ABSTRACT
How therapists use power is an ethical question implicit in their clinical choices. Socio-Emotional Relationship Therapy (SERT) is grounded in reflexivity regarding how therapists position their therapeutic roles and the ethical consequences of these decisions. This chapter examines how to responsibly use therapist influence. With third order ethics as a guide, readers consider how to manage the tension between collaboration and leadership and the distinction between imposing one’s agenda and opening space for alternatives to the dominant discourse. The chapter begins with a discussion of the myth of neutrality, then uses a case example to address responsible decision-making attentive to the power relationships between therapist and client(s), and among those affected by the therapy, and in the larger societal context. The author emphasizes that ethical positioning is ongoing and a collaborative relational process in which therapists bear responsibility for the possibilities produced within the clinical conversation. ANVIET, a set of six clinical practices that orient individual, couple, and family therapy toward equity, is illustrated with detailed reflexive questions and examples, and the therapist’s role across the SERT clinical sequence is discussed.
