ABSTRACT
The individual has a right, indeed it is his duty, to set up and apply his standard of value. In the last resort ethics are the concern of the individual.
(CW10 para. 912)
In this statement, Jung drew attention to the cardinal importance of a therapist's personal ethic in their work with patients. Nowadays, therapists and supervisors need to hold in mind tensions between their personal ethics and value systems, the demands and pressures arising from the ethos of the profession, the pressures of agencies and employers and attitudes to government legislation. Pressures also arise within the profession; principles guiding our work ± codes of ethics, rules and codes of practice, the ethos of organisations and the peer pressures they exert on therapists in training or on members. Our personal ethics are informed by what we consider to be acceptable and unacceptable. As Richard Rowson (2006), an ethicist and author, points out:
Every day we make such judgements from the perspectives of law, social convention, professional codes of conduct, religious beliefs, aesthetic taste, politics and practically. Moreover we often consider a situation from the standpoints of more than one of these.
