ABSTRACT
TRUTH OR FICTION?
Ethics and morality are basically the same.
Ethical and legal opinions are usually in agreement.
Prior to 1962, there was not an ethical code for the practice of marriage and family therapy.
Codes of ethics protect family practitioners from the public and help increase public trust in the integrity of the profession of marital and family therapy.
Confidentiality is the cornerstone of professional ethics in marriage and family therapry.
Autonomy is the ethical principle that all human beings have the right to make decisions and act on them in an independent fashion.
The gender of a family therapist and those within a family does not play a role in what issues are addressed in therapy and how they are addressed.
The right of privileged communication rests with the client not the therapist.
Your primary responsibility as a family therapist is to your client family.
The law is cut and dried, as well as clear and precise, when it comes to matters dealing with the family therapy.
There is no general body of law covering the helping professions such as marriage and family therapy.
If family therapists act in good faith, they are not likely to be found responsible for a client family's lack of progress or a mistake in judgment.
If you are careful in working with families, you do not have to worry about ever being sued.
Family therapists can, and should, release any information they have on a family to a court of law when so ordered, even if they did not obtain this information firsthand.
In marriage and family therapy, the concept of liability is directly connected with malpractice.
