Introduction
Practitioners in the field of mental health are consistently faced with complicated and ambiguous situations in therapy which require them to make decisions about the “best option” for protecting the welfare of their clients. The codes of ethics within the multiple disciplines in mental health arose out of a need to quantify some of the agreed-upon boundaries of practice and to give guidance to practitioners as they were navigating decisions without clear-cut answers. Codes of ethics in couple and family therapy are unique in that they are created to address some of the complicated issues that arise from having more than one individual to consider in thinking about one’s “client.”
Theoretical Context for Codes of Ethics in Couple and Family Therapy
Purpose of Codes of Ethics
Codes of ethics serve three main purposes: first and foremost to protect the public; second, to protect the profession from governmental intrusion; and finally, to protect practitioners from the public...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. (2015). AAMFT code of ethics. Alexandria: Author. Retrieved from http://www.aamft.org/iMIS15/AAMFT/Content/Legal_Ethics/Code_of_Ethics.aspx.
Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice in the UK. (2013). AFT code of ethics. Warrington: Author. Retrieved from: http://www.aft.org.uk/SpringboardWebApp/userfiles/aft/file/Ethics/Code%20of%20Ethics%202013.pdf.
Caldwell, B. (Ed.). (2015). User’s guide to the 2015 AAMFT code of ethics. Alexandria: AAMFT.
European Family Therapy Association. (2012). Code of ethics of the European Family Therapy Association. Oslo: Author. Retrieved from: http://www.europeanfamilytherapy.eu/code-of-ethics-of-the-european-family-therapy-association/.
International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors. (2017). IAMFC code of ethics. Alexandria: Author. Retrieved from: http://www.iamfconline.org/public/IAMFC-Ethical-Code-Final.pdf.
Murphy, M. J., & Hecker, L. (Eds.). (2016). Ethics and professional issues in couple and family therapy (2nd ed.). New York: Taylor & Francis.
Wilcoxon, S. A., Remley, T. P., & Gladdin, S. T. (2012). Ethical, legal, and professional issues in the practice of marriage and family therapy (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Miller, B.J., Weddle, R. (2018). Code of Ethics in Couple and Family Therapy. In: Lebow, J., Chambers, A., Breunlin, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_514-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_514-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences