ABSTRACT
Psychotherapists of all disciplines are legally vulnerable. This chapter discusses the increase in licensing board complaints and malpractice actions against therapists and explores the characteristics of the sociocultural and professional contexts that fuel the increase. Therapists of all disciplines increasingly find themselves the target of malpractice suits and complaints from licensing board and professional association ethics committees. Professional associations have different membership sizes and vary in their methods of complaint adjudication and record keeping. Factors contributing to the legal vulnerability of therapists include better educated consumers; a backlash against professionalism; the introduction of new and higher risk therapies; technician approaches to care; the expansion of pop psychology and its pathologizing jargon; professional infighting and turf-guarding; professional reactions of denial or punitiveness to colleagues accused of abusing clients; the legal profession’s supervision of psychotherapy; ill-defined, ambiguous standards in mental health; therapist naivete; and declining resources in an increasingly complex social context.
