:
Now of course these scenarios involve lots of good, traditional clinical material. But they also have an ethical dimension in which clients deliberate and sometimes agonize about what this the right thing to do.
Ethical issues are not a separate category or issue in therapy: they are baked into what clients bring.