Dual relationships arise in any situation where
a therapist assumes more than one significantly different role either simultaneously
or sequentially with a client, supervisee or trainee. They are ubiquitous in
the working world. The majority of professions only ban sexual dual relationships
and give little guidance on non-sexual dual relationships. The talking therapies
have made strict rules because there always is a threat of vested interest
and a potential to harm the client. However it should be remembered that some
dual relationships are not harmful and others inevitable. Are these rules too
strict? Do they induce fear so that counsellors do not work imaginatively and
creatively with their clients?
In this workshop we will explore areas such as
social interaction, gifts, barter, touch and friendship using case studies
and sharing our experiences to try and find where the limits are and how to
work safely on these boundaries.
Boundary Riders, Process Sentinels and Ethics Warriors:
a workshop to explore relational ethics in helping relationships
This workshop (for up to 30 participants) will
be of interest to a range of practitioners involved in counselling and therapy,
including counsellors, psychotherapists, trainee practitioners, supervisors,
and trainers.
It is an interactive event, in which we will consider:
the ethical concepts Boundary Riders,
Process Sentinels and Ethics Warriors and how to transform them into
allies for our helping work and relationships
what helps and hinders our capacity for
ethical thinking and practice
ways of developing a personal-professional
relational ethic.
The ethical dimensions of helping relationships
are receiving increasing attention in the helping professions. This workshop
offers participants an opportunity to explore their capacity for mediating
and tolerating tensions and challenges in their work and provides prompts to
further explore the inevitable complexities of therapy work and relationships.
Ethical thinking on how we form, facilitate and mediate relational boundaries,
as well as manage relational dimensions such as intimacy and overlapping boundaries,
will feature.
The intricacies of client-therapist encounters
and ways of being in the therapeutic relationship can be difficult to access – as
can the process of translating helping theory and ethical guidelines into therapy
practice. While these dimensions of our work can feel far removed from the
lived experience of human being and relating, mediating between theory and
practice in an ethically meaningful way is a challenge we must engage with.
This workshop will offer one opportunity to do just that, in a challenging
yet supportive and confidential exploratory space.
Trust: an ethic that reaches where other ethics fail to go?
An ethic of autonomy is widely used as the preferred point of ethical reference
in the talking therapies. It has the advantages of supporting individual control
and choice but frequently at the cost of undervaluing the significance of relationship.
Could an ethic of trust be a better point of reference for a professional
activity that places so much emphasis on the quality of relationship in how
it offers its services to clients? In this session, I will examine the potential
of an ethic of trust defined as 'an ethical commitment to sustaining a relationship
of sufficient strength to withstand the relational challenges of inequality
and difference, and the existential challenges of risk and uncertainty'.
Biographies
Gabrielle Syme
Gabrielle Syme has worked as a counsellor/psychotherapist,
supervisor and trainer for over 25 years and in this time worked in the voluntary
sector, the medical sector, higher education and in independent practice. She
is a Fellow and also Past Chair of BACP. Her interests are reflected in her
books Gift of tears, co-authored with Susie Lendrum; Counselling
in independent practice; Dual relationships; and Objectives and
outcomes, co-authored with Jenifer Elton-Wilson.
Lynne Gabriel
Lynne gained her PhD from Leeds University in 2002. Her doctoral research explored client-practitioner
relationships that overlapped into non-therapy roles and relationships. Her
current work involves teaching, research, writing and scholarship, as well
as a small amount of practitioner work, including counselling and the supervision
of helping professionals. Lynne's research interests include ethics in helping
work and relationships, dual relationships, supervision, diversity and qualitative
research methodologies.
Lynne leads BACP's (British Association for Counselling
and Psychotherapy) Professional Conduct Committee and Supervision Forum and
is actively involved in research ethics at York St John University college through its Research Ethics Committee. She gives
papers and chairs research panels at national and international conferences
and has had articles and essays published in a range of contexts, including
the Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal. She co-authored a chapter
with Dominic Davies on ethics in dual relationships for the Pink Therapy series
of textbooks.
Other publications include guidelines for practitioners
on using ethical decision-making models in helping practice and a textbook
on relational ethics, Speaking the unspeakable: the ethics of dual relationships
in counselling and psychotherapy. Lynne is currently working on an edited
textbook on relational ethics.
She also enjoys an exciting life away from all
of the above, with her partner Pat and Mr Darcy the dog!
Tim Bond
Tim Bond PhD, Fellow of BACP, is a Reader in Counselling and Professional
Ethics at the University of Bristol. He runs a small private practice for counselling and
supervision. He researches and writes widely about ethical issues for the talking
therapies in the UK and internationally. He is the author of Standards
and ethics for counselling in action; The ethical framework for good
practice in counselling and psychotherapy; and Ethical guidelines for
researching counselling and psychotherapy. His current work is exploring
the potential of trust as a point of ethical reference.
