A Book. A Breakthrough.

Clients often seek therapists’ input for dealing with ethical dilemmas in their lives (to divorce or stay in a marriage, to keep a family secret, to cut off a destructive family member), but there is little guidance for therapists in how to do this. This book shows therapists how to serve as ethical consultants who help clients balance their personal needs with their sense of responsibility to others.

Bill Doherty blends decades of clinical experience with personal and philosophical insights to frame the skills and knowledge therapists need to act as ethical consultants while respecting client autonomy. He calls for a shift from psychotherapy’s individualistic focus towards a more relational one that includes ethical connections to others.

Doherty presents the LEAP‑C framework for ethical consulting, which uses the traditional therapeutic skills of listening, exploring, affirming, and offering perspective, in addition to respectful ways to challenge clients to recognize ethical issues they don’t perceive.

Using vivid and detailed case examples, he provides a roadmap for addressing common client dilemmas, such as keeping and ending commitments, having affairs, lying and deceiving, and causing psychological harm to others.

He also provides guidelines for citizen therapists to lend their expertise to help solve larger societal concerns such as political polarization and police-community relations.