ABSTRACT

The overall goal of this chapter is to give you a better understanding of ethical and legal issues in family therapy.

In regard to ethics, I want to: (a) introduce you to what ethics and morality are, (b) help you understand what codes of ethics are and how they work, (c) make you aware of some of the limitations of codes of ethics and some of the most common ethical violations in family therapy, (d) give you guidelines on how to make an ethical decision, (e) provide you with an overview of the AAMFT Code of Ethics, and (f) answer frequently asked ethical questions concerning such topics as confidentiality and client welfare.