ABSTRACT
A principle ethical concern is that unless practitioners have the requisite competence to be able to benefit and not harm patients, they should not be working as health professionals. Patients consult CAM therapists in the hope and expectation that the practitioner will be able to benefit them at best and not harm them at worst. In ethical terms, these reflect the duties of beneficence and non-maleficence. A therapist who is not competent cannot hope to help or benefit a patient and may cause harm. Accordingly, determining competence is an ethical, as well as a technical, imperative.
