ABSTRACT
According to the AAMFT code of ethics, version 6.5, “Marriage and Family Therapists participate in activities that contribute to a better community and society, including devoting a portion of their professional activities to services for which there is no financial return” (AAMFT, 1991, p. 8). In most instances, this involves seeing some reduced-fee or pro bono clients. A problem in fulfilling this ethical mandate is that free or reduced-fee therapy can be treated like free advice, which tends to be ignored and results in little therapeutic change. The community service intervention is designed to minimize this effect. In exchange for the therapy they receive at a reduced fee, clients agree to perform community services. The community service intervention allows clients to feel entitled to their treatment and to take more responsibility for therapeutic change.
