ABSTRACT
The author explores what was a difficult therapy case and suggests the use of actual cases, particularly ones that feel unresolved, in teaching ethical decision-making to graduate students who are pursuing careers as psychotherapists. She examines a difficult case that confronted her with a variety of ethical issues: individual therapy within the context of couple's therapy, problems encountered by rural therapists, and the question of when to refer. The author presented this case to graduate counseling students to analyze and critique. The students recognized, as a result of this activity, that real-life ethical dilemmas are more complex than textbook examples, that there is a difference between aspirational principles and absolute standards, and that the ethical decision-making process is key. The author finally provides an issue common to couple's therapy, the appropriateness of seeing one of the couple individually; the special problems of the rural or small community therapist; and the question of referral.
